Impact of Security Measures on the Usefulness of Knowledge Management Systems

Knowledge Management (KM) has been recognized as a critical management strategy in generating competitive advantage for the organization. In order to protect organizational knowledge stored in or transferred through company’s Knowledge Management Systems (KMS), information security controls have to be incorporated into these systems. However, overly strict controls may adversely impact the perceived usefulness of the system and consequently its usability. This research examines the impact of security measures on perceived usefulness of KMS. More specifically, we investigated the impact of security training, security policy and technology on the perceived usefulness of KMS. Security self-efficacy, perceived personal responsibility, content quality, and perceived ease of use were included as mediating factors. The proposed research model was tested empirically through a survey of 51 IT professionals working at a large public university who are currently using a secure knowledge repository. Results show that security training impacts perceived personal responsibility directly and through security self-efficacy of the user. KMS security level affects perceived ease of use both directly and through content quality of the system. As expected, perceived personal responsibility and perceived ease of use impact perceived usefulness of the KMS. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.