A Qualitative Examination of Stressors Contributing to Burnout Among Chief Information Security Officers ( <scp>CISOs</scp> )

ABSTRACT Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) play a critical role in protecting organisations from cyber threats, yet the scope and intensity of their jobs can often be overwhelming. Burnout among CISOs is a growing concern, with implications for both individual well‐being and organisational resilience. To advance the understanding of CISO burnout, we conducted interviews with 37 CISOs across various industries. Our analysis identified six core stressor categories: organisational culture, resource limitations, job responsibilities, communication and relationship management, emerging threats and external pressures. These stressors interact in interdependent and dynamic ways. We present a typology of these interactions: contingent, complementary and substitutive that collectively shape burnout trajectories. Thus, we reconceptualise CISO burnout as an emergent outcome of interdependent stressor interactions. Our model highlights how organisational security culture enables other stressors, while external disruptions and CISO maturity further influence stress dynamics. We also introduce the concept of expectation asymmetry to capture the communicative burdens CISOs face and identify a paradox of CISO maturity, wherein leadership progression redistributes rather than reduces stress. Together, these insights provide a multidimensional perspective on stressors' interactions leading to burnout and offer actionable guidance for building more resilient cybersecurity leadership through coordinated, organisation‐wide efforts.