Speaking up for security: the role of safety voice in improving organizational information security

Purpose The study aims to investigate the role of employee safety voice in improving a company's information security program. Design/methodology/approach This study used an experimental design using visual vignettes, mixing four types of safety voice with the gender of the manager. Findings Male employees appear to be more effective at influencing managerial intentions to improve security than female employees. Hostile voice was less likely to have an influence on policy making than other voice types. Research limitations/implications This cross-disciplinary study bridges information security research with safety science to investigate the role of employee safety voice in influencing supervisor information security decision making. Beyond testing the limits of safety voice in an untried context (information security), the stimuli used in this study may serve as a primer for researchers interested in a more engaging vignette than the more traditional text-based scenario. Originality/value To our knowledge, employee voice toward offering input toward information security policies has not been previously investigated. Little research in social science has made use of the visual vignettes as stimuli as this study has.