Excellence in Research - The Impact of Cybersecurity Policies on Employees' Efficiency and Performance Predictability

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This project is to conduct socio-cybersecurity research at a Historically Black University. The research problem being investigated is how cybersecurity procedures affect the efficiency of modern organizations. The specific research questions are: (1) What impact does the implementation of cybersecurity policies have on employees’ efficiency? and (2) What impact do cybersecurity protocols within an organization have on the predictability of employees’ responses to security vulnerabilities? This work is important because increasingly, cybersecurity is becoming an indelible part of workers’ lives. This modern workplace reality includes but goes beyond cybersecurity practitioners. Finally, the socio-cybersecurity project is important because of the relationships that will be fostered with local organizations within the university’s geographical research footprint.The project team uses qualitative in-depth interviews to gather employees’ opinions about their efficiency and performance predictability. The interviews are built around a cybersecurity application that is a simulation of a workplace, which each respondent will navigate before the in-depth interviews. Multi-site quota sampling is used to recruit small groups of employees from about several companies across the Hampton Roads area in Virginia. Content analysis will be used to understand and disseminate data from the qualitative interviews. Students from organization courses in sociology, business, and cybersecurity will be recruited to pilot-test the interview schedule. This project will contribute to the social organizational theory literature by demonstrating how cybersecurity is both constrained and shaped by employees.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.