Critical factors influencing employees compliance with information security policies of an organization: Systematic review and Meta-analysis

Abstract

Information security policies are rules and regulations that assist employees to handle information confidentially, sensitively and privately but understanding the factors which influence employees to comply with this policies are crucial. This study uses a systematic literature review and meta-analysis to identify the key factors and sub factors that influence employee decision to comply with information security policies. Our research approach investigated 508 articles which focused on information security policies and influences on employees, after elimination duplicates and research with no empirical results we identified 22 unique articles. Three major dependent factors or variables were identified from the 22 unique studies investigated, these dependent variables were (1) employees' actual compliance, (2) employees' attitude towards compliance and (3) employees intention to comply. The significant contribution of this meta-analysis was the revelation that actual compliance was strongly influenced by intention to comply, perceived legitimacy and self-efficacy.