Cybersecurity Culture Behaviour Framework Pre-Print
Cybersecurity Culture Behaviour Framework Pre-Print
Cybersecurity Culture Behaviour Framework Pre-Print
Author Note
1 Corresponding author. Address: School of Psychology, University of Waikato,
Private Bag 3105, Hamilton 3240, New Zealand. Email: anna.sutton@waikato.ac.nz. Orcid
ID: 0000-0001-8997-2460
2 Orcid ID: 0000-0003-3274-8585
Declaration of Interests
Financial support for data collection was provided by New Zealand Defence Force
Defence Technology Agency. The funders had no role in the study design, analysis, or
preparation of the manuscript.
Author Statement
Conceptualization: A.S. and L.T.; Data curation: L.T.; Formal analysis: A.S.; Funding
acquisition: A.S. and L.T.; Investigation: L.T.; Methodology: L.T.; Supervision: A.S. and
L.T.; Writing – original draft: A.S.; Writing - review & editing: A.S. and L.T.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Zane Sheeran and Taryn Farr for their assistance in
data collection and DTA personnel, especially Austin Chamberlain and Branislav Jovic, for
insightful discussions.
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Abstract
A strong organisational cybersecurity culture (CSC) is critical to the success of any
cybersecurity effort, and understanding and measuring CSC is essential if it is to succeed. To
facilitate the framing and measurement of CSC we conducted a rapid evidence assessment
(REA) to synthesise relevant studies on CSC. The systematic search identified 1,768 records.
52 studies were eligible for the final synthesis.
Content analysis of the CSC definitions in the eligible studies highlighted that CSC
should not be viewed solely as a technical problem but as a management issue too; CSC
requires top management involvement and role modelling, with full organisational support
for the desired employee behaviours. We identify both theoretically and empirically derived
models of CSC in the REA, along with a range of methods to develop and test these models.
Integrative analysis of these models provides detailed information about CSC dimensions,
including employee attitudes towards CS; compliance with policies; the role of security
education, training and awareness; monitoring of behaviour and top management
commitment. The evidence indicates that CSC should be understood both in the context of
the wider organisational culture as well as in the shared employee understanding of CS that
leads to behaviour.
Based on the findings of this review, we propose a novel integrated framework of
CSC, consisting of cultural values; the culture-to-behaviour link and behaviour itself. We also
make measurement recommendations based on this CSC framework, ranging from simple,
broad-brush tools through to suggestions for multi-dimensional measures, which can be
applied in a variety of sectors and organisations.
Keywords: cybersecurity culture; rapid evidence assessment; cultural values;
cybersecurity behaviour
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Towards a Cybersecurity Culture-Behaviour Framework: A Rapid Evidence Review
1. Introduction
Cybercrime is a rising concern worldwide, with recent figures indicating that it caused
a loss of USD10.3 billion in the USA alone in 2022 (FBI, 2023). Cyber threats are becoming
increasingly sophisticated, and humans are often considered the weakest link in cybersecurity
(ENISA, 2017), whether that is through responding to phishing emails or falling for spoof tech
or customer support. Merely raising awareness or providing training around cybersecurity is
insufficient to adequately protect organisations from cyber-attacks, much as health and safety
training is insufficient to ensure protection from all risks in the workplace (Cooper, 2000).
Instead, people’s behaviour at work is grounded in the shared norms and values of the
organisation, that is, the prevailing organisational culture (Schein, 2004). Just as health and
safety policies are of no use if they are not integrated and enacted in a supportive safety culture
(Cooper, 2000), cybersecurity measures must integrate with other organisational practices if
they are to be effective (ENISA, 2017). Developing a cybersecurity culture (CSC), or an
environment where it becomes the norm for each member of the organisation to recognise and
respond robustly to cyber-attacks, is considered the best way for an organisation to protect
itself (ENISA, 2017).
The heightened threat landscape has engendered a mounting interest in organisations
ensuring that staff are compliant with cybersecurity procedures and practices (X. Chen &
Tyran, 2023). But to make improvements in CSC, professionals need an evidence-based
framework that enables the evaluation of their current CSC. The results of this evaluation can
then be used as a benchmark to measure progress. This study aims to work towards building
such a framework by reviewing the evidence base from multiple sectors where tools to measure
cybersecurity have been developed.
Our overarching objective is to determine, from existing evidence, how organisational
CSC is defined and how it can be assessed. We therefore conducted a rapid evidence
assessment (REA). An REA is a truncated version of a systematic review, to swiftly synthesise
knowledge (Khangura et al., 2012). While being less resource and time intensive, REAs often
have similar findings to commensurate systematic reviews (Tricco et al. 2015). REAs are
particularly valuable for applied settings such as cybersecurity because they provide timely,
user-friendly, and trustworthy evidence summaries that can inform evidence-based decision
making (Khangura et al., 2012).
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1.1. Organisational culture
Positive organisation culture has many benefits for personnel and organisational
success (Liu et al., 2021). However, organisational culture can also be implicated in negative
outcomes. For example, a cultural failure to prioritise safety or safety-related skills such as
communication and collaboration was blamed for many aviation fatalities in the Australian
Defence Force (Falconer, 2006). This recognition of the central role that organisational
culture plays in safety (Rachman et al., 2016) has catalysed contemporary research into CSC.
CSC is commonly understood to mean the norms and values affecting how the
organisation deals with cybersecurity (Sharma & Aparicio, 2022). It is usefully conceived of
as a sub-component of organisational culture more broadly. Hence, it is instructive to
foreground our discussion of CSC here in the wider context of organisational culture.
Organisational culture can be thought of as the shared perceptions that members of the
organisation have of their work practices (van den Berg & Wilderom, 2004), or more simply
as “the way we do things around here” (attributed to Bower, 1966). This shared
understanding helps to guide individual work behaviour and gives meaning to members of
the group (Schein, 2004). Developing an appropriate organisational culture is important
because it acts to control employees and promote performance (Sutton, 2018).
Two widely used models of organisational culture are the three-level model (Schein,
2004) and the competing values framework (Quinn & Rohrbaugh, 1983). Schein’s model
provides a way to analyse and understand organisational culture at three levels, from most to
least discernible. At the first level, artefacts are the physical products or phenomena we
encounter in the workplace. In the context of cybersecurity, this could include the software
and technology the organisation uses, or ways the organisation deals with security, for
example public key encryption or password protection of email files (Da Veiga & Eloff,
2010). The second level consists of espoused beliefs and values, that is, the beliefs that
underpin discussions of what is important and the right way to do things. For example,
employees may believe that they have a right to privacy even when using work-provided
mobile devices. And third, the level of underlying assumptions consists of taken-for-granted
beliefs about the way things work, such as who has responsibility for the cybersecurity of the
organisation.
Schein’s model is often used as the basis for understanding the unique culture of an
organisation, with an emphasis on measuring the espoused beliefs and values when
representing the organisation’s culture. The underlying basic assumptions are notoriously
difficult to evaluate, and yet are critical to understanding how people work and make
4
decisions in the organisation. Schein’s model has been widely used for theoretical grounding
of CSC studies (e.g. Da Veiga & Eloff, 2010; Knapp & Ferrante, 2014) but, due to the
abstract nature of the dimensions, is difficult to apply to specific organisations.
The competing values framework (CVF), conversely, engenders straightforward
comparisons between organisations on two main value dimensions and has guided meta-
analysis of culture effects on organisational outcomes (Hartnell et al., 2019). The first of the
CVF dimensions is focus—the extent to which the organisation focuses on internal or
external concerns. That is, the relative value it places on the wellbeing and development of
the people within the organisation (internal) or the wellbeing and development of the
organisation overall (external). The second dimension is structure—the extent to which the
organisation values control (using a more rigid structure) or flexibility (with a more adaptable
structure). Using these two dimensions, four main cultural orientations can be identified
(Chang & Lin, 2007; Solomon & Brown, 2021): rule orientation (internal focus and
emphasising control), goal orientation (external focus and emphasises control), support
orientation (internal focus and emphasises flexibility) and innovation orientation (external
focus and emphasises flexibility). Various authors have suggested that cultures that value
control (i.e. a rule or goal orientation) are most conducive to security management (Hu et al.,
2012; Solomon & Brown, 2021). Yet cybersecurity is increasingly essential to all
organisations, so an effective CSC must be able to integrate effectively into any of these
organisational orientations. By reviewing the CSC literature, we aim to build a framework
that researchers and practitioners can use to build and support a more effective CSC.
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availability (commonly known as CIA) of information in cyberspace. CSC therefore refers to
the:
“knowledge, beliefs, perceptions, attitudes, assumptions, norms and values of
people regarding cybersecurity and how they manifest themselves in people’s
behaviour with information technologies. CSC encompasses familiar topics including
cybersecurity awareness and information security frameworks but is broader in both
scope and application, being concerned with making information security
considerations an integral part of an employee’s job, habits and conduct, embedding
them in their day-to-day actions” (ENISA, 2017, p. 5).
This definition consists of two main elements. First, the norms and values of those
employed within the organisation, where norms are people’s beliefs, knowledge and attitudes
about behaviour and values are their internal drivers of behaviour. Second, the resultant
behaviour of those individuals. We therefore developed a working definition of CSC as the
norms and values of people in the organisation regarding cybersecurity and how that
manifests in behaviour. This definition was used to develop search terms to be used in the
systematic search.
2. Methods
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balanced by specificity metrics, which measure the probability of non-relevant records being
retrieved.
Based on the results of the above analysis, SCOPUS was selected as the electronic
bibliographic database to be used in this REA. SCOPUS is a large, interdisciplinary database,
that includes conference proceedings, and was searched on 16 March 2023 with the following
search syntax:
TITLE-ABS-KEY ( ( cybersecurity OR "cyber security" OR cyber-security OR
"computer crime" OR "network security" OR "cyber threats" OR "cyber security"
OR "security assessment" OR "information security policies" ) AND ( culture OR
"security awareness" OR "employee behavior" OR "information security
awareness" OR "intention behaviour gap" ) ) AND PUBYEAR > 1997 AND
PUBYEAR < 2024 AND ( LIMIT-TO ( DOCTYPE , "cp" ) OR LIMIT-TO (
DOCTYPE , "ar" ) OR LIMIT-TO ( DOCTYPE , "ch" ) OR LIMIT-TO (
DOCTYPE , "cr" ) OR LIMIT-TO ( DOCTYPE , "re" ) OR LIMIT-TO (
DOCTYPE , "bk" ) ) AND ( LIMIT-TO ( LANGUAGE , "English" ) )
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reliability exercises were again used initially to ensure consistency in screening decisions
across researchers.
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5.1. Name and authors of measure
5.2. Information on validation of measure, e.g., developed in this paper or reused from
elsewhere?
5.3. What are the dimensions or subscales of the measure?
6. Authors’ conclusions
3. Results
In this section, we summarise the results of our data extraction and analysis. First, we
provide a general description of the included studies. Second, we report on the content and
thematic analysis of CSC definitions extracted from the data. Third, we present the detailed
analysis of CSC data in two parts: models of CSC and how CSC affects behaviour. Finally,
we provide a summary of the CSC measurement tools identified in this review.
9
Records identified in systematic
search of SCOPUS up to 16 March
2023 n = 1,768
Duplicates removed n = 4
Studies included n = 40
Citation analysis n = 24
Records excluded n = 12
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CSC is a recent and increasingly researched topic, as evidenced by the year in which
these studies were published. While only nine studies were found prior to 2015, 29 were
published between 2015 and 2020 and 21 were published between 2021 and March 2023.
10
Twenty-one studies did not specify the industry of their sample and many recruited
participants from several industries. The most common industrial sectors were Financial /
insurance (19 studies) and Education (14 studies each), closely followed by Information /
communication (9) and Human health and social work activities (9) and then Electricity, gas,
steam, air conditioning supply (6) and Professional, scientific, technical activities (6). Other
industry sectors were represented in three or fewer studies.
Most studies took place in Europe (13), Africa (11) or North America (10), with Asia
(7) and Oceania (5) also represented. Five studies were pan-continental and two unspecified.
Table 1 shows the distribution of methods and publication source.
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behaviour 26
employees / people 26
knowledge 21
shared 17
systems 15
assets 10
comply 9
Thematic analysis of the definitions revealed four main themes in the data,
summarised in Table 3. First, CSC can be defined as an organisational-level phenomenon,
referring to the shared values, assumptions, beliefs, and attitudes of employees about the
security of information within the organisation.
Second, there is a distinct focus in the literature on resultant employee behaviour as
the essential outcome, especially how that behaviour may be changed and become a new or
stronger CSC (e.g., da Veiga et al., 2020). CSC shows some distinction from general
organisational culture definitions in that it emphasises knowledge of and compliance with
policies and procedures, as well as highlighting the importance of protecting organisational
systems and assets.
12
Third, while authors note that cybersecurity should be prioritised to build a strong
CSC, they caution that this requires not just that required behaviours are accepted and
understood by employees, but also that they are achievable within the organisation (Branley-
Bell et al., 2021). That is, the organisation should ensure that employees do not experience
role conflict. For example, normal work duties or culture might encourage speed of task
completion, but cybersecurity procedures might require a slower, more cautious approach.
This conflict can lead to the development of compromises between security and productivity
by utilising security behaviours that enable employees to achieve their work goals but may be
non-compliant. Similarly, organisational support also demonstrates how much the
organisation prioritises cybersecurity (X. Chen & Tyran, 2023). Thus, CSC should not be
viewed solely as a technical problem but as a management issue: it requires top management
involvement and role modelling (Butler & Brown, 2023).
Fourth, the importance of evaluating and understanding an organisation’s CSC is also
highlighted (Nicholson et al., 2019): employees gain much of their understanding of
appropriate work behaviour from their work peers rather than official company policies. It is
therefore these tacit assumptions and values that guide workplace behaviour rather than
written policy. The role of knowledge-sharing is also underscored, emphasising how
employees often seek answers to their queries from peers rather than consulting official
guidelines (Nasir et al., 2019).
Fifth, some authors drew a distinction between information security (IS) and
cybersecurity, with the former involving the protection of organisational information from
unauthorised access or misuse that could disrupt the confidentiality, integrity and availability
of the information, and the latter including the addition of the ability to protect or defend
against cyber-attacks (Huang & Pearlson, 2019). These authors suggest that while both
require compliance with policy, cybersecurity also requires personal involvement in CS.
However, in most of the literature, and indeed the ISO standards, the terms information
security culture (ISC) and cybersecurity culture are used interchangeably, and individual
involvement of employees is assumed to be essential to both. For example, in a detailed study
to develop an understanding of ISC from both an academic and industry perspective, da
Veiga et al. (2020) created a two-paragraph definition that included protection factors and
emphasised personal involvement. Indeed, one of the key shared assumptions in an effective
CSC must be that employees adopt individual responsibility for improving the security of the
organisation’s information systems (Georgiadou et al., 2022). As Alshare et al (2018, p. 13)
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note “Employees should have a strong sense of treating company data as they would want
their own data to be treated.”
14
Innovation Focus on creativity, adaptability, and resourcefulness
with regards to information security
Findings on CSC using the CVF provide insight into how CSC affects specific
outcomes. A rule-oriented culture positively influences employees’ attitudes towards
compliance as well as increasing the extent to which the feel they have control over their
compliance behaviours (Hu et al., 2012). Perhaps counterintuitively though, compliance with
cybersecurity policies goes beyond just a rule-oriented culture (Butler & Brown, 2023).
Indeed, a goal-oriented culture in the wider organisation also positively influences top
management’s commitment to security, the extent and quality of communication about
security, and the level of monitoring (Solomon & Brown, 2021) as well as employees’
attitudes towards compliance (Hu et al., 2012). We also note that there are complexities in the
relationship between wider culture and CSC that may be contextually-sensitive. For example,
while organisational culture measured on the CVF was found to influence individual
compliance in South Korean banking organisations, the same was not true of US banking
organisations (Kam et al., 2015).
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compliance (Da Veiga, 2016; Nasir et al., 2019). Finally, several studies identify the
cruciality of top management commitment to CS (Sharma & Aparicio, 2022; Solomon &
Brown, 2021). Without this demonstrated commitment at the highest levels, employees are
less likely to follow CS policies.
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organisations might react to a cybersecurity threat. To act, the actor must be aware of the
threat1, motivated to respond to it, and have the capability to do so (M.-J. Chen & Miller,
2012). This means that organisations whose members share a high awareness of CS, are
strongly motivated to act, and react to protect security, and have the skills, technology, and
ability to do so, will have effective CSCs. The benefit of this framework is that, with its
origins in competitive organisational dynamics, it is well suited for strategy formulation and
implementation.
Several other specific pathways from culture to behaviour were identified in the
literature. Whether these are causal pathways as such or act to moderate the effect of CSC on
behaviour is yet to be determined, but they provide important contextual information for
evaluating CSC effectiveness. Briefly, they are:
Accountability (Amankwa et al., 2021, 2022). Having a supportive organisational
culture increased employees’ feelings of accountability for complying with security policies,
which in turn influenced a culture of compliance with CS policy. Employees felt more
accountable if they expected to be evaluated and were aware of being monitored. There was
also a greater sense of accountability if employees were involved in the development of the
policies and were familiar with them.
Organisational justice (Alshare et al., 2018). CS violations tend to increase when
employees perceive a low level of justice in the organisation, and reduced severity or speed
of sanctions for CS violations.
Organisational learning, or more specifically, sharing knowledge about information
security amongst employees increases the organisation’s overall security culture
(Hassandoust et al., 2020).
Threat and coping appraisal (Sharma & Aparicio, 2022). The greater the perception
of a CS threat and the greater the individual’s belief that they can respond effectively, the
more likely that individual is to act to protect the information.
1
Despite awareness being a key element of the AMC framework, a substantial number of studies were
excluded from this review because they considered only awareness of and training in cybersecurity, rather than
CSC more widely. Petrič & Roer (2018) make it clear that awareness is not enough and organisations need to
build security cultures in order to change behaviour.
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focus on specific behaviours. These included: violations of security measures (Alshare et al.,
2018), compliance with IS policies (Bauer & Bernroider, 2017; Butler & Brown, 2023; X.
Chen & Tyran, 2023; Solomon & Brown, 2021), security decision making (Parsons et al.,
2015). Other studies measured the effect of CSC on organisational level outcomes, such as
the effectiveness of an information security programme (Knapp & Ferrante, 2014) or the
overall success of information security (Tejay & Mohammed, 2023).
Having reviewed models of CSC and pathways to behaviour, we now turn to review
the tools available for measuring CSC.
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A similar multi-factor measure developed through a comprehensive mixed methods
approach identified three main factors (organisational measures, sociological factors and
technical measures) (Arbanas et al., 2021). This measure is not recommended due to the lack
of evidence of its use in another sample and the inclusion of a technical dimension in the
culture measure.
Measures based on the competing values framework of culture were used in three
studies, either alone or in combination with other measures. For example, Solomon and
Brown (2021) used the CVF combined with scales assessing communication, monitoring and
top management commitment to measure a more comprehensive model of CSC. Hu et al
(2012) combined CVF with the TPB model to assess CSC in terms of goal and rule
orientation combined with attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control.
Nasir et al. (2019) combined the TPB with an empirically derived model of security
culture and developed a validated questionnaire that measures culture on seven dimensions
(procedure countermeasures, risk management, security education training and awareness,
top management commitment, monitoring, IS knowledge, and IS knowledge sharing) along
with scales for attitudes, norms, and behavioural control from TPB.
A measure of CSC based on the AMC culture-to-behaviour pathway was used in five
studies. While the exact items and subscales varied among the studies, overall, this measure
assesses employee awareness of CS as well as motivation and capability for action. The most
comprehensive version of this measure (X. Chen & Tyran, 2023) measures awareness,
motivation and capability as well as behavioural norms and organisational support.
Motivation is further assessed in terms of three subscales: perceived rewards and penalties as
well as perceived vulnerability to threat. Where employees are rewarded for compliance,
penalised for non-compliance and perceive the organisation is more vulnerable to the threat,
they are more motivated to act. With a total of 25 items, this is a comprehensive yet concise
measurement tool for a well-validated and theoretically underpinned model of CSC and its
effects on behaviour.
The remaining studies used unique measures of CSC, with item numbers ranging
from two to six. Because their use is mostly limited to single studies, their functionality in
other samples has not yet been demonstrated. However, if a brief measure of CSC is needed,
the best would appear to be one based on the AMC model with only 5 items, which has an
alpha reliability >.90, clear factor loading and has been tested in two distinct samples (Knapp
et al., 2006; Knapp & Ferrante, 2014).
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3.6.2. Comprehensiveness of this review
Two systematic reviews of CSC measures identified in this REA provided no new
measures. The first systematic review (Sas et al., 2021) identified 4 measures, all of which
were already included in this REA. The second review identified 19 measures (Orehek &
Petrič, 2021), all of which were either a) already included in this REA, b) rated by the authors
of the systematic review as lacking in empirical evidence or c) did not conform to our
definition of CSC (for example, including measures of budget or technology). Overall, this
indicates that the primary studies we synthesise here comprehensively cover the current state
of the art in this field.
4. Discussion
CSC is increasingly recognised as essential to understanding human cybersecurity
behaviour. An organisation may have excellent regulations or guidelines to safeguard
information but if the organisational CSC is weak and employees do not value cybersecurity,
the security of that organisation is threatened. With a positive, strong CSC, employees
believe that CS is a shared responsibility and an integral part of their role (Orehek & Petrič,
2021).
The aim of this REA was to synthesise knowledge about cybersecurity culture to
develop a framework of CSC and recommend measurement tools. To achieve this objective,
we systematically searched a multidisciplinary database (SCOPUS) and performed citation
analysis. Following screening, 52 studies were identified as fulfilling the inclusion criteria;
that is, containing substantive content relevant to CSC frameworks and measurements. Of
these, 33 also developed or used measures of CSC in their research. Based on our analysis,
here we propose an evidence-based framework for CSC that can be utilised across various
sectors and tailored to specific organisations, and then recommend potential tools to use when
measuring it.
Some authors have already begun the work of combining CSC models with
behaviours. For example, CSC was conceptualised as shared assumptions based on Schein’s
model of culture, combined with elements of the theory of planned behaviour in two studies
(Y. Chen et al., 2015; Hassandoust et al., 2020), allowing the authors to identify antecedents
and outcomes of CSC. Similarly, a study using the CVF culture model combined with the
theory of planned behaviour showed how organisational cultural values interacted with
attitudes, norms and perceived behavioural control to predict employees’ intention to comply
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with CS expectations (Hu et al., 2012). In the remainder of this paper, we introduce a
complete, integrated Cybersecurity Culture-Behaviour (CSCB) framework.
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organisation, the more likely they are to be motivated to act in a way that protects the
organisation. Similarly, if the individual perceives that those around them are behaving
proactively to protect the organisation and complying with CS requirements, they will be
more motivated to behave in this way too.
The capability factor of AMC is an individual’s ability to respond to threats or behave
in a way that protects the organisation and is determined by that person’s perception of the
extent to which they can control their own behaviour (the third element of TPB). This in turn
is based on their understanding of and ability to behave in the way the organisation expects.
These elements, when viewed as shared assumptions about ‘the way cybersecurity is done
around here’ contribute to a holistic view of cybersecurity culture.
Finally, because culture and behaviour mutually influence each other, we include key
behaviours related to CSC. These can be classified as in-role and extra-role behaviours to
support CS in the organisation (Huang & Pearlson, 2019). In-role behaviours are CS
behaviours that are part of the official job role, such as complying with formal security
policies, while extra-role behaviours are actions that the employee takes that are not part of
their official role. These extra-role behaviours include helping (cooperative behaviour,
providing answers to others who may have CS questions) and voicing (offering knowledge
and suggestions to improve CS).
Combining these elements results in a cybersecurity culture-behaviour framework
(Figure 2) that is theoretically grounded, with good empirical support for its constituent
elements, can be tailored for internal organisational evaluation, and is generalisable enough
that it can be used for external benchmarking.
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Cultural dimensions Culture-Behaviour link Behaviours
In-role behaviours
Flexibility Awareness • Compliance with
vs policies
Control
Motivation
• Attitudes
• Behavioural norms Extra-role behaviours
Internal focus
• Helping and voicing
vs Capability
External focus • Perceived
behavioural control
24
CSCB framework provides a straightforward means for integrating findings based on these
broader theories into the CSC-specific research literature.
Third, the CSCB framework emphasises the key role of workplace behaviours in the
study of CSC. Behaviour when dealing with potential cyber threats can be understood as an
interaction between the individual’s attitudes, motivation, and capability, and the
organisational or group-level cultural norms. Indeed, these behavioural outcomes
demonstrate that CSC is not simply a concept of theoretical interest but has significant effects
on outcomes of substantial economic and personal importance.
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benefitting from the substantive research that has been conducted on general organisational
culture-behaviour effects.
Distinguishing between the elements that make up the link between culture and
behaviour also allows managers and trainers to determine where barriers to effective
cybersecurity behaviour may lie in their own team or organisation. For example, if evaluation
identifies that employees’ motivation to behave in a secure manner is high but their capability
is low, focus groups or interviews with the employees could identify the factors that are
disempowering them. If attitudes towards CSC are poor, training strategies can be developed
to ensure that the importance of CSC and personal responsibility are communicated and
understood by employees, and role-modelled by top management.
4.5. Limitations
The CSC literature is relatively new and much of the research has been carried out
with IT professionals or management in private organisations. A significant gap in the
literature exists around theory-led, empirically substantiated studies on CSC within specific
settings. While we have drawn on literature about organisational culture in general to make
recommendations here, there may well be CSC factors unique to specific industries or
organisations that have not yet been identified in published research and therefore not present
in this review.
Similarly, while we have recommended a framework with good evidence to support
the component elements, and it has the advantage of drawing on both theoretical and
empirical support, it should be noted that none of the research summarised and evaluated here
has subjected this overall framework to validation. While there is good evidence from several
studies that CSC is best conceptualised in terms of an evaluation of organisational culture
applied to the cybersecurity context plus an evaluation of employee perceptions and norms
for behaviour, it remains for future research to assess the utility of this CSCB framework
overall.
Finally, as a REA, this review does not provide the same level of comprehensiveness
that would be expected from a full systematic review. It is possible that there are studies that
have been missed, though we have taken several steps to combat this. First, the search string
was piloted with eligible studies from an identified systematic review (Mwim & Mtsweni,
2022) acting as the gold standard data set. Second, we conducted citation analysis for all
included studies and identified further papers from this. Third, we compared our review of
measures to two systematic reviews of similar measures (Orehek & Petrič, 2021; Sas et al.,
26
2021) and found no substantial gaps in our approach. Indeed, we were able to identify and
review more measures than either of these systematic reviews.
5. Conclusion
A strong CSC is critical to the success of any cybersecurity effort and understanding
and measuring CSC is essential if it is to succeed. This review has systematically assessed the
evidence for CSC in the academic literature, developed an integrative framework for
understanding and measuring CSC that can be applied to specific industries or organisations,
and recommended specific measures for different applications.
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