SETA and security behavior: Mediating role of employee relations, monitoring, and accountability

This article contends that information security education, training and awareness programs can improve employee security behavior. Empirical studies have analyzed the direct effects of employee security training on security behavior without taking into account the mediating role of employee relations, monitoring, and accountability. Based on employee relations and accountability theories, this study proposes and tests a causal model that estimates the direct effect of employee security training on security behavior as well as its indirect effects as mediated by employee relations, monitoring, and accountability. The empirical analysis relies on a survey data from a cross section of employees from five major industry sectors and a structural equation modeling approach via SmartPLS 3.0. The results show that employee security training has indirect and significant effects on security behavior through its influence on employee relations, monitoring, and accountability. However, the result does not indicate direct and significant effect of security training on employee security behavior.