Understanding factors influencing and counter-measures to combat deviant behavior towards organizational IT standards

Organizational information technology (IT) standards have become increasingly important for companies. However, insights from practice indicate that employees tend to violate these standards, generating a need for governance and management mechanisms with which to successfully implement them in the organization. The literature reveals a lack of research on organizational IT standards’ governance.

The aim of a recent research project was to idenity the individual and organizational factors that influence an employee’s deviant behavior towards organizational IT standards. We therefore derived a conceptual multi-level model deductively from the literature, which we supplemented with an interview study.

Conceptual Model of IT Standard Deviance

Our work enriches IS research and practitioner bodies of knowledge. We do so by first extending our knowledge of an employee’s deviant behavior towards organizational IT standards. Second, we provide valuable insights for organizations by providing starting points to improve their standardi-zation efforts.

The research results have recently been accepted for publication:
Dittes, S., Urbach, N., Ahlemann, F., Smolnik S. and Müller, T. (2015) Why don’t you stick to them? – Understanding factors influencing and counter-measures to combat deviant behavior towards organizational IT standards, Proceedings of the 12. Internationale Tagung Wirtschaftsinformatik (WI 2015), March 4-6, Osnabrück, Germany. (Link)