COVID-19 pandemic-induced organisational cultural shifts and employee information security compliance behaviour: a South African case study

Purpose: The purpose of this preliminary empirical research study is to understand how environmental disruption such as brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic induces shifts in organisational culture, information security culture and subsequently employee information security compliance behaviour. Design/methodology/approach: A single-organisation case study was used to develop understanding from direct experiences of organisational life. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected using a sequential mixed methods approach, with the qualitative phase following the quantitative to achieve complementarity and completeness in analysis. For the quantitative phase, 48 useful responses were received after a questionnaire was sent to all 150–200 employees. For the qualitative phase, eight semi-structured interviews were conducted. Statistical software was used to analyse the quantitative data and NVivo software was used to analyse the qualitative data. Findings: The pandemic-induced environmental disruption manifested as a sudden shift to work-from-home for employees, and relatedly an increase in cybercrime. The organisational response to this gave rise to shifts in both organisational and information security culture towards greater control (rule and goal orientations) and greater flexibility (support and innovation orientations), most significantly with information security culture flexibility. The net effect was an increase in employee information security compliance. Originality/value: The vast literature on organisational culture and information security culture was drawn on to theoretically anchor and develop parsimonious measures of information security culture. Environmental disruptions such as those caused by the pandemic are unpredictable and their effects uncertain, hence, the study provides insight into the consequences of such disruption on information security in organisations. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Uncovering the effectual-causal resilience nexus in the era of Covid-19: A case of a food sector SME's resilience in the face of the global pandemic

This research explores the underlying roles of effectuation and causation logic as they impact upon firm resilience in Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the unprecedented disruption caused by Covid-19. Because Covid-19 provides a unique and powerful discontinuance to internal and external environments, it requires firm adaptation in a wide variety of areas, as they seek to find a new “normal”. Our study contributes to the literature by applying effectuation to understand how an SME can experiment and learn in the face of disruption, and then subsequently causally adapt their resources and networks to achieve resilient outcomes. It adds to knowledge about the interaction between effectual and causal logic, leading to a more nuanced explanation of how and why an SME might apply each logic when responding to disruption caused by Covid-19.

Strategic human resource management in the era of environmental disruptions

This article—which serves as an introduction to the special issue of the role of (strategic) human resource management (HRM) in the era of environmental disruptions—summarizes previous research, introduces articles related to this special issue, and provides suggestions for future research in the area. This special issue intends to advance HRM research by putting it in the context of disruptive environments, aiming to deepen our theoretical and empirical knowledge about the role of HRM in these disruptive environments, and provide insights to managers and policymakers who must deal with current as well as future disruptions in extra-organizational environments. The different sections of this introductory paper are structured from the perspective of an individual (“How can HRM help individual employees cope with environmental disruptions?”), an organization (“How can HRM help organizations be more resilient against environmental disruptions?”), and a community/societal perspective (“How can HRM help the community being affected by environmental disruptions?”). We conclude by proposing several research ideas and practical implications for human resource professionals that would enable them to deal with individual employees, their organization, and the community in times of environmental disruptions. © 2022 The Authors. Human Resource Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.

How workplace support for the COVID-19 pandemic and personality traits affect changes in employees' affective commitment to the organization and job-related well-being.

How do organizational responses to environmental disruptions affect employees' job-related well-being? As the COVID-19 pandemic has led to new ways of working, increased health concerns, and added responsibilities, employees are facing important challenges in doing their work that can affect their job-related well-being. This study aims to understand how different types of work support (i.e., perceived organizational support and supervisor accessibility) in response to environmental disruption interact with personality traits (i.e., core self-evaluations and future focus) to influence changes in employees' affective commitment to their organization and in their job-related well-being. We develop a moderated mediation model and test it on data collected from 295 individuals working in the United Kingdom. We find that work support for the COVID-19 pandemic, both perceived organizational support and supervisor accessibility, is associated with more positive changes in employees' job-related well-being and that this effect is mediated by changes in employees' affective commitment to their organization. Furthermore, we find that personality traits moderate the relationships between these two types of support and changes in affective commitment to the organization, with those relationships being more positive for employees with low core self-evaluations and for those with a high future focus.