The impact of national culture on workplace privacy expectations in the context of information security assurance

Organizational leaders seek to establish a safe information environment, including perimeter controls against external threats and also internal controls to monitor for intentional or accidental internal threats. Are individuals who are more oriented toward individualistic perceptions more likely to reject or resent the use of such controls designed to facilitate organizational security? A related question is whether national culture, specifically the cultural environment within East Asian countries such as China, may promote a predominance of individuals who are more oriented toward collectivist or allocentric perceptions such that they may be more willing to relinquish some degree of individual privacy in order to increase overall organizational security. A large sample of working professionals in the insurance and other industries will be surveyed in China and in the United States to address these research questions, and the results will be presented and discussed at the conference.