Introduction

According to Arabia, (2025), it is important to have a trustworthy upper management team to run a successful organization. After reading this article, I believe it is also necessary to have employees who believe in the company’s mission, are involved in training and cybersecurity awareness, and share the company’s culture. As mentioned in the article, I think that leadership, cyber awareness, and culture can influence an employee’s decision to follow the company’s policies.

Relation/Connection to Social Science Principles

Recently, in class, we discussed the seven principles of Social Science, including Relativism, Objectivity, Parsimony, Empiricism, Skepticism, Ethical Neutrality, and Determinism. In the article “Controlling Cyber Crime through Information Security Compliance Behavior: Role of Cybersecurity Awareness, Organizational Culture and Trust in Management,” researchers investigated how leadership, cyber awareness, and culture can impact their employer’s decision to follow policies. As mentioned in the article, previous studies have consistently evidenced that organizational culture serves as a directional factor influencing the behavior of employees towards information security compliance (Arabia, 2025). Organizational culture with openness, collective responsibility, and ethical leadership increases the possibility of employees internalizing and following cybersecurity policies (Seker, 2025).  This article demonstrates that an organization’s leadership and culture usually determine employee behavior, which is why I believe the principle of Determinism is related to this article. This principle prompts you to reflect on why individuals choose to commit internet crimes. Empiricism is associated with the article in the sense that it utilizes survey data. As discussed in class, this principle is known as the sensory experience because it can only study behavior that is real to the senses.

Research Question /Hypothesis/ Independent Variable/Dependent Variable

• Research Question: In what ways does organizational culture affect compliance with information security policies by employees? I believe this question is asking how an employee’s behavior is shaped by a company’s culture and core values.
• To what degree does cybersecurity awareness influence compliance behavior?  This question is crucial because it allows an organization to determine if additional training is necessary to identify cyber threats.
• Does employee participation moderate culture and awareness effects on behaviors? This question allows an employer to determine if individuals are willing to provide feedback and participate in training.
• Is trust in top management a mediator of organizational determinants to security compliance?  This allows an employer to determine if the leadership, for example, a supervisor, influences the behavior of its employees.

Hypothesis: Based on the discussion in class, the Hypothesis predicts relationships between variables. During this study, six hypotheses were tested to determine whether cyber awareness, culture, and leadership influence employee behavior. The six hypotheses are as follows: how information security compliance behavior is influenced by organizational culture, and the influence Cybersecurity awareness has on information security compliance behavior. The relationship of cybersecurity awareness and information security compliance behavior is controlled by employee engagement. The relationship of organizational culture and information security compliance behavior is controlled by employee engagement. The relationship between cybersecurity awareness and information security compliance behavior is controlled by trust in upper management, and the relationship between organizational culture and information security compliance behavior is controlled by trust in upper management (Arabia, 2025).

As discussed in class, the independent variable causes variation in others, and it also causes the dependent variable. In this study, I believe the independent variable is based on the influence that organizational culture, cybersecurity awareness, employee involvement, and trust in management have on employee compliance behavior.  The dependent variable would be the extent to which employees follow the organization’s procedures and policies. The research methods used in this study were surveys. Based on the discussions presented in class, for example, the seven principles of social science, I would say that this article helps readers gain a better understanding of cybersecurity behaviors.

I believe that individuals from challenging backgrounds may never have the opportunity to pursue a career in cybersecurity because they were not exposed to it during their childhood. A person may feel that they are not smart enough, or if they’re a female, they may feel less likely to be given a chance in cybersecurity, given that the field is predominantly male.  A person from a marginalized background may not be influenced due to a lack of trust in higher management.

Overall societal contributions of the study/Conclusion

After reading this article, I have learned that cybersecurity, or any business for that matter, is not about what the organization can provide or do, but instead what it needs (people) to run successfully. Of course, we know that cybersecurity is about protecting information and preventing incidents from occurring, but it would not run without the behavior of people. This article reassures.  organization to invest in their employees, by creating an environment they can trust, gain knowledge from training, and raise awareness.

Reference

arabia , saudi. (2025). Controlling Cyber Crime through Information Security Compliance Behavior: Role of Cybersecurity Awareness, Organizational Culture and Trust in Management , (1).

Article Link: https://cybercrimejournal.com/menuscript/index.php/cybercrimejournal/article/view/437/123