'The Enabling Role of Internal Organizational Communication in Insider Threat Activity – Evidence From a High Security Organization'. (August 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Rice, Charis; Searle, Rosalind H.
• Is Part Of: Management communication quarterly. Volume 36:Number 3(2022)
• Page Start: 467
• Page End: 495
• Publication Date: 2022-08
• Subjects: crisis and risk management -- employee misconduct -- interpretive case study -- organizational communication; Communication in management -- Periodicals; Communication in organizations -- Periodicals; 658.4505
• DOI: 10.1177/08933189211062250
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0893-3189

Abstract

This paper explores the role of internal communication in one under-researched form of organizational crisis, insider threat – threat to an organization, its people or resources, from those who have legitimate access. In this case study, we examine a high security organization, drawing from in-depth interviews with management and employees concerning the organizational context and a real-life incident of insider threat. We identify the importance of three communication flows (top-down, bottom-up, and lateral) in explaining, and in this case, enabling, insider threat. Derived from this analysis, we draw implications for communication and security scholars, as well as practitioners, concerning: the impact of unintentional communication, the consequences of selective silence and the divergence in levels of shared understanding of security among different groups within an organization.