Open Access‘The Enabling Role of Internal Organizational Communication in Insider Threat Activity – Evidence From a High Security Organization’
Author(s) -
Charis Rice,
Rosalind Searle
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
management communication quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.055
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1552-6798
pISSN - 0893-3189
DOI - 10.1177/08933189211062250
Subject(s) - insider threat , insider , public relations , organizational communication , business , context (archaeology) , silence , political science , law , paleontology , philosophy , biology , aesthetics
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.