Van den Bergh, Maureen (PhD)
Maureen van den Bergh holds a Master’s in Information Technology from the University of Pretoria. Her doctoral study was recently awarded the people’s choice at the University of Johannesburg’s first “Visualize Your Thesis” competition. She lectures at the School of Consumer Intelligence and Information Systems, UJ College of Business and Economics, specialising in the security, privacy and protection of information systems. Maureen’s research interests cover the human aspects of information security and assurance, and she has published several empirical research papers on the subject. Her dissertation investigated how the demands and pressures (or exigencies), placed on employees during computer system failure situations, would influence their information security behaviour. Situational influences on employee information security behaviour have important consequences, such as whether they will comply with organisational information security policies, or not. Understanding why employees act the way they do is fundamental to the success of any organisation’s management of the security of their information systems. Qualitative data, elicited from employees who shared their lived experiences, was coded and analysed using transcendental phenomenological procedures. Results are significant on two fronts: firstly, employees did exhibit intentional non- malicious information security behaviour. Secondly, the exigencies of the situation in which such behaviour took place arose from computer system failure situations. This reinforces the importance of taking the exigencies of situations into account when investigating human behaviour. It becomes advantageous for organisations to implement an information security management system, inclusive of this dynamic.
Supervisor: Prof KN Njenga
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