Ensuring Employees' IT Compliance: Carrot or Stick?

Huigang Liang (), Yajiong Xue () and Liansheng Wu ()
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Huigang Liang: Department of MIS, College of Business, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina 27858
Yajiong Xue: Department of MIS, College of Business, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina 27858
Liansheng Wu: Department of Accounting, Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China

Information Systems Research, 2013, vol. 24, issue 2, 279-294

Abstract: With reward (carrot) and punishment (stick) widely applied by organizations to regulate mandatory IT usage, it is imperative to understand how these incentives influence employee compliance behavior. Drawing upon control theory and regulatory focus theory, this study investigates the relationships among regulatory focus, reward, punishment, and compliance behavior in mandatory IT settings. Survey data were collected from 186 employees in companies where enterprise resource planning (ERP) compliance was mandated. Analyses reveal that punishment expectancy is a strong determinant of compliance behavior, whereas the main effect of reward expectancy is not significant. Moreover, the relationship between reward expectancy and compliance behavior is moderated by promotion focus and the relationship between punishment expectancy and compliance behavior is moderated by prevention focus. This study provides an in-depth understanding of reward and punishment in mandatory IT settings and suggests that regulatory focus plays an important role in affecting employees' compliance with organizational controls.

Keywords: organizational control; reward; punishment; regulatory focus; promotion focus; prevention focus; compliance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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