Abstract:
Job Stress is an extensively discussed topic worldwide and many researchers have
done empirical studies to analyze the factors affecting job stress and have identified
many stressors. Information Security Policy can be defined as a set of controls and
procedures adapted by a particular organization to provide adequate protection to
maintain confidentiality of data. It has become essential to enforce IS Policy to protect
confidential information of the company in a competitive environment. However,
some of the restrictions enforced by such policies may create unpleasant working
environment. Moreover, there is a belief that some IS policies are affecting job stress
of the employees. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to investigate the
job stress resulting from IS Policies.
Both quantitative and qualitative methods have been employed for this study. Even
though the term job stress is a discussed topic, no study has been carried out so far to
analyze the job stress resulting from the IS Policy in the Sri Lankan context.
Therefore, all the employees who are working with telecommunication operators in
Sri Lanka were considered as the target population and proportionate stratified
random sampling method was used to select the sample.
Research findings reveled that job stress resulting from the IS Polices may go high
when the availability and awareness about such policies are at a low level Further, if
the policies are not properly enforced, that may also lead to the increase of the level of
job stress. Research findings showed that employees' privacy violations by IS Policy
and effects of IS Policy violations are having a strong positive relationship with the
job stress. Therefore, it is suggested that restrictions enforced by the IS polices should
also be added to list of job stressors. This study concludes with a discussion and
necessary recommendations for reformulations of the information security polices in
Sri Lankan telecommunication sector.
