Factors impacting information governance in the mobile device dual‐use context
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/RMJ-11-2012-0033 |
| Published date | 19 July 2013 |
| Pages | 73-89 |
| Date | 19 July 2013 |
| Author | Mario Silic,Andrea Back |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
ARTICLES
Factors impacting information
governance in the mobile device
dual-use context
Mario Silic and Andrea Back
Institute of Information Management (IWI), University of St Gallen, St Gallen,
Switzerland
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to reveal factors that impact information governance within
the mobile technology implementation in organizations in the dual-use context.
Design/methodology/approach – Case study methodology was used and 15 semi-structured
interviews were conducted with records and information management (RIM) and information security
professionals from different types of organizations.
Findings – There are three main findings. First, stakeholder support is critical to drive the change
and leverage organizational security culture. Second, records mobility with data security dimension
represents the biggest challenge for RIM stakeholders. Third, mobile strategy and security framework
are two must-win areas for a successful mobile implementation.
Research limitations/implications – The paper does not include any end-user perspective in
interviews and this end-user context is missing.
Practical implications – Awareness through education and training of employees needs to be
given very particular attention in the future mobile implementations. Moreover, management and
employee support is the critical component of the effective information security governance
framework implementation. Finally, mobile strategy needs undergo a very precise and detailed
planning process to ensure the right technology acceptance by users.
Originality/value – The paper closes an existing research gap and provides useful insights to
record management professionals and practitioners on factors that impact effective information
governance implementation within the mobile dual-use context.
Keywords Organizations,Records management, Informationmanagement, Data security,
Information securitygovernance, Mobile technology
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Mobile evolution or mobile revolution? One thing is sure – mobile technologies are
revolutionizing everyone’s daily life. According to Cisco’s Visual Networking index [1],
the number of mobile-connected devices will exceed the world’s population in 2012, and
by 2013 the number of mobile phones globally will exceed the number of PCs as the
most common way to access information. Mobile devices, also called handheld devices,
are computing devices with a display screen that can be touch or non-touch enabled.
There are different forms of mobile devices and the most common ones are: laptops,
e-books, tablets, mobile phones, smartphones, and PDA’s. What they have in common
is that they have wireless capability that enables them to connect to a remote network.
Mobile devices are enabling records to be shared, transferred, processed, disposed,
stored and used.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0956-5698.htm
Information
governance
73
Received 27 November 2012
Revised 14 February 2013
8 May 2013
Accepted 13 June 2013
Records Management Journal
Vol. 23 No. 2, 2013
pp. 73-89
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0956-5698
DOI 10.1108/RMJ-11-2012-0033
This will have huge consequences in the way we treat information, as smart phones
are bringing another dimension to information processing: video, ecommerce, location
based services, photo sharing and social media. The number of new services, apps and
tools is increasing and every day we are seeing a new mobile based service or new
application appearing.
In this context, it becomes essential to better manage information. Information
governance (IG)is a relatively new term which provides a holistic approach to managing
and leveraging information in order to support business processes with a focus on
information quality, protection and life-cycle management[2]. It can be seen also as a
high-level umbrella concept that includes various aspects of organisational elements:
policies, procedures, records, people, governance structure, reporting, audit, etc. The
proliferation of mobile device technologies is bringing new challenges to records
management,as records are now stored across differentplatforms and systems, and with
the data explosionthe control of it is constantlydecreasing. One of the firstthreats comes
with the usage of new mobiles outside of the organisation which can impact an
organisation’s ability to create, share, produce, identify and apply the knowledge.
Moreover, the exponential rise of smartphones is followed by an incredible incre ase
in mobile data traffic that is changing the way business is done. The records and
information management (RIM) industry is the first one to see the impact as
smartphones revolutionize the way we create, access, search and store records.
Security aspects should be considered with a high sense of urgency as new features
and functionalities are constantly appearing. Several past studies investigated the
impact on RIM caused by information and technology changes and in particular mobile
impact (Ma
¨kinen, 2005, 2012; Ma
¨kinen and Henttonen, 2011). Also, mobile devices have
an important dual-use. One the one hand, mobile devices are considered highly
productive and useful tools for workers, impacting positively organisational
productivity, cost savings and efficiency. On the oth er hand, mobile device
technology brings negative aspects for organisations as employees can misuse them,
external security holes are opened as IT departments have less control on the external
networks and moreover, information processed on these external end points is
relatively difficult to control and manage. This dual-use aspect is an important one,
and there is a current research gap related to the impact mobile technology has on
information governance in the dual-use context. With this study, we aim to close the
existing research gap. This research paper represents an initial exploration of the
perceived risks associated with the use of mobile devices and thus, our research
question is:
What are the factors impacting information governance in the mobile device dual-use
context?
We will first review the prior research focusing on different challenges the mobile
dual-use has brought. Research methodology will then be presented. Next, we will
explore the findings and discuss results. Finally, we will conclude providing insights
and study limitations.
2. Literature review
New generations of smartphones brought a superior convenience. Information
retrieval, search and access have never been easier. And while records have to be open
RMJ
23,2
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