Are Employees Following the Rules? On the Effectiveness of IT Consumerization Policies

Are Employees Following the Rules? On the Effectiveness of IT Consumerization Policies

In most organizations, employees commonly use mobile technologies including smartphones and tablets to complete their tasks. Therefore, many organizations have started to implement policies that govern the use of mobile devices such as Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) policies, that allow employees to use private devices for work-related purposes, or Company Owned PrivatelyEnabled (COPE) policies, which allow the use of organizational technologies for private purposes. Despite its relevance, there is only little empirical research that provides evidence on the effectiveness of specific policies, i.e., policies in favor of BYOD/COPE, policies that prohibit it, and no implemented policies. Based on survey data (N = 381), we provide initial insights in terms of the effectiveness of these policies. Our results indicate that policies indeed influence the degree of technology use. Policies in favor of BYOD/COPE are particularly effective. We conclude this paper by discussing our findings and derive several implications for theory and practice.