Exploring the Impact of Hybrid-Remote Working Practices on Security Behaviours and Organisational Culture

The rapid shift towards hybrid-remote working, accelerated by the COVID-19 Pandemic, has fundamentally reshaped organisational working practices and security landscapes. Organisations now face the formidable task of re-establishing robust security measures in a decentralised organisational structure. Where employees are dispersed across infinite locations outside the traditional boundaries of system control, this decentralised, dispersed network creates a dynamic where both physical and digital aspects of the work environment intermingle, presenting new security challenges and reshaping security behaviours and culture.

Given these challenges, there is a critical need to investigate and understand the impact of hybrid and remote working on organisational cybersecurity culture and behaviours. Understanding how these changes influence security practices, employee behaviour, and the effectiveness of existing security policies is essential for developing new research capable of understanding and managing the complex nature of security and privacy in a hybrid-remote environment.

While substantial research exists in this field, these studies fail to account for the inseparable relationship between security practices and material technologies (e.g., network infrastructures), the effects of stringent controls impeding employee productivity, and the cascading impact on security behaviours and organisational cultures.

This research addresses these critical gaps by offering theoretical and practical contributions to the fields of security studies, digital behaviours and organisational theories.