Dishonest Information Disclosure in Enterprise Information Systems: Why Employees Lie at Work?

Abstract

More and more companies have started to adopt enterprise software solutions that leverage sensitive information disclosed from employees in order to improve workforce management and strategic decision-making. These data-driven solutions, however, can only unfold their full organizational benefits if employees reveal accurate information about themselves. Nevertheless, in a number of cases, employees may be tempted to provide inaccurate or false data for personal gain. The present study, therefore, examines essential influencing factors of employees’ dishonest sensitive information disclosure behavior in enterprise information systems. For this purpose, an explanatory, quantitative study is conducted. Theory-based hypotheses are tested with experimental survey data from 147 employees of a multinational software company. In line with the predicted causal relationships, findings suggest that an increase in the probability of getting caught or perceived supervision decreases comfort with dishonesty. Watching others behave dishonestly, however, is not found to influence dishonest information disclosure behavior. The predicted negative relationship between state selfcontrol capacity and dishonesty could also not be proven. The present study contributes to a better understanding of how specific factors influence employee’s dishonest information disclosure in enterprise information systems. Furthermore, insights on how to study dishonesty in organizational environments and managerial implications are outlined.