Exploring Knowledge Leakage Risk in Knowledge-Intensive Organisations: Behavioural aspects and Key controls

TL;DR

This paper investigates how individual behaviors and organizational controls influence knowledge leakage risk in knowledge-intensive organizations, emphasizing behavioral controls like HR practices, training, and compartmentalization.

Contribution

It provides insights into behavioral factors and key controls that can mitigate knowledge leakage, based on practitioners' perspectives and focus group discussions.

Findings

Three types of behavioral controls identified: HR practices, security training, compartmentalization.

Practitioners recognize the importance of human-centric controls in reducing leakage risk.

Focus groups reveal practical strategies for managing knowledge security.

Abstract

Knowledge leakage poses a critical risk to the competitive advantage of knowledge-intensive organisations. Although knowledge leakage is a human-centric security issue, little is known about leakage resulting from individual behaviour and the protective strategies and controls that could be effective in mitigating leakage risk. Therefore, this research explores the perspectives of security practitioners on the key factors that influence knowledge leakage risk in the context of knowledge-intensive organisations. We conduct two focus groups to explore these perspectives. The research highlights three types of behavioural controls that mitigate the risk of knowledge leakage: human resource management practices, knowledge security training and awareness practices, and compartmentalisation practices.