Information Security and Leadership: A Sullivan Corporation Analysis

This report addresses the critical intersection of leadership and information security, focusing on the challenges faced by Sullivan Corporation. The analysis underscores the increasing risks of cybercrime in today's technologically advanced environment and the financial and motivational consequences of data breaches. The report recommends a multi-faceted leadership approach, advocating for Theory Y leadership to address employee perceptions of surveillance, situational leadership to gauge employee readiness, and transformational leadership to educate and train employees on information handling protocols. Furthermore, the report emphasizes the importance of employee motivation through target-based incentives to counteract potential demotivation stemming from security failures. The references provided support the strategic recommendations with research on information security management, leadership theories, and quality management.

RUNNING HEAD: LEADERSHIP
Leadership and Information Security
Name of student
Name of University
Author Note:

1LEADERSHIP
The generation, collection and keeping up of information secured is one of the most primary
issues of concern for any organisation. The organisations need to keep the data about their plans,
about their strategies, Artificial Intelligences and the confidential data about the employees as
well. The data adds up to the benefit of the business and are kept secured so that it does not fall
to any wrong hands since leakage of informations are a great loss for any company (Soomro,
Shah & Ahmed, 2016). In today’s area of technological advancement and various means of
access to informations, the risk of cyber crimes has increased rapidly. Yet, for all the expenses
the company have made to keep their systems secure and protect the informations about
customer and employees, the organisations are struggling largely to make the cyber security
more proactive and vibrant.
The security of the informations and the proper usage of it can earn a company
competitive advantage which will lead to profit. If the informations are once leaked out, a
company not only suffers financial loss, but it also has to deal with the insecured employees who
starts getting de motivated that their hardships went into a fiasco. Such is the case of Sullivan
Corporation at present.
The company at present, in order to make their security system more compact and
reliable needs to have a strong leadership in the field. New systems regarding the surveillance
policies need to be undertaken. Generally, people have a tendency of developing negative
perception on the issues of surveillance. In the current situation, the leaders of Sullivan
Corporation have to take Theory Y leadership style initially in order to check the leakage of
informations. The leaders also need to undertake situational leadership strategy where they can
gauge the readiness level of the employees in accepting the surveillance (Odumeru & Ogbonna,
2013).. According to the level of readiness by the employees, the leaders can share the

2LEADERSHIP
knowledge about the newly implemented systems and either tell or sell the idea. The leaders also
need to apply the transformational leadership Style where in they will share the ideas and coach
the employees about the rules and regulations of the information keeping systems. It has often
been noted that informations are leaked out unconsciously due to the unawareness of the
employees on how to handle them (Dotcenko, Vladyko & Letenko, 2014,). A proper guidance
and leadership that will impart trainings and knowledge- both theoretical and practical will be
helpful for the company.
In dealing with the productivity and sales related issues, the Sullivan Corporation need to
motivate the employees. The employees of Sullivan Corporation may have been de motivated by
the fact that their efforts have went to vain because of the leakage of informations. A deft
leadership spirit that will urge the employees to come up with more innovative ideas must
counter this de motivation (Latham, 2014). The leaders can bring in target based incentive
mechanism and other benefit oriented recognitions in order to boost up the productivity.

3LEADERSHIP
Reference List:
Soomro, Z. A., Shah, M. H., & Ahmed, J. (2016). Information security management needs more
holistic approach: A literature review. International Journal of Information Management,
36(2), 215-225.
Odumeru, J. A., & Ogbonna, I. G. (2013). Transformational vs. transactional leadership theories:
Evidence in literature. International Review of Management and Business Research, 2(2),
355
Latham, J. R. (2014). Leadership for quality and innovation: Challenges, theories, and a
framework for future research. Quality Management Journal, 21(1), 11-15.
Dotcenko, S., Vladyko, A., & Letenko, I. (2014, February). A fuzzy logic-based information
security management for software-defined networks. In 16th International Conference on
Advanced Communication Technology (pp. 167-171). IEEE.