Introduction

National Information Industry Confidentiality Protection Center in South Korea announced that 166 overseas technology leaks were detected over the 6 years from 2012 to 2017, and 22 of the leaked cases of national core technology were leaked (UPI News 2018). In addition, the National Intelligence Service in South Korea announced that 99 cases of technology leaks were detected over 5 years from 2017, and the damage was estimated at 22 trillion won (Kyunghyang News 2022a, b). One of the characteristics of these technology leak crimes is that technology leaks mainly by insiders. In fact, according to data from the National Police Agency in South Korea, 486 (84%) out of the 580 cases of industrial technology and trade secret leaks from 2014 to 2018 were reported by insiders (UPI News 2019).

Insiders' technology and trade secrets leak is more than just a problem for Korean companies. IBM reported that 60% of cybersecurity breaches were caused by former and current insiders in the 2016 Cyber ​​Security Intelligence Index. Additionally, according to Accenture’s ‘The State of Cybersecurity and Digital Trust 2016’ report, it was announced that insiders within the enterprise had a key role in data breaches. IT Chosun (2019) reported that the methods used for technology leakage by SMEs were email/portable storage media (60.8%), copying/theft (32.5%), and scouting key personnel (25.5%) from 2013 to 2018.

Combining the contents mentioned above, it was confirmed that the company's technology leakage is mainly done by insiders, not outsiders such as hackers. Siponen and Vance (2010) stated that security accidents caused by insiders can be prevented if there is an inducement for corporate employees to comply with internal security policies. In other words, even if security-related punishments within the company are strengthened and various security policies are established, it is only easy to see the effect of internal employees' voluntary security policy compliance. Considering that the main party to technology leakage is internal personnel and internal personnel are greatly influenced by psychological factors such as organizational satisfaction, research that considers psychological factors of organizational members needs to be done actively (Lee et al. 2021; Hwang and Lee 2016).

Previous studies related to the security compliance intention of employees proved that (1) administrative security activities such as company policies and regulations (Hwang and Kim 2016; Choi and Lee 2014), security education/security services (Kim et al. 2018a, b), and human control, policy control, and access control (Lee and Lee 2015), (2) physical security activities through cloud system architecture configuration (Ullah et al. 2013), and the monitoring and surveillance environment using a computer (D'Arcy and Greene 2014), and (3) multi-dimensional security activities of physical, technical, and managerial security (Kim et al. 2018a, b; Park and Yim 2012) affect security compliance intention of employees. Assefa and Tensaye (2021) recently reported that management commitments, awareness, training, accountability, and audit and monitoring affect security compliance intentions.

Most organizations are trying to control employees' security compliance behavior by introducing systems with security policies. However, they make decisions and act considering the security environment and internal motivations (Hu et al. 2011). Therefore, to increase the level of security compliance in the organization, voluntary security compliance intention of employees is required, and the organization needs efforts to increase the voluntary security compliance intention of employees in organizations (Guo et al. 2011; Hwang 2021; West 2008). However, previous studies on security compliance have focused on factors that restrict and regulate the behavior of employees through compulsory security activities.

Therefore, this study aims to investigate the influencing factors to voluntarily increase the intention of Korean corporate workers to comply with security. Recently, Oh and Suh (2023) have identified the relationship between job satisfaction, relationship satisfaction, and leadership factors to create an organizational atmosphere in which members can voluntarily comply with security policies and enhance the intention to comply with security policies.

However, there needs to be more research on organizational psychological factors to increase security policy compliance intention. Therefore, this study investigates whether organizational attractiveness (psychological factor) affects employees' intention to comply with security. In addition, this study will examine whether affection and job security represent Korean organizational images affecting organizational attractiveness. For the above research, the following research questions were proposed.

RQ1

Does organizational attractiveness affect employees' security compliance intentions?

RQ2

Does Korean corporate image affect corporate attractiveness?

Research model and hypotheses development

Research model

This study aims to identify the relationship between corporate images, organizational attractiveness, security policy compliance intention and seek policy direction. To this end, this study examines psychological factors of being affectionate, job security, and organizational attractiveness, as well as the results of intention to comply with security policy. Based on the theoretical background on factors, a research model was established, as shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1
figure 1

Research model

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Korean corporate images and organizational attractiveness

The image was derived from the Latin word ‘imago,' and its importance is emphasized in various fields such as advertising, marketing, and recruiting. Kotler (1997) defined an image as individuals' and groups' beliefs about objects. A corporate image can be defined as people's overall company perspective (Oh and Kim 2012a).

This corporate image positively affects customers' purchase decision-making (Hsieh et al. 2004), corporate financing, and talent recruitment (Winter 1986). In addition, a favorable corporate image positively affects public opinions about the company and enables active social support in various corporate activities (Dean 2003–2004; David et al. 2005).

A Korean employment information provider ‘Incruit Corporation’ surveyed the company that university students want to work for in 2021 and 'Kakao Corp.’Footnote 1 It was selected as the company university students want to work for most(UNN News 2021). In addition, respondents who chose 'Kakao Corp.' mentioned the reasons for 'high business value and promising growth potential (21.2%)' and 'growth and development potential (16.1%)', which means symbolic and instrumental images. Samsung Electronics ranked second in the company that university students would most like to work for, and respondents who chose Samsung Electronics said that they are satisfied with the salary and compensation system (55.6%), which means instrumental images. The factors respondents considered most important when choosing a job were income, stability, aptitude, and interest, and the workplaces preferred by young people were large corporations (27.4%), public enterprises (18.2%), and government agencies (16.2%) (Chungnamilbo 2023).

As in the case above, there are several studies (e.g., Kashive and Khanna 2017; Lievens and Highhouse 2003; Lievens et al. 20052007; Oh and Kim 2012a, 2012b; Van Hoye and Saks 2011; Van Hoye et al. 2013; Rai 2020) have supported the relations between corporate image (symbolic, and instrumental images), and corporate attractiveness. Corporate attractiveness is a favorable evaluation of employees about the company and is important in attracting excellent talent (Turban and Greening 1997). In addition, corporate attractiveness is a concept that employees comprehensively evaluate their company positively (Oh and Kim 2012a).

For example, applicants want to work for companies because they are providing(having) high salary (Lievens and Highhouse 2003; Rai 2020), good location (Lievens and Highhouse 2003), take diversity(Lievens et al. 2005), social/team activities (Lievens et al. 2005; Van Hoye and Saks 2011; Rai 2020), job security (Oh and Kim 2012b; Oh and Myeong 2021), supporting system (Oh and Kim 2012b) advancement opportunities (Van Hoye and Saks 2011; Rai 2020) or they are having a innovative image (Lievens and Highhouse 2003), a competent image (Lievens and Highhouse 2003; Lievens et. al 2007; Oh and Kim 2012a; Oh and Kim 2012b; Van Hoye et al. 2013; Rai 2020), an exciting image(Lievens et al. 20052007; Oh and Kim 2012a; Van Hoye and Saks 2011), a cheerful image(Lievens et al. 2005; Lievens et. al 2007), a sincere image(Oh and Kim 2012a, 2012b; Van Hoye and Saks 2011; Rai 2020), an affectionate image (Oh and Kim 2012a), a sophisticated image (Oh and Kim 2012a), a prestige image (Van Hoye and Saks 2011; Rai 2020).

As discussed above, many types of research on recruitment have focused on whether instrumental and symbolic images were positively related to a company’s attractiveness. However, studies on the direct relationship between functional and symbolic images are rare. Oh, and Myeong (2021) recently found a new relationship between symbolic and instrumental images. Specifically, the symbolic image of being sincere, the symbolic image of being successful, and the symbolic of being kind affected the instrumental image of job security. However, Oh and Myeong's (2021) research was a study of workers working at ten companies in Korea, and it is difficult to say that it is a study representing all workers working in Korean companies. Therefore, this study attempts to reconfirm the results by verifying the relationship between instrumental, symbolic images and organizational attractiveness. In particular, this study aims to conduct a more in-depth study focusing on affection.Footnote 2(we call affection Jeong in South Korea) which represents Korean companies' image (Oh and Myeong 2021) and job security. Since there is an increasing tendency for young people to place importance on job security when choosing a job in Korea(UNN News 2022a, b), HRM managers need to pay more attention to job security than before to recruit young people and retain human resources. Based on the previous studies mentioned above, the following hypotheses were established in this study.

H1

A symbolic image of being affectionate will have a positive effect on an instrumental image of job security.

H2

Instrumental image of job security will positively affect attractiveness.

H3

Symbolic image of being affectionate will have a positive effect on Organizational attractiveness.

Organizational attractiveness and security compliance intention

Security compliance is the intention of organizational members to protect the organization's potential security threats (Bulgurcu et al. 2010) and the organization's information resources from internal and external security threats (Vance et al. 2012). In other words, the security compliance intention means the voluntary compliance intention of the organization members to protect the organization from threats.

Some studies have been conducted to increase the level of safety compliance of these workers. For example, organizations enact policies or regulations related to security within the company (Hwang and Kim 2016; Choi and Lee 2014), provide security education for workers to increase security compliance (Kim et al. 2018a, b), control access to secure facilities (Lee and Lee 2015), and monitoring using a computer system (D'Arcy and Greene 2014).

Most organizations use systems to control and manage the behavior of their members against security threats. However, organizational members want to make decisions and act voluntarily, considering the security environment and the intrinsic motivation surrounding them (Hu et al. 2011). Therefore, efforts for employees to increase their willingness and intentions to comply with security are required (Guo et al. 2011) to increase security compliance inside an organization.

Many studies have proven that the attitude variables of employees (e.g., organizational commitment, Job satisfaction) have positively affected organizational effectiveness (e.g., job performance and organizational citizenship behavior). The positive attitude of organizational members toward their jobs is a factor that organizations need to pay close attention to because it ultimately leads to positive behavior in response to organizational demands (Robbins and Judge, 2011). In addition, TAM (Technology Acceptance Model) developed by Fred Davis (1989) and Richard Bagozzi explained that Attitude Toward Using affects the Behavioral Intention to Use, which leads to Actual System Use.

Some studies have identified a positive relationship between organizational commitment(attitude) and security compliance intention(intention). Hwang and Kim (2016) found that organizational commitment is a factor that reinforces security compliance intention in the relationship between the establishment of a physical system within an enterprise and security compliance intention. Hwang and Heo (2018) found that organizational commitment positively affects workers' intention to comply with security regulations. In other words, workers with high organizational commitment try to achieve the security performance desired by the organization. Recently, Lee et al. (2021) proved that organizational commitment positively affects security compliance intention through empirical analysis. Therefore, based on the existing research between organizational commitment and security compliance intention, this study established a hypothesis between organizational attractiveness(attitude) and security compliance intention(intention).

If workers perceive organizations as attractive, then workers will act positively for organizational performance. In this respect, workers can increase their security compliance intention because they perceive their organization as attractive. The following exploratory hypotheses were established based on the assumptions mentioned above.

H4

Organizational attractiveness will have a positive effect on security compliance intentions.

Research methodology

Measure

As in previous studies Lievens and Highhouse (2003), Lievens et al. (20052007), Oh and Kim (2012a, 2012b), Oh and Myeong (2021), we defined the organizational images as Instrumental and symbolic images. Our study focused on the Korean symbolic image of being affectionate, which was developed by Kim (2012a). The study measures the following attributes of symbolic images of an organization: kind, affectionate, and servable, developed by Oh and Kim (2012a).

Instrumental images have measured the extent to which individuals perceived an organization to provide various functions such as job security. We used three items for measuring the factor of job security by Lievens and Highhouse (2003), Lievens et al. (2005), Oh and Kim(2012b), and Oh and Myeong (2021). For example, some items were "The company I work for offers job security” and “The company I work for offers the possibility of getting a better stable job."

Four items proposed by Highhouse et al. (2003), Lievens et al. (2005), Oh and Kim(2012b), and Oh and Myeong (2021) were used to measure organizational attractiveness, which means the overall perspective of people related to a company (Oh and Kim 2012b). Some items were "For me, the company I work for is a good place to work” and “The company I work for is attractive to me as a place of employment.”

For measuring the security compliance intention, which can be defined as the voluntary compliance intention of organizational members to protect the organization from threats, this study used a scale verified in the study of Park and Yim (2012) and Herath and Rao (2009). The following sentences measured items: “I will continue to follow the company's security policy in the future” and “I am confident that I will abide by the company's security policy.”

All items were measured on a 5-point rating scale, ranging from “strongly disagree” (1) to “strongly agree” (5).

Data collection and analysis

Data were collected online from April 1, 2022, to April 15, 2022, through an online survey targeting organizational members working in the private and public sectors in South Korea to verify the research model. To ensure research ethics, an overview of the study, including the purpose and content of the study, was provided to the participants in writing before starting the survey. The principle of confidentiality was specified in the consent form for participation in the research, and the written consent form was prepared after confirming the participant's willingness to participate voluntarily.

477 questionnaires were used for the analysis, excluding two copies of insincere responses. Participants were derived from workers at private companies and public officials working at public organizations. Of all the respondents, 235(49.3%) were public officials and 242(50.7%) were workers. The gender was 249(52.2%) for males and 228(47.8%) for females. By age group, 179(37.5%) for 30–39 years old and 147(30.8%) for 40–49 years old accounted for almost 70%. In the case of education level, most of the respondents have a bachelor's degree or higher. After that, the questionnaire items were divided into questions about workers and public officials. The demographic characteristics are shown in Table 1.

Table 1 Demographic information (N = 477)
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For analysis, this study used PLS-SEM (partial least squares-structural equation modeling), which is suitable for exploratory research to identify causal relationships between organizational attractiveness and security compliance intention. PLS-SEM is sensitive to the assumption of multivariate normal distribution. It is more suitable for exploratory research when the collected data is small or not normally distributed (Chin 1998b; Ringle et al. 2012). Additionally, PLS-SEM makes it easy to analyze formative and reflective measurement models (Hair et al. 2011). SmartPLS 3.0 software was used for analysis.

Results

Measurement model

For analysis of measurement models, the Internal consistency reliability was assessed by Cronbach Alpha(α) and composite reliability. In the case of Cronbach Alpha(α), it is judged that there is no problem with the reliability among the measurement items when it is 0.6 or higher. The composite reliability is higher than 0.7, which indicates that the reliability is appropriate (Henseler et al. 2009). Meanwhile, using the convergent validity method, we checked whether the factor loading and Average Variation Extracted (AVE) were significant. The value of the factor loading scores should be 0.7 or more; it can be considered statistical significance, and the scores of the AVE should be higher than 0.5 (Chin 1998a). As a result of implementing the internal consistency and convergence validity methods related to reliability, Table 2 shows that the measurement models' reliability and convergence validity are satisfied. The constructs and items of the model verify that it is satisfied by meeting the criteria for Cronbach's Alpha (Above 0.6), Composite Reliability (CR) (above 0.7) regarding internal consistency and Factor Loading (above 0.7), and Average Variance Extracted (AVE) (above 0.5) regarding convergence validity.

Table 2 Results of the reliability and convergent validity tests
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Also, we used the Fornell–Larcker criterion to assess the discriminative validity of the measurement model on the construct level (Chin 1998a). Suppose the square roots of each construct’s AVE that the diagonal of the correlation matrix is higher than its correlations with other constructs, which means there is a discrimination validity in the model (Chin 1998a). Therefore, we compared the correlation coefficient between the latent variables to verify that the square roots of each latent variable's AVE are higher than the correlation coefficient between one latent variable and any other latent variable. Based on Table 3, our measurement model satisfied the discriminant validity.

Table 3 Correlation matrix and results of the discriminant validity test
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Structural model

We calculated the T-statistics and R-square value to analyze our structural model using the bootstrapping function in SmartPLS 3.0. The results of the hypothesis test for structural model analysis are shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 2
figure 2

Results of the proposed research model. Note) **Significant at P < 0.05 level, ***Significant at P < 0.01 level and the paths with dotted lines are insignificant

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First, H1 is about whether a company's symbolic image of being affectionate affects the functional image of job security. In our study, we verified that the symbolic image of being affectionate (H1: t = 16.286, P < 0.01) has effects on the functional image of job security. Therefore, H1 was accepted. Second, the functional image of job security was a significant determinant of organizational attractiveness (H2: t = 11.782, P < 0.01). Third, the symbolic image of being affectionate was also a significant determinant of organizational attractiveness (H3: t = 6.243, P < 0.01). Therefore, H2 and H3 were also statistically significant. Fourth, organizational attractiveness affects security compliance intention (H4: t = 8.412, P < 0.01). Thus, H4 was accepted. In conclusion, it was found that all other hypotheses were accepted.

In addition, this study used Zhao et al.'s (2010) method of estimating direct and indirect effects using the PLS bootstrap to verify whether there is a mediating effect of organizational attractiveness between job security and security compliance intention. The mediating effect was found to be significant (t = 7.663, P = 0.001). Considering that it was verified that the direct effect between job security and security compliance intention was significant (t = 8.478, P = 0.000), organizational attractiveness can be determined to play a partial mediating role (Zhao et al. 2010).

Discussion and implications

The main purpose of this research is to explore the relationship between Korean corporate images, corporate attractiveness, and security compliance intention. This research is one of the first studies examining corporate image factors significantly affecting employees' intention to comply with security. This study sheds light on motivation factors for employees to comply with security in organizations.

The study revealed important findings as follows. First, this study proved that the symbolic image of affectionates the instrumental image of job security found in a previous study (e.g., Oh and Myeong 2021) conducted in only ten companies. Therefore, this research is a meaningful study that once again confirmed and generalized the relationship between symbolic and functional images. According to Hofstede's (2006) cultural dimension theory, Korea has a stronger tendency toward a collectivist culture than an individualistic culture. Although an individualistic culture now coexists, in many organizations, members still rejoice and grieve together on special days such as employees' marriages or deaths of employees' family members. Many companies worldwide suffered a management crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Korean airlines experienced the same difficulties. All employees of Asiana Airlines and EASTAR Jet in South Korea overcame the crisis by voluntarily reducing their salaries by 33% to 40% to overcome the company's difficulties together (new1 2020). Therefore, HR managers must prepare to create an organizational culture in which employees can increase commitment and identification. It is important to build this culture by constantly communicating with employees.

Second, according to previous studies, an instrumental image significantly affects corporate attractiveness (Myrden and Kelloway 2015; Van Hoye and Saks 2011; Kashif and Khanna 2017). Many people take the tests to become public officers because of job security in South Korea. The Ministry of Human Resources and Innovation of Korea mentioned that the average competition rate for the national exam of public officers scored 93.1 to 1 in 2011, and it was considered a dream job for young people looking for a stable job (Maekyung 2022). The national civil service examination competition rate for 5 years was 41 to 1 in 2018, 39.2 to 1 in 2019, and 35 to 1 in 2021. Therefore, these results empirically support the Korean job market (Maekyung 2022). Therefore, a company's HR manager must provide job security to employees and build a system and culture in the organization that allows employees to demonstrate their abilities to the fullest for a long time. To this end, building trust between employees, the organization, and superiors and forming an organizational culture where employees can directly participate in establishing an organizational performance system and trust the results is important.

Third, our research finds factors that motivate employees to comply with security voluntarily. Previous research has mainly focused on compulsory and disciplinary policies and systems for security compliance such as company policies and regulations (Hwang and Kim 2016; Choi and Lee 2014), security education/security services (Kim et al. 2018a, b), and human control, policy control, and access control (Lee and Lee 2015), cloud system architecture configuration (Ullah et al. 2013), the monitoring and surveillance environment using a computer (D'Arcy and Greene 2014). Since there are limits to coercive factors that change human behavior, this study focused on identifying factors that change human behavior. Specifically, it was found that job security increased the attractiveness of the organization perceived by the employees and, in turn, increased the intention of the employees to comply with the organization's security. Recently, employees of Samsung Electronics, a world-renowned Korean company, were put on trial on charges of opening a consulting company in Japan and leaking technology. Prosecutors believe that this employee, who worked at Samsung Electronics for over 20 years, leaked information from Samsung Electronics' internal meetings after setting up a company in Japan with a Japanese business partner in 2011 (MBC News 2024). Samsung Electronics has established its goal of securing a super gap in system semiconductors based on its competitiveness in memory semiconductors. It has recently been experiencing a steady stream of technology leaks (BizFact 2023). In this situation, strong punishment for technology leaks is only an after-the-fact measure, and technology leaks require a system or alternative as a preemptive prevention measure more than anything else. Therefore, HR managers must establish corporate brand marketing, form a corporate culture, and establish attractive HR policies and systems so employees can feel attractive to the organization. These efforts strengthen employees' psychological factors toward the company and increase the likelihood that they will not engage in actions that cause financial damage to the company.

Considering the study's motivation and derived implications comprehensively, the study's significance can be explained as follows. This study approached causal variables to increase organization members' intention to comply with security policies from the perspective of the organizational behavior field of business administration. From this perspective, corporate image (affectionate, job stability) and organizational attractiveness improved security compliance intention. The contribution of the research can be found in that it has proven the possibility of being utilized. This contribution is expected to be meaningful in that it provided an opportunity to expand the scope to consider psychological factors to increase the intention of organizational members to comply with security policies.

Limitations and future directions

Despite the new findings, this study has some limitations that should be addressed in future studies. First, this research survey was conducted for Korean companies and public institutions workers. Therefore, the results of this study have limitations in that they can be applied only to Korean companies and public institutions. In the future, it is necessary to conduct a study targeting workers in various countries and cultures and compare the results. Second, this study needs to focus on job security among the corporate image factors that affect employees' intention to comply with security. Therefore, a more comprehensive study on corporate image factors that affect future security compliance intentions is needed. Third, the research model shows only the basic structure between major variables. Therefore, it is judged that future research needs to refine the theoretical framework further by utilizing new parameters or control variables.