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Designing an Interest-to-Function Career Alignment Model for Cybersecurity Professionals

Thesis (PhD (Information Technology))--University of Pretoria, 2020.

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Other Authors: Naidoo, Rennie
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Language:en_US
Published: University of Pretoria 2021
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access_status_str Open Access
author2 Naidoo, Rennie
author_browse Naidoo, Rennie
author_facet Naidoo, Rennie
collection Thesis
dc_rights_str_mv © 2019 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria.
description Thesis (PhD (Information Technology))--University of Pretoria, 2020.
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institution University of Pretoria (South Africa)
language en_US
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:36:49.885Z
license_str Other — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
publishDate 2021
publishDateRange 2021
publishDateSort 2021
publisher University of Pretoria
publisherStr University of Pretoria
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source_str UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
spelling oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/78300 Designing an Interest-to-Function Career Alignment Model for Cybersecurity Professionals Naidoo, Rennie ppoteete@gmail.com Poteete, Paul Wyatt UCTD Cybersecurity Information Technology Design Science Research Career Satisfaction Engineering, built environment and information technology theses SDG-04 Engineering, built environment and information technology theses SDG-08 Engineering, built environment and information technology theses SDG-09 Thesis (PhD (Information Technology))--University of Pretoria, 2020. Cybersecurity professionals are in high demand, but the definition of individual interests and the functions that comprise those roles is more complex than it may seem. In the face of a global shortage of cybersecurity professionals, and an often-difficult team dynamic around these individuals, in addition to a dramatic rise in cybercrime and security breaches, it is important to define and understand career success and career performance within an organization. This research uses a design science approach founded on a sociotechnical theoretical framework based on Information Technology (IT) turnover and Human Resources (HR) theories to analyze individual factors of job satisfaction and job performance for cybersecurity roles to design a cybersecurity interest to function career alignment model through the integration of prominent indicators of individual interest. This is accomplished using a mixed methods approach of surveys, interviews, and a focus group that are employed using various techniques of visual, descriptive, correlation, and thematic analysis. Two key findings within this research involves cybersecurity roles and functions and the ability to align an individual's personal interests to those roles. In the former case, cybersecurity roles are poorly defined and are prone to widespread ambiguity, requiring the design of a taxonomy of discrete functions for analysis. In the latter case, individual interests, as analyzed through popular individual profiling solutions are vague and largely irrelevant to cybersecurity professionals. This requires that individual interests be defined and applied to relevant industry functions to provide meaningful alignment to job satisfaction and job performance. Among the implications for IT Turnover Theory, is the refined attribution of individual interests within cybersecurity roles instead of a monolithic interpretation of cybersecurity professionals as a single factor. This is also true for the Intermediate Linkages Model as the job satisfaction-turnover relationship may be further refined to include industry-specific functions for cybersecurity functions and the specific interests of cybersecurity professionals. The implications for design science research could extend beyond the usage of standard guidelines, venturing into this study's process of using design challenges to illuminate hidden design principles. This challenge-principle relationship may provide additional insight to new or existing facets of reasoning. These new viewpoints may uncover otherwise excluded aspects that provide additional insight into this study or topics beyond. For cybersecurity and human resources practitioners, this study provides several implications beyond the foundation for career training for functional guidance. It provides an alternative viewpoint on organizational and departmental design for cybersecurity to business alignment to increase individual job satisfaction and ultimately improve organizational performance. Future research would result in deployed artifact instantiations that promotes general career direction for future and current cybersecurity personnel, while also providing additional guidance to organizations for the proper deployment of cybersecurity teams. Other research could include IT careers beyond cybersecurity to create a standardized method for the alignment of interests to career functions for the improvement of individual job satisfaction and overall organizational performance. es2026 Informatics PhD (Information Technology) Unrestricted SDG-04: Quality education SDG-08: Decent work and economic growth SDG-09: Industry, innovation and infrastructure 2021-02-08T10:59:19Z 2021-02-08T10:59:19Z 2021-04-20 2020 Thesis Poteete, PW 2020, Designing an Interest-to-Function Career Alignment Model for Cybersecurity Professionals, PhD (Information Technology) Thesis, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd <http://hdl.handle.net/2263/78300> A2021 http://hdl.handle.net/2263/78300 en_US © 2019 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. application/pdf University of Pretoria
spellingShingle UCTD
Cybersecurity
Information Technology
Design Science Research
Career Satisfaction
Engineering, built environment and information technology theses SDG-04
Engineering, built environment and information technology theses SDG-08
Engineering, built environment and information technology theses SDG-09
Designing an Interest-to-Function Career Alignment Model for Cybersecurity Professionals
title Designing an Interest-to-Function Career Alignment Model for Cybersecurity Professionals
title_full Designing an Interest-to-Function Career Alignment Model for Cybersecurity Professionals
title_fullStr Designing an Interest-to-Function Career Alignment Model for Cybersecurity Professionals
title_full_unstemmed Designing an Interest-to-Function Career Alignment Model for Cybersecurity Professionals
title_short Designing an Interest-to-Function Career Alignment Model for Cybersecurity Professionals
title_sort designing an interest to function career alignment model for cybersecurity professionals
topic UCTD
Cybersecurity
Information Technology
Design Science Research
Career Satisfaction
Engineering, built environment and information technology theses SDG-04
Engineering, built environment and information technology theses SDG-08
Engineering, built environment and information technology theses SDG-09
url http://hdl.handle.net/2263/78300