Boundary Management And Cybersecurity Behavior In Remote Work: Insights From An Empirical Study

Abstract

This study investigates how remote workers’ boundary management strategies shape cybersecurity behavior in everyday contexts. Drawing on Boundary Management Theory and qualitative data from 14 interviews with remote workers across Europe, we identified three strategies: segmentation, integration, and blurred boundaries that influence how individuals engage with cybersecurity routines. Our findings show that boundary strategies affect the stability, consistency, and cognitive demands of secure behavior. Clear boundaries support routine compliance, while blurred boundaries increase risk through distraction, fatigue, and role conflict. Organizational factors such as policy clarity, tool usability, and leadership expectations further shape how employees sustain secure practices in distributed work settings. This study contributes to IS security research by highlighting boundary management as an important context for understanding behavioral cybersecurity in remote work. We offer practical implications for designing boundary-aware policies and tools that better support secure practices in remote and hybrid environments