Abstract
The Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) is facing particular career challenges, being rooted in a quickly changing field where managerial tasks are applied to a highly specialized technical foundation. The objective of this study is to explore individuals’ careers that led them to aspire to and achieve the role.
22 current and former CISOs have been interviewed for this project. One can identify four segments of career patterns, based upon a broad classification into a preference for problem solving or organization building. Orthogonally, one can identify the orientation of the individual’s Psychological Contract towards the employing organization and its representatives, or towards the professional community at large.
Many respondents displayed signs of protean career management in their career history and in the description of their plans going forward. While individuals may not always consciously realize it the need to manage their own career is prominently ingrained in their career philosophy and aspiration. Shared concerns were a requirement for active career management and potentially career limiting decisions.
This study provides a reference framework for security management careers, based on established structural and psychological concepts from the field of career research. Statistically representative analysis and longitudinal studies can be based upon this framework but are not attempted here.
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Berlich, P. (2013). Executive Career Paths in Information Security Management. In: Reimer, H., Pohlmann, N., Schneider, W. (eds) ISSE 2013 Securing Electronic Business Processes. Springer Vieweg, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-03371-2_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-03371-2_13
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