Title: A case study on the factors encouraging proactive behaviour in network operation centre (NOC) analysts

Authors: Feras Nasr, Linying Dong

Addresses: Ted Rogers School of Information Technology Management, Ted Rogers Faculty of Business, Ryerson University, 55 Dundas Street, Toronto ON M5G 2C3, Canada. ' Ted Rogers School of Information Technology Management, Ted Rogers Faculty of Business, Ryerson University, 55 Dundas Street, Toronto ON M5G 2C3, Canada

Abstract: The cost of a network outage can reach millions of dollars depending on the duration of the outage and the size and line of business of the organisation. Companies rely on NOC analysts (the first line of response to network incidents and outages) to proactively search for potential problems and eliminate or minimise their threat to avoid significant cost loss and reputational damage. Through semi-structured interviews conducted with ten current or former NOC analysts, we have uncovered that contrary to existing studies, extrinsic motivation in the form of monetary rewards and recognition had the most influence on encouraging proactive behaviour.

Keywords: proactivity; network operations centres; NOC; extrinsic motivation; NOC analysts; proactive behaviour; network outages; network incidents; monetary rewards; recognition; incentives.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISCM.2011.039071

International Journal of Information Systems and Change Management, 2011 Vol.5 No.1, pp.76 - 95

Published online: 29 Nov 2014 *

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