t to the major loss of electronically stored data, however, low probability/high loss potential events pose the most serious threats to the security and integrity of electronic information systems precisely the type of events, the potential for occurrence, many, if not most, managers prefer to ignore.
The research focus of this study, therefore, was on the attitudes of administrators and managers toward data recovery planning for electronic information systems. Specifically, the twofold purpose of this study was to develop a methodology, or model, to facilitate the (1) measurement of the attitudes of administrators and managers toward data recovery planning associated with low probability/high loss potential events, and (2) the manipulation of such attitudes, where desirable, to enhance the security and integrity of electronic information systems.
The development of such a model, or methodology, is relevant to the management of electronic information systems regardless of
the society within which they function. The role of such a model often assumes greater significance, however, in developing societies wherein higher level administrators and managers may be far less familiar than less senior personnel are with many aspects of information system management, and, in turn, less sensitive to the need to accord priority to data recovery planning. With this type of situation in mind, Saudi Arabia was selected as the setting for this study.
The problems in the administrative management of Saudi bureaucracy generally, as well as in individual organizations, result largely from conflicts stemming from the mingling of the traditional and the contemporary in the country. Managerial attitudes and policies derive from Saudi Arabia's tradition of centralized authority, as exemplified by the political and spiritual unity in the societal structure, and from the jealously guarded prerogatives of the country's social elite in the devel...