Systems and Procedures of Information Policy Issue - Assignment Example

electronic surveillance on employees by [Author’s name] [Name of the Institution] [Date of fulfillment] Introduction Policy models are made of nexus that has got the interrelated principles, regulations, rules and determined decision-making procedures. All these are applicable to various wider varieties of issues. These issues can e well categorized as intellectual property rights, standardization, regulations, consumer protection and tariffs. There are some countries where the entire gamut of information-related policies is determined on the basis of specific technological and well structured economic properties. These are further aspects based on the configuration of various political powers among minimized shared responsibilities of the stakeholders within the organization. The chief objective of this essay is to lay emphasis over the issues related to the basics that determine the information policy issues and the foregrounding related to the making of relevant law. Along with the study over the information policy issue, the essay too concentrates over the matter of Electronic Surveillance of Employees at Work. Various ethically considered pros and cons are integral to the analytical basis of the paper. The relevant Systems and procedures of information policy issue is the basis for the whole study. The dealings with ethical notions are all very much a part of various comments and thoughts shared by the employees of concerned fields and professions. Systems and procedures of information policy issue It is a universally accepted notion that the Information policy issues are not due to the emergence or the participation of the scopes of Internet. The act of determining the policies in these kinds of zones get well speculated through the process of freedom of expression. The matters related to acceptability of commitment for the making of information policy provisions led by the open government, is of great importance. There are the policy attentions given to the process of information issues on the basis of dramatically heightened platform. All the ethical justifications in the making of these policies are made on the basis of past events and declared experiences. There is a kind of interdependence over the sections of homeland defense, public safety, counter-terrorism and all those topics that are related to few government agencies. The resources are basically developed in concern to the new focus over domestic security. The added mainstream activities of government are all related to the domains of assuring health care, educating kids, building roads, collecting taxes and above all face all kinds of new information policies that are responsible for the establishment of an ethical environment1. In order to have all the matters under responsive security periphery the government leaders and responsible managers think of all kinds of policies that can guide for an appropriate collection of information for the management and necessary accessibility on all kinds of balanced inevitable conflicts. Information policies considerably fall into two specific complementary categories. These are well known as stewardship and the determined use. Under "stewardship" principle there is the room for conservative consequences that concentrate over integrity, quality, security, reliability and the process of authentic documenting and maintaining of relevant public record. All these systematic provisions treat the making of information policy more as a matter of "public good". It is very important to lay emphasis on the maintenance of the same. The procedures of nurturing and maintaining need to be well followed. There are well protected on behalf of all those people who are a part of the information policy issue. Dominance of "use" principle in the systematic adaptation of information policy is very expansive. Under its provision the information policy turns up to be an asset. It is determined through the usability in order to achieve innumerable public goals. The emphasis is thus always over the current and futuristic valuation of the information policy issue. It has got the ability to integrate, share and further use of the sorted information. It is through the application of the use principle that one can well lead to innovative consequences. The scopes of new and better services at lower costs there is the means for the building of new relationships among the concerned citizens under the particular policy. The follow ups related to the system and procedures of information policy issues are therefore done on the basis of these two complementary ways under government information supervisions. There are the panels that get explored for accessibility into the system of information on the Web. There is also the practice for the application of proactive dissemination under government information system in order to get the database integration and the information sharing provision across organizational boundaries. All these are done through new emphasis over the system of identification, analytical systems and collection of data security. Surveillance of electronic behavior of employees There are many reasons that are supported by the employers of various domains in respect to surveillance of electronic behavior of employees. All these behaviors are marked through the online provisions made available on every professional ground. The employers understand all the behaviors and thereby are very much into the activities of modifications and reliabilities for the employees of their organization. In the periphery of electronic surveillance, there are people who misuse the organizational scopes of all these electronic media (Jengchung V. Chen, Paul Pfleuger Jr., 2008). Some employees even watch pornographic movies during the working hours. The practices related to the appropriate policies for the prohibition of these kinds of behavior are brought under strict regulations and the employees were trained and made aware of legal proceedings related to these kinds of violations. There are also some supervisors who are more into the act of surfing the Web during the business days. All these acts get confirmed through the network administrator. These network administrators can also detect the activities through which the employee is into the job board sites. As stated in Surveillance & Society, the acts of shopping, online banking, chatting and the act of posting on message boards too are part of various surveillances. The developed hobbies of reading recipe sites and being in the personal email for more than six hours are some of the common activities that are well detected through the surveillances. There are also instances where the employee does all his ancillary bookkeeping action for personal business violating the process of information policy2. These are all done within the company time and in the company computer. These are unethical for sure and are very unprofessional. It is thus can be well assured that the electronic surveillance of some employees at their work place can yield some consequences that can end with major losses to the employer. Thus the use electronic surveillance of employees by the employers is increasing and the regulations to choose not to practice electronic surveillance are well justified (Susan M. Heathfield, 2008). As stated by A Report on the Surveillance Society for the Information Commissioner by the Surveillance Studies Network, September, 2006, there are many reasons that get added to the place where the employees are detected under electronic surveillance at work place. The matter of productivity issues are very much strictly followed for an employer’s concern. All the sites that the employees visit are of great concern to the employers as that brings in the determination over the potential of the organization for the creation of a hostile work environment under the professional roof. These can be well affected through all kinds of emails and jokes forwarded by the employees. It is obvious that the employers always want to have a kind of trust over their employees. This is for the practice of good judgment. However there are instances under which employers prefer to have negative images about their employees and the matter of trust is kept on toss. As a matter of fact most of the employers are in concern to the creation an environment of harassment to all those employees who surf inappropriate places and sites and share the selected URLs. Though the employers are more concerned about the production of more emails and Web records, in order to defend against lawsuits, yet the positions of the gets the provision to swing across the domains of home and work place or the between the personal business and the professional domains. Through the application of discretionary energy, there is also the provision where the employees can very voluntarily contribute to the organization in terms of above and beyond all kinds of expectations for achieved the sorted goals. Analysis of ethical issues The ethical issues in reference of the activities detected through electronic surveillance gets in to the debate of being ethically justified. The supports are all initiated through the growth of information technology and are recognized as a means of electronic surveillance (Roland E. Kidwell, Linda Achey Kidwell, 1 996). This had led to a concern of research among the managers who are responsible for the process of evaluating and applying force to the workplace. It is very necessary that the managers realize that the perspectives for the guidance of the research agendas in terms of structuring the information policies. The aspects related to electronic surveillance of employees is getting popular. As per the data sorted by the annual Electronic Monitoring and Surveillance Survey, initiated by the American Management Association (AMA) and ePolicy Institute since 2001, there is a kind of regular increase in the process of electronic surveillance in reference to employees’ behavior (Susan M. Heathfield, 2008). On ethical grounding the usability of inappropriate electronic equipment, along with email and Internet sites are never supported. However there are many contradictory instances being supported on the basis of privacy maintenance. These are related to the question of why any employer will want to monitor and put surveillance over an employee’s email or the internet use. This is again an act of inappropriateness from individualistic point of view. The considerations still are determined for these kinds of surveillance as the organization sometimes faces unnecessary expenditures and poor reputation for all these misused activities of official properties. For Peter Jenkins, the act of surveillance over electronic devices is no doubt improper but the instances related to the professional equipments and time, are more inappropriate and very unprofessional. There cannot be denial to the fact that the surveillance over the electronic devices used by the employees has got both the pros and cons. The process of electronic surveillance of all the employees as they are at work have still become necessary for the sake of professional usability of the official equipments and facilities. As there is a severe need for the application of best possibilities in an organization, it is also very important to have some kinds of master provision for the maintenance of the same. The electronic surveillance is thus considered very necessary in those fields where the matter of sensitivity is at toss. These are of course of no use to all those domains where there is hardly any possibility of being into a troublesome phase for these lucrative behaviors of the employees. instances in support The act of electronic has been well supported with various logical and professional reasons. It is very necessary to note that the process of litigation is very sensitive issue to every successful employer. As for Nancy Flynn, author of The ePolicy Handbook, and executive director, ePolicy Institute, "Concern over litigation and the role electronic evidence plays in lawsuits and regulatory investigations has spurred more employers to monitor online activity." As declared by according to the 2006 AMA / ePolicy research, it has been well noted that about 24% of professional employers got email that are subpoenaed by courts and the structured regulators. There instances under which 15% of professional employers battled for the cases of workplace lawsuits. These are basically triggered by the selected employee email. It is therefore well established that in order to help in the control over the risk of litigation and unwanted security breaches along with all kinds of other electronic disaster; it is always appropriate for the employers to take advantage of the electronic surveillance system for the purpose of monitoring and abruptly blocking the troublesome sites and provisions led to the employees. However there are employers who do not want to support the scope of using the electronic surveillance. The reasons that these employers forward are all on the basis of ethical notions that are made relevant for building the matter of trust between the employees and the employers. As for Manny Avramidis, who is the senior vice president,Global human resources, AMA, this particular option depends on the particularized company and the determined work environment that the employer wants to provide and practice in the corporate periphery. "Depending on the level of freedom allowed in a company or the type of employer, electronic surveillance of employees may not be desirable. In fact, 99% of the population will be fine without electronic surveillance; fewer than one percent of employees are causing the damage that allows all of the bad stuff for employers to kick in." The acceptability initiated by Avramidis states that that the practice of electronic surveillance of employees can have negative affect over the relationship between an employer and his employee. In case of those situation when the employee already in the right side and works and use technology moderately in terms of personal use, the system of electronic surveillance will be of no use or impact. Just because of very few bad employees, the process of electronic surveillance can bring in mental stress in the good employee for the employer. The concerns related to the employers is also very much associated with relevant potential damages related to a work culture that is more likely to foster trust along with the groundings of employee commitment and determined motivation towards his duties. There are very strong possibilities that these kinds of surveillance can lead to incongruent conditions between the employee and the employer in the dedicated working environment (Monahan, Torin, ed. 2006). That is really very sensitive and is of great concern to justify the ethical notions. However there are large amount of risk that the employer would be taking. A regular inspection and usability of the system will be a better option. People with much severe instances will otherwise escape continuously and the troubles will get added to the organizational functionalities. The most effective and strong reason that gets followed against the system of using electronic surveillance to employees is for the maintenance of the employee privacy. As stated by Eric J. Sinrod, “Still, workers have legitimate concerns that their privacy rights might be invaded. The primary federal statute in this area is the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA).” The thought was considerably accepted on the ground over a case where a partner of San Francisco office in Duane Morris, specialized in the field of technology along with all those matters related to the process of litigation. The provisions are such that there are certain amounts of exceptions too. As for instance ECPA have three predominant exceptions. All these exceptions allow employers to practice the process of monitoring all his business-related phone calls. This is also accepted in terms of monitoring and communicating through the approval of surveillance made by the concerned employee. Guide to lawful intercept legislation around the world, states that the legal provisions related to the issues of electronic surveillance were not under much consideration in the past. As it is a process of intervening personal information about individuals, there was less attention for any kind of rules related to it. There were certain amounts of protected provisions for the usability of practical obscurity that supports the application of it in defense of the organizational security provisions (Jeremy Wunsch, 2008). The issue was well initiated by the participation of Justice Stevens in his judgment for the renowned relevant case in USDOJ v. Reporters Committee, during the session of 1989. Conclusion There are though various points that state that the electronic surveillance over employees can spoil the relationship between the employer and the employee, still the use f it very effective. On the basis of acceptance made by Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), Deterrence Theory (DT) and Self-Regulation Theory, there is the need for better understanding among the employees regarding the security and privacy policies of the organization. On empirical ground it is very important to keep an eye on all those who are misusing the computers and all kinds of electronic media provided to them b the company. On professional and ethical ground though the act of electronic surveillance is not supported but for the security purposes of the organization these needs to be practiced. On ethical interpretations, practical obscurity is related to the practical difficulties rooted of aggregating or sometimes analyzing over a large number of data points. These are basically detected in different geographical locations. The legal interventions are the basis for the persuasion of information that was often transient to the corporate initiations.3 References A Report on the Surveillance Society for the Information Commissioner by the Surveillance Studies Network, September, 2006, http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/data_protection/practical_application/surveillance_society_full_report_2006.pdf [retrieved on 4th of Feb. 2009] Guide to lawful intercept legislation around the world, http://www.ss8.com/pdfs/Ready_Guide_Download_Version.pdf [retrieved on 4th of Feb. 2009] Jengchung V. Chen, Paul Pfleuger Jr., Employees' behaviour towards surveillance technology implementation as an information assurance measure in the workplace, International Journal of Management and Enterprise Development 2008 - Vol. 5, No.4 pp. 497 – 511 Jeremy Wunsch, Keep Company and Employee Information Safe, How to Protect and Preserve Your Company's Critical Information for About.com, http://humanresources.about.com/od/healthsafetyandwellness/a/protect_data.htm Monahan, Torin, ed. (2006), Surveillance and Security: Technological Politics and Power in Everyday Life. New York: Routledge: ISBN 0-415-95393-6 Peter Jenkins, Advanced Surveillance Training Manual, ISBN 0-9535378-1-1, Intel Publishing, UK Roland E. Kidwell, Linda Achey Kidwell, Evaluating research on electronic surveillance: a guide for managers of information technology, Journal: Industrial Management & Data Systems, 1996, Volume: 96, Issue: 1, pp.8 - 14, ISSN: 0263-5577, Publisher: MCB UP Ltd Surveillance & Society, Free academic e-journal on surveillance. Includes resources, http://www.surveillance-and-society.org/ [retrieved on 5th of Feb. 2009] Susan M. Heathfield, Electronic Surveillance of Employees, Human Resources Blog, About.com Guide to Human Resources since 2000, Thursday March 20, 2008, http://humanresources.about.com/b/2008/03/20/electronic-surveillance-of-employees.htm [retrieved on 4th of Feb. 2009] Susan M. Heathfield, Electronic Surveillance of Employees, Pros of Electronic Surveillance of Employees, About.com, 2008, http://humanresources.about.com/od/technology/a/surveillance_2.htm [retrieved on 4th of Feb. 2009] The Issues, Information Access in an Electronic World: A policy panel summary transcript 1, 2003 Center for Technology in Government www.ctg.albany.edu [retrieved on 5th of Feb. 2009] Read More