Use of Electronic Monitoring to Measure Employee Productivity - Case Study Example

?Running head: Use of Electronic Monitoring to Measure Employee Productivity Use of Electronic Monitoring to Measure Employee Productivity Tutor Date Introduction The advancement in information technology has molded the daily working environment of employees as well as the relationships between the individuals and groups within the work place. The workplace is nowadays characterized by dependence on computer technology including use of the internet and email to accomplish crucial business tasks. The growth of telecommuting and mobility in working, facilitated by suitable information systems and tools provided by employers has promoted employee autonomy and flexibility both in the workplace and at home. Nevertheless, these systems and tools have promoted intrusion into the private lives of employees by both the profession and the employer. Many organizations have opted to use electronic monitoring to track employee productivity and analyze their electronic communication. The issue of electronic monitoring intrusion into employee’s privacy has sparked a major debate between the employers and employee advocates. This paper will discuss the contemporary issues in the use of electronic monitoring by companies to assess employee productivity. Advancement in information technology Technological growth has facilitated accurate collection and storage of a great pool of personal information usually without the permission or knowledge of the employee concerned, and whether such information is necessary for business functions. The organizations collect personal information for reasons of evaluation of employee performance,security,and protection from lawsuits among others. Nevertheless, the privacy laws are not robust enough to shield employees from intrusion (Watt, 2009). Currently, employees of private corporations in the United States lack legal protection against abusive practices of e-mail monitoring. Therefore, American employers can freely intercept, seek, and read any messages stored on the hard drives of employee’s computer (Rustad & Paulsson, 2005). Reasons why most organizations implement electronic monitoring The increase in complexity and prevalence in the use of technology has prompted many organizations to implement employee monitoring systems. This is attributable to the rising incidences of cyber loafing and litigation. Employers believe that their employees will comply with existing organizational benchmarks for behavior when constantly monitored. However, this has resulted to the development of perception of intrusiveness into private life by employees. In the United States, the anxiety about the stock market and concerns about safety of families makes employees seek the latest information from the Internet in the workplace (Rurhsani, 2005). Only under special circumstances would employers put up with excessive use of the internet for activities other than job although they feel that it can lower their performance. Organizations are increasingly demanding the individual employee’s personal information. In spite of enactment of legislation attempting to resolve the issue of privacy, debate is still raging over the ethical issues with regard to the privacy rights. Lack of rational regulation of such monitoring would significantly affect employee’s privacy rights (Mujtaba, 2003; Rustad & Paulsson, 2005). Besides loss in productivity and liabilities involved with employee’s cyber loafing, companies are worried about the sending out of sensitive and secretive information to their competitors, vendors, suppliers, and customers by mischievous employees (Rustad & Paulsson, 2005). Incidences have been reported of employees sharing company’s confidential information and trade secrets with outside employees or friends using an employer’s email system. Moreover, some employees have been found to use an employer’s Internet to initiate or operate their own business while working. Lawsuits may result due to employers being held responsible for employee’s misuse of the internet regardless of whether the employer was cognizant of such activities or not (Mujtaba, 2003). How the electronic system works The use of sophisticated software by employers has enabled them to clandestinely monitor staffs’ use of network within an organization as well as individually monitoring the individual employee connected computer. The electronic monitoring system employs software that captures images on an employee’s computer screen randomly at intervals prior to condensing the images to give information about all the computers. Moreover, an employee’s online activities including information about the web sites visited, duration of visits, and the relevance of these websites to work may also be exposed. The Employee Monitoring Software reveals information about staff use of chat rooms, games, files downloaded, email received or sent, and downloading time. The software also monitors information about employee’s hard-drives by unraveling pornography, music, and movies that may have been downloaded in contravention of copyright policies or workplace ethics (Lasprogata, King, & Pillay, 2004). Application of Taylor’s Scientific Management Principles in Electronic Monitoring The application of Taylor’s management principles in electronic monitoring of employees has been challenging. Application of this model implies that employee’s specific tasks would be evaluated in an effort to enhance employee productivity by increasing efficiency and direct management. Employee’s tasks are broken up into concrete components that would eliminate irrelevant steps and subsequently evaluating the restructured physical activity to set up benchmarks for job performance (Peters, 1999). The advancement of technology has made many organizations to downsize their workforce. Taylor’s theory of scientific management is more pertinent in organizations that rely heavily on physical labor. Paradoxically, organizations implementing the electronic monitoring system focus on physical residues of HCL including key strokes and mouse clicks rather than in gaining understanding of the mind’s interaction with computers. The system has concentrated on key boarding rather than the mental activity. The monitoring analysts continue to evaluate employee’s body movement to gain access of the hidden cognitive abilities (Peters, 1999). Managers apply Taylor’s principles in electronic monitoring of employees. Since every employee’s moves are monitored, the manager can send subliminal messages to their computer screens rather than face to face reproaching. Organizations are using Taylor’s principles in an attempt to understand employee’s using the Internet. For instance, particular software is employed in carrying out time and motion studies aimed at computing and reducing mouse mileage and keystrokes. In this way the productivity and efficiency of employees are measured at the workplace (Peters, 1999). Application of McGregor’s X-Y Theory in Electronic Monitoring Theory X managers are expected to set up high benchmarks for employees in seeking to enhance employee organizational performance. Such managers would employ electronic monitoring of their employees in a bid to meet deadlines and deliver concrete results. They may not see the necessity of communicating this to the employees or take part in its initiation. This would make employees harbor resentment and distrust towards the organization. Therefore, the measure would be counterproductive. On the contrary, a Theory Y manager will likely concentrate on human behavior in the work place and is likely to use draconian measures against the employees, and involve them in the process of implementation. According to McGregor, the manager’s use of either X or Y approach to company management will influence the employees to respond to changes being introduced. The theory is still pertinent in performing performance appraisals and organizational culture (Byrski, 2009). Impacts of Electronic Monitoring on Employees Technological advancement has brought forth the loss of privacy at the workplace. Electronic monitoring of employees can create disloyalty and hostility in employees. Employee’s perception that they are being treated like children can create feelings of resentment towards their organizations. This is especially when employees do not understand the necessity of being monitored. As such, employees may file lawsuits against the company when policies are not clarified or communicated effectively to them. Many employees feel that their privacy rights are being violated when their personal e-mail is read and intercepted by employers without their permission. An individual employee feels that he is the only one who can read an email addressed in his name (Mujtaba, 2003). Many employees feel that their every move is revealed and being watched. The ACD has been utilized to track employee’s unethical behavior including hanging up on clients, making personal calls or call avoidance and taking calls. This has resulted in reported incidences of high levels of employees’ nervousness and stress, which has resulted in high blood pressure. Employee’s perception of organizational injustice and low incomes despite hard work apparently makes them to legitimize cyber loafing (Lasprogata, King, & Pillay, 2004; Mujtaba, 2003). Other than loss of privacy at work, there is also general loss of privacy. The advent in information technology has resulted in accessibility of large amounts of information by businesses and employees. Moreover, customers, purveyors, competitors, and suppliers may access crucial company information. Organizations are concerned with the possibility of abuse of information technology by these stakeholders. This misuse of company information can be due to neglect or ill will on the part of the employee or any other organizational stakeholders. Such unethical conduct on the part of the stakeholders may be attributable to individual’s lack of cognisance or undersatnding of ethical conducts (Watt, 2009). Recommendations It is imperative for organizations to implement Internet policies with injunctions and deterrents that minimize cyber loafing and other types of misuse of company’s bandwidth, with the potential abuser being fully cognizant that it will lead to job termination (Rustad & Paulsson, 2005). The top level management of organizations should understand the overall impacts of cyber loafing so that the Internet is effectively optimized for the purpose of meeting organizational objectives. Employers should try to understand the feelings of their workers or internal clients prior to unethically reading and intercepting employee’s personal mail, and listening to their voicemails. This is necessary to protect the interests of both the organization and its employees. Organizations also should ensure that work ethics policies and training are integrated within the organization especially where information technology is available (Mujtaba, 2003;Watt, 2009). Furthermore, employers should keep up with the changes in technology that may underlie new ethical concerns for employees and the organization as a whole. Therefore, policy and training on written code of ethics are necessary to address such emerging ethical concerns. By giving the relevant stakeholders appropriate instructions and training will help them learn and understand the ethical reasoning of doing what is morally upright, even when under duress of egotistical interests. Organizations should ensure that the company computers are only used to meet organizational objectives. Organizations must ensure that any data from company servers and computers is transfered only for legitimate business purposes (Mujtaba, 2003). Conclusion The increasing cases in cyber loafing and lawsuits against organizations by employees has forced many organizations to implement an electronic monitoring system to assess employee’s use of the internet and company computers for non-job purposes. Most companies employ the electronic monitoring system to measure employee’s level of productivity. Organizations view it as a measure to minimize abuse of Internet and the huge costs involved. The leaking of sensitive and corporate trade secrets by malicious employees has justified their cause to monitor employee’s every move. Nevertheless, employees view it as an intrusion into their privacy. Legislations that have been enacted to attempt to resolve the issue have not fully addressed the issue. Companies continue to monitor their employees without their permission. The privacy issue remains unsolved. References Byrski, M. (2009, July). Implications of Personal Technologies in the Workplace:Distinctions between Employer and Employee Perceptions. A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business , pp. 1-105. Lasprogata, G., King, N. J., & Pillay, S. (2004). Regulation of Electronic Employee Monitoring:Identifying Fundamental Principles of Employee Privacy through a Comparative Study of Data Privacy Legislation in the European Union, United States and Canada. Stanford Technology Law Review , pp. 1-46. Mujtaba, B. G. (2003, July 1). Ethical Implications of Employee Monitoring:What Leaders Should Consider. Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship . Peters, T. A. (1999). Computerized monitoring and online privacy. Jefferson, N.C: McFarland. Rurhsani, N. A. (2005, December). A Critical Research on Privacy Intrusion: The Accepatnce of Employee Monitoring System in Uitm Shah Alam. Research Thesis , pp. 1-70. Rustad, M., & Paulsson, S. R. (2005, November 2). Monitoring Employee E-Mail And Internet Usage:Avoiding The Omniscient Electronic Sweatshops:Insights From Europe. NELLCO Legal Scholarship Repository , pp. 1-102. Watt, J. R. (2009). Electronic workplace surveillance and employee privacy-A comparative analysis of privacy protection in Australia and the United States. Research Thesis , pp. 1-179. Read More