Using Official Resources for Non-Work Activities - Essay Example

Using official resources for non-work activities Misuse of official facilities and resources have the potential to affect employee-management relations in a firm. It is in fact, a long standing problem that HR manager have had to solve. It is a fact that managers have to cope with the problem by adopting more than one approach. In some cases retribution works to control and motivate the employee but in some cases retribution by the manager will result in employee dissatisfaction. The problem of misusing resources in the office assumes much greater significance within the office than seen from the outside, and is a multidimensional problem that requires much effort, diplomacy, and tact to be resolved. The issue is that such actions can lead to insurmountable problems involving sentiments of the employee, and his or her belief of ownership within the company. It is also difficult for managers to classify misuse because often the thin line between misuse and productive use of resources is separated only by a thin line. For example, an employee may use the department vehicle for a specific purpose and satisfy his personal requirements on the way. Can this be seen as misuse? Similarly, a management may not mind an employee using the company vehicle for personal needs as long as his performance is above par. Hence, it may be seen that classification of use and misuse of company resources in certain cases is arbitrary and dependent on the valued judgment of the management. However, there are some other official resources, the definition of misuse of which is clearly defined under the company law or a higher legal body. For example the use and misuse of email and the Internet can be clearly demarcated according the usage pattern of an employee. In fact, the employees browsing pattern and online behavior is enough to determine whether he has been using the resource in an irresponsible manner. The irresponsible use of email and the Internet can pose serious losses to the company while it can be a great productive tool if used responsibly. The improper use of the Internet can also lead to situations in which the company may lose important data and valuable intellectual rights. The Internet has over the years, evolved as a very cheap alternative to other forms of communication. Employees may often misuse the Internet and the email systems because they are not aware of the cumulative costs that may accrue because of the misuse. While many people are of the view that misuse encompasses only viewing objectionable material available on the net, there are many other ways in which the Internet may be misused within an office setting. The case of Tim Fraser as described in the case study is common in many offices these days. The debate of providing Internet access facilities to employees and their possible misuse of the resources that have been provided to them is an issue that managers have to solve. It brings forward many questions that may be considered under an HR perspective or even an ethical perspective. The advent of the Internet as a powerful information tool is what has made it a resource that needs to be rationed appropriately between employees. Since the Internet has so many functions and services, it is easy for people to misuse the resource at the office. Hence, managers need to ensure that the resource is maintained without misuse so as to allow people to use it effectively. In the case of Tim Fraser, it may be seen that he was plainly misusing a resource that belonged to the office where he was working. As personnel whose main job was data entry, Tim did not need to access the Internet and therefore the use of the Internet was beyond the scope of his official duties. It must be said that it was the leniency of the office that allowed him to visit sites and surf the Internet during his off hours. However, the situation changed when he started using office resources for his personal needs at time when he was supposed to work for the office. The management therefore decided to warn and later suspend him pending inquiry for his actions that breached appropriate office conduct. From the case study it may be seen that there are issues that could have been solved in a more appropriate manner. Considering Tim and his nature of work, we can deduce that his role was not appropriately designed in the office, which is a shortcoming of the people who designed the role in the office. It may be seen that Tims job mainly involved selling products and entering sales data into a database. It follows that the role does not need a full- fledged Internet connection. HR managers in the company could have either provided him with an email-only access so that he would be able to access his mails. Allowing Tim to operate all the features of the Internet was the first mistake that the company made. The second mistake that the company made was to allow Tim with full access to Internet resources without monitoring his actions on the Internet. The company could have either provided him with access to the internal network of the company and an external email link so that he could browse the company site for pertinent details and use the Internet to read and send mails for his own official purposes. The fact that the company did not monitor his actions was to provide him space for committing fraud. The company should have known that employees would misuse resources when they get it for free. In Tims case, he misused the resource because it was available for exploitation. If the resource could have been restricted, Tim would not have misused the resource. Therefore, a lack of proper planning in terms of the actual resource demand of the role is a major problem in the case study. Additionally, lack of resource planning within the organization, lack of a coherent Internet policy and lack of a will to implement modern technologies to manage resources are the shortcomings in the organization. The management had to address these issues so that the problem would not assume the size and scope of a severe HR issue that it is, as of now. The company could use tools that would automatically restrict Tim’s Internet usage. This would not need to involve a manager to control him and therefore the issue would have been solved right from where it started. Employee attitude It may be seen that Tim is a typical employee who is not concerned about, or is ignorant about the costs that the company has to bear to furnish resources to its employees. Employees such as Tim have a mindset that the company derives more profit from employees than what is normally due. Hence, they believe that they need to exploit the resources that the company provides to the maximum, in order to raise their personal profits. Most employees do not have the mindset that a responsible employee who believes in collective ownership must have. They need to understand that the resources provided by the company has been provided to enhance their productivity and that they need to use the resources judiciously to enhance productivity for the company. Employees fail to understand that the resources that are used by them carry a definite cost and that the overall costs can be reduced if they use the resources that are available to them judiciously. When such a thought of collective ownership does not exist, employees tend to use resources for their personal use, which in turn destroys value accrued to the company. With regard to the leadership at the company, it many be seen that Maxine Salters leadership is also not appropriate to deal with the situation. Even though Salter issued a prior warning, he could have handled the situation better if he was careful about dealing with employees. It may be said that Salter has over reacted in this case and chose to punish Tim with just one warning. Salter needs to understand that employees will not display discipline with just one warning and that he should have solved the issue differently in order to derive different results. Salter in the first place could have issued a second warning and should have consulted with the IT manager so that a full-fledged Internet connection could be denied to Tim. In addition, Tim could be relocated to another machine that did not have an Internet connection or a limited connection. This would have avoided the unnecessary issues that developed between employees in the company. If Tim was reinstated to another machine citing reasons such as better productivity, it would have sent a clear message that resources could not be misused in the office. On the other hand, it would have also allowed Tim to be managed for his violating company directions. Such a move would not have also allowed other employees to rebel against the management. (Murdick et al 1992). The management could have also embarked upon an information campaign that could explain how the misuse of the Internet could damage company resources. For example the management could highlight the fact that the misuse of the Internet could lead to many situations as described below. 1. Misuse of company property Even though the computer is provided to Tim Fraser, he needs to understand that the computer and the Internet are the properties of the company and that he cannot misuse it for personal needs. This policy has to be explained to all employees in the company and the management should have made it clear. Most employees feel that the computer, when it is availed under one’s custody in the office, can be used for personal purposes. This is a wrong notion and the management has to take steps to ensure that this misconception is removed. 2. Threat of viruses and hackers Employees who use unauthorized sites need to know that the use of the Internet to visit sites that are not authorized by the company is a violation of good office ethics. The use of the Internet to access various sites can lead to situations in which viruses are downloaded into the machine. This can in turn lead to serious loss of data that can cause further damages to the company. 3. Spam and throughput loss Corporate leaders agree to the fact that spam is one of the major threats that take a toll on the bandwidth usage of the company, and also could pose significant troubles in terms of security breach and virus infections (Andrew 1999). It has been seen that employees provided with unmonitored and in some cases, even monitored internet connections almost always visit sites that have obscene content. Such sites often track the user and his email ids, which is often sold to spammers for a price. Hence, it is very easy for the company id to go into the hands of professional spammers. (Andrew 1999). That the colleagues of Tim rebelled against the management is a clear sign that they do not have an idea about the dos and don’t in the company. That the company chose to warn them with a terse message and did not take any efforts to calm their sentiments shows bad management practices. The company had to make its rules and regulations clear about using resources and should have displayed it for everyone to see and understand. Conflict arises when people are confused or maintain wrong notions about the use of a resource. Management and employee attitude as evidenced by research In the UK, surveys have revealed that Internet misuse is proportional to the access rights that employees enjoy. For example, a survey revealed that in large companies in the UK, as much a 98% of the employees enjoyed Internet access. In these companies problems arising due to misuse of the Internet are as high as one incident per week, on an average. While only 69% of the employees had access to internet in medium companies in 2002, many of the medium companies today have given access rights to at least 89% of their employees: a trend that proves that access rights needs to be regulated to prevent misuse and subsequent problems for the company. One in five of all businesses reported misuse of the internet largely because of the use of personal mails or viewing objectionable sites (Malim 2004). In the US, the use of Internet is much higher. For example, independent research suggested that in the year 2002, the use of Internet in the office increased by 17% from 2001, and in 2002 alone, the number of employees using the Internet at the office was a staggering 46 million. Men spent more than 31 hours a month on the Internet, while women followed suit at 27 hours a month. In addition, research found that between 10 am and 12 PM, more than 86 percent of the total internet traffic originated from the offices in the USA (Saunders 2002). Some suggestions for effective management of online resources • The email and internet policy must be given similar importance as other issues such as conservation issues, sexual harassment policies, privacy issues etc. • Employees who have a lot of free time must be used for productive uses in the company. An Internet connection for such employees must be strictly restricted. Many companies have community programs and activities that are beneficial for the society that are often entrusted to employees whose contributions may not be immediately required by the firm. • The company also must use legal counsel and educate employees on issues about which they would have a wrong notion (Krasny & Meade 2001). Companies also need to have well set rules and regulations for dealing with activities that could reduce its efficiency and productivity. • The company must highlight the fact that employee behavior on the Internet is within the purview of official scrutiny. • The company must provide time slots for employees when they can access their personal mails and attend to their personal needs through the Internet. This would greatly reduce their tendency to use the net for personal needs during peak office hours. • A team that can solve each instance of violation of company policies subjectively has to be constituted. • The management must conduct periodic internet and email audits to ensure that the business practices and procedures followed by employees are in line with the existing official policy. (Fridman 2000). (Dirom 2001). The above points indicate that that companies need to be careful in allowing Internet access to employees. Rather than approaching the issue emotionally it needs to be given logical consideration. Since there is no hard and fast rule on how to treat misuse of office resources, managers have to be careful when they administer a solution to the problem so that it does not backfire on the management. While managing office resources, it is best to prevent misuse rather than trying to solve issues. Bibliography Andrew, Leonard., 1999. We’ve got mail- always. Newsweek. p. 59. CHRISTOPHER, Saunders (2002). Study: At-Work Internet Usage Increases. [online]. Clicks. Last accessed 16 November 2007 at: http://www.clickz.com/news/article.php/1462501 Dirom, P B., 2001. Employers Rights to Monitor Employee Email under United States Law. E-Law. Murdoch University Electronic Journal of Law. V. 8, N. 4. Dismissal following abuse of internet and email. (2007). [online]. Ace New Zealand payroll. 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