A system administrator who is in charge of the technical support and smooth running of the system in and organization has been told by a company director that there are concerns about some members of staff using their work computers for non-work related activities, such as using the internet for social networking and sending emails. They have also heard rumors that some people are downloading music to listen to whilst at their work.
The director wants to avoid being questioned at Board level, and ask the administrator to look into the matter without telling anyone. Therefore, this essay is written to identify, what could the system administrator do, and what are the ethical, legal and social issues to be considered?
ISSUES AT WORK
In this new epoch people use internet because it contains a treasure trove of information on all conceivable subjects. It has many essential and supplementary uses. There are at least four major concerns in allowing employee access to the Internet: productivity, security, reputation, and liability. Especially in a working place employees use internet for working purposes and as well as spending more time on there personal uses. The management of the company has heard some rumors saying that the employees spend more time on other activities in the internet apart from there work as a consequent result the work is being delayed and it is a detriment for the company. In these problems we have to discuss the ethical, legal, social issues.
Due to these pitfalls the board level has requested the administrator to take action without the employees' knowledge. The administrator gives some options to the board level as they have to think in different perspectives to overcome this problem. There are three basic protective strategies and just mentioned the solutions.
Develop a company policy on Internet access and the usage
Monitor usage of internet with monitoring software
Block access to prohibited sites with blocking software
Here are the explanations how the solutions work. A company should develop and circulate a company policy on internet access and usage so that it alerts the employees what to use so and 4565678hat is prohibited in the company premises.
A more intrusive step is to install monitoring software that allows to monitor the sites the employees surf and trying to visit and there are options where you can create reports for more convenient.
The most effective step is to block access to objectionable sites. In many blocking software provides a list of objectionable sites and also allowed to add sites which should be blocked and which is not in the list.
The main reason of doing all this is because it is detriment to the company in many ways such as.
Delay in work
The company reputation will be spoiled because the website can collect identifying information from the visitor even without a formal registration
When downloading copyright or pirated software then also it affects the company reputation.
Can inadvertently download viruses and other Trojan horses which would harm the company in many ways.
At the same time the board of level has to consider the employees attitudes or willing because employees don't want to be spied or be watched for every single thing. This is essential conflict on the workplace monitoring. Recently they have found out that by monitoring the employees are motivated by concern over court case and the increasing role that electronic evidence plays in lawsuits and government agency investigations.
So due to these problems the company has to discuss and consider about the ethical, legal, social issues that affects the company.
First when considering in the perspective of the ethical issues employees spending more time on there private usage which reduce the efficiency and it is detriment and will cause a dent to the company because they cant achieve there goals and meet there targets at a given time which is a drawback specially to in computerized company. And time is money for any business and spending inordinate amounts of time surfing the Internet would not be considered good for business. "For example one owner of a telecom company forbade his employees to contact each other by email even on work related business due to the incredible amount of time wasted. He insisted they either speak in person or use the telephone, as the time taken to formulate email messages and reply to these was not time effective" (JC Campbell).
The diagram below shown is just a chart to show how much time the employees waste per day and the top time wasting industries.
Top Time-Wasting Industries
Industries
Time-Wasted(a)
1. Insurance
2.5 hrs/day
2. Public Sector (Non-Education)
2.4 hrs/day
3. Research & Development
2.3 hrs/day
4. Education
2.2 hrs/day
5. Software & Internet
2.2 hrs/day
6. Specialized Trades
2.1 hrs/day
7. Automotive (Non-Manufacturing)
2.1 hrs/day
8. Retail
2.1 hrs/day
9. Marketing & Communications
2.0 hrs/day
10. Finance & Banking
1.8 hrs/day
(DULLES, Va. & NEEDHAM, Mass., July 13, 2005 (www.SmartPros.com))
Then focal point in a company or any organization is the customer satisfaction, by not finishing the contract or not giving them a good quality of the product may make the customers unhappy and there are chances to leave our company and join the substitute or the competitors as a result of not concentrating on the work. The customer's trust on the company will be broken.
"Ethical Principles of Psychologists and code of conduct (American Psychological association 1992), the Canadian code of conduct for research Involving Humans (Tri-Council Working Group, 1996)"( Yitzchak M. Binik, Kenneth Mah, Sara Kiesler Vol. 36, 1999 ). These principles of these famous people say that it can ethically spoil the company background and the society in many ways as employees download many unwanted materials.
"According to Kants Moral Philosophy he says that every individual has there own rules it has become popular in our times, mainly as a viable alternative to utilitarianism. Since utilitarian theory downplays the moral significance of such important elements as respect, human dignity, individual rights, and minority protection, an alternative moral theory might b needed."(kants moral theory) This principle even suits the company ethical problems from the employees' side due to privacy reasons.
The next issue we have to consider is about the legal issues, when the company fails to complete the orders or customers work in correct time it will cause many problems such as the customers can file case or take legal action against the company and the reputation of the company will go down.
Another main issue which will spoil the image of the company is that when the employees login into specific unwanted sites during working hours our company name will be tracked by using many software's and in the site itself there are places to see how many people have surf the site and from where these are the affects to the company.
Some employees download pirated software's or unlicensed software which is a legal concern in the company because if customers get to know about these issues the customer range will reduce. When users download and install software from the internet, they create a legal risk. Software piracy is illegal. If an organization uses illegal copies of software, it may face a civil suit and company directors risk criminal penalties. "In this articles it explains that there should be a license to download software otherwise it is not a legal copy" ( Nicolas Malevé, November 2007)
After completing the legal issues we have to consider about the social issues normally Reputation risk and social networking can create opportunities for employees to leak confidential information or spread damaging rumors online. Bad behavior by a single employee can reflect on the reputation of the whole organization.
But at the same time we have consider about the employees mentally because they wont like to be spied every drop they are doing as there privacy wont be there. The employees trust and freedom will be gone and may cause grudge towards the company. The employees will be put under pressure by their work these may lead the employees to break the code of conduct of the company and can affect the company with many social issues.
Due to the board level and employees misunderstanding the company may fall down in a vast area which will reduce the efficiency of the work and increasing the prize of the product to meet the break even point and gain some profit to the company. The customers may face many problems in buying products from the company and may choose the substitute or a different product which has a high quality a good market and less price.
The social issues we have to consider here is the same as the employee's problem I mentioned in the legal issues because if the customers think they are not happy with the work they can strike or file a case so it is a legal action but privacy and the other points are social problems.
As a conclusion if the employees and the management decide to corporate with each other they can satisfy the customers and increase the customers by attracting them by bringing up the status of the company and keeping up the name .
