Chapter 6: Monitoring Employees on Networks: Unethical or Good Business?

1) Should managers monitor employee e-mail and Internet usage? Why or why not?

Answer:

Managers can monitor employee e-mail and Internet because a research found about 77 percent of workers with Facebook account use them during work hours. Moreover average employee wastes approximately 30 percent of the workday on-work-related Web browsing, while 90 percent of employee receive or send personal e-mail at work. This all refer that effect the company which is:

• Create serious business problem.
• Nonstop interruptions that divert employee attention from the job task they are supposed to be performing.
• The managers worry about the loss of time and employee productivity when employee is focusing on personal rather than company business.
• Too much time on personal business translates into lost revenue.
• The company networks is too high, it also clog the company’s network so that legitimate business work cannot be performed.
• The employee can be send confidential or potentially embarrassing company e-mail to outsiders

2) Describe an effective e-mail and Web use policy for a company

Answer

• Effective e-mail and Web use policy is can lay out specific procedures and accountabilities, identifying which users and organizational units can share information, where information can be distributed , and who is responsible for updating and maintaining the information.
• The company can use software from Spector Soft Corporation that record all Web site employee visit, time spend at each site and all e-mail send.
• The company also can use e-mail monitoring software flags certain type of messages and keywords within messages for further investigation.
• Company use policy that includes explicit ground rules that state, by position or level, under what circumstance employee can use company facilities foe e-mail, blogging, or Web surfing.

3) Should managers inform employees that their Web behavior is being monitored? Or should mangers monitor secretly? Why or why not?

Answer:

The managers should inform the employees that their uses of the web is monitored. This is because:

• To avoid employees using their personal business
• Employees can concentrate during their work hours. 
• Improve company productivity
• Let employees know exactly where the company stands.
• Monitoring might help pinpoint the user who was actually logged on rather than the one assumed to be the cause of the problem.