This
report is intended for the management to give them a clear view about
electronic monitoring, its advantages and disadvantages, how it should be used
and the ethical issues behind implementing it.
Introduction and Historical Information
about Management Monitoring
Employers
supervise and monitor employee’s to evaluate them and it’s the supervisor’s
responsibility to make sure that his staff are working inline with
organizations policy and achieving the organizations goals. This is not a new
concept or trend, in the last century Fredrick Taylor introduced the
“Scientific Management” and separation of control from the actual work, where
management decides and controls performance and ways to achieve it, while employees
do the work. Later after this concept, which was basically, fits factories and
production lines more than the new working environments. There are two sides
for the coin in this trend, for the employee it is an attack to his privacy and
from the employee point of view it’s an efficiency tool (US Congress, 1987).
Considering
McGregor’s “conventional conception of management’s task” or theory X as he
named it, where the management needs to control and make use of the human’s
energy to best suit the organization, and at the same time it’s responsible to
organize all elements to ensure productive organization, as well in his theory
people need to be motivated, controlled, and as a result their doings to fit
the organizations needs, he thinks that because people by nature are lazy and
tend to challenge organization’s needs, the need to be guided. (McGregor, 1954)
Monitoring for employees will give the management a better view on how their
employee’s are spending their time, discovering their weaknesses and guide them
to what best suits the organization. Where in theory Y McGregor’s that is more
appropriate with our time and suits more the modern working environment, in
this theory he assumes that the management is responsible for facilitating all
elements needed to build a productive environment in terms of tools, people and
money to best suit beneficial incomes for the organization, in addition to that
and contrast with his X theory he thinks that people are not lazy by nature nor
standing against organization’s needs, but became like that due to working
experience with different organizations, people motivation, directing them to
fulfill organizational needs do exist in people but needs direction from
management to make people recognize this potential in them and develop it, last
he thinks that the main and most crucial task for management is to position
organizational environment and ways to operate so that people can achieve their
objects and manages to direct their energies to fulfill organizational objectives
and goals (McGregor, 1954). As I mentioned earlier it’s more realistic to
follow theory Y than theory X or Taylor’s Scientific Management theory in
todays working environment, as people feel resistant to be controlled and
prefer to be treated as adults who can control them selves (McGregor, 1954).
Those
theories and specially Taylor’s because adopted by offices and not only
factories brought new trend of monitoring to offices and recording for staff
working hours and well by connecting machines to calculate keystrokes types in
typewriters, which proved to be a useful tool to encourage employees and
increate performance (McGregor, 1954).
Advantages and Disadvantages
As
technology advanced and the use of the computerized systems, whether PC,
laptop, Smart phone, IP phones and a lot more, it became more easy and more
convenient to monitor users electronically instead of the manager keeps
checking on his employees which might invade their right to privacy. As
monitoring tools can run in the background and monitor employees web browsing
habits, if its work related or not, monitoring and recording phone calls
between customers and employees or employees and employees and a lot more; it
would be more fair than managerial direct monitoring. Those automated tools
don’t discriminate, and provides human-friendly reports, which can be used to
evaluate performance, address customer needs or employees working behavior. It
can help in developing employee’s skills in certain area, for example and
employee who is digital immigrant, and proved by the tool that he lacks for
skills in using the computer system can be sent into training to help
developing his skills. As well, it differentiates well performers than
non-performers or less, it helps management to estimate cost, plan and direct
employees to organizations objectives if need be.
Some
disadvantages may be recorded against the electronic monitoring or monitoring
of employees in general, it may be considered as a breach to employees privacy,
or stress as being watched and monitored all the time, as well the feeling that
this monitoring criteria is not really suitable and not fair, as well employee
might feel like machines that they have to work without stopping or they will
be evaluated as non performers.
Ethical Issues and Stakeholders
Electronic
monitoring and employee surveillance as other new technology trends can be
ethical or unethical depends on the way it is used, the purpose of it and where
is it used. If the employees are notified about such monitoring it is
considered ethical based as no law prevents the employer from monitoring office
premises. Main ethical issues cited regarding electronic monitoring are the
effect of this system on the employee’s health, which is caused by stress, and
privacy breach. Some employees believe they have the right to check personal
emails during working hours and make personal phone calls, on the other hand
for the employer it might cost him money and time if employees use work equipment
and time in personal staff. On the other hand, employees believe that emails
sent to them should be considered private and not being read by someone else,
but for the employer it’s the organizations email system and organizations equipment
is used which gives him the right to monitor it.
Stakeholders
are the employee, employer and the government as it sets the law, which permits
or prohibits and controls level of monitoring to be allowed, its effects on
employees appraisal and career.
Recommendations
We
need to identify the tasks that will be covered under electronic monitoring,
create clear Internet and communications usage policy, with guidelines on how
to follow it, as well clear punishment like termination for abuse of
organizations resources based on the policy. Such policy should minimize or
limit the number of employees refusing to obey employer because it will make
the picture clear for them about what is ethical and what is not. On the other
hand, employee training on communication proper usage to fit organizations
needs and awareness on ethical and unethical behavior should be considered. As
well, business code of ethics should be developed.
Mainly
the policy should cover:
·
Use of business email on personal communication
is prohibited.
·
Use of organizations computers should be limited
to work related maters and not to install or download personal software on it.
·
Personal phone-calls and other way of
communication should be done during break hours.
·
Employees should be informed by writing that
Electronic monitoring is happening and that the results of such monitoring if
affecting employee performance will be shared with the employee to guide,
assist and train him how to best use organizational resources to fulfill
employer’s requirements.
References:
Mallo,
J., Nordstrom, C. R., Bartels, L. K. and Traxler, A. (2007), The Effect of Age
and Task Difficulty. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 20: 49–63.
doi: 10.1111/j.1937-8327.2007.tb00431.x [Online], Available from: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.ezproxy.liv.ac.uk/doi/10.1111/j.1937-8327.2007.tb00431.x/pdf
(Accessed
15 March 2011)
McGregor,
D. (1954) ‘The Human Side of Enterprise’, [Online], Available from:
http://resource.udallas.edu/132/humansideofenterprise.pdf
(Accessed 14 March 2011)
Panina,
D. and Aiello, J. (2005), ‘Acceptance of electronic monitoring and its
consequences in different cultural contexts: A conceptual model’ doi:10.1016/j.intman.2005.03.009
[Online], Available from: http://www.sciencedirect.com.ezproxy.liv.ac.uk/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VPF-4GD4STM-1&_user=822084&_coverDate=06%2F30%2F2005&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=gateway&_origin=gateway&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000044499&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=822084&md5=21bd1ac6e3a733408a75b75f4e485662&searchtype=a
(Accessed
15 March 2011)
Taylor,
R. (2007), ‘ETHICAL DIMENSIONS OF ELECTRONIC MONITORING OF EMPLOYEES: A
CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE’ ASBBS E-Journal, Volume 3, No. 1, 2007 [Online],
Available from:
(Accessed
15 March 2011)
U.S.
Congress, Office of Technology Assessment. (1987). ‘The electronic supervisor:
New technology, new tensions’. (OTA-CIT-333). Washington, DC, U.S. Government
Printing Office. [Online], Available from:
http://www.fas.org/ota/reports/8708.pdf
(Accessed 14 March 2011)
No comments:
Post a Comment