Employee Privacy Essay

Failure by employees to adhere to piece back ethics peculiarly in the advent of Internet has direct organizations to engage employee- observe activities. Where employees adhere to the professional jurisprudence of conduct less challenges and problems in call of bad conduct, s dejectiondals and conflicts atomic number 18 avoided in the cut back clothe. Security and seclusion have live synonymous with Internet use. R atomic number 18ly can any one think of doing online proceeding without first worrying slightly the agree issues of bail, and privacy.Internet security is particularly a tricky and complex phenomenon because of the lack of catholicity in implementation of various security policies and acts. Secondly, the advent of Internet as good as its ever-rising relevancy and popularity has caught many stakeholders including governments, software program companies as well as restrictive agencies by surprise. At first, few would believe that Internet could be used nega tively by employees. However, this has in recent clock become a reality and employee twist of office resources can authoritatively be termed as one of the most wicked crimes facing organizations today.Finkin, 1995. Professionalism is the practical behavior portrayed in a place by two the employer and employee. Professionalism entails a number of characteristics identify of which are the remediate focus towards the job, plus attitude and being goal oriented. Whether employee supervise is professional behavior or non is very oft debatable but definitely it is un seemly for an employer to jump into in secret observe and surveying employees in the work place without their consent.Once employees nonice that, they are under management they are plausibly to become irritated and betrayed. As much as employers have a right to take all measures possible to cut down be of production peculiarly by minimizing wastage, this should be apply up to agreeable limits without infrin ging on person-to-person emancipation. Professionalism involves queer of interest in the job, good parley skills, work etiquette, accountability and commitment to teamwork.If both the employer and employee adhere to professional conduct in their respective roles, incidences, which warrant surveillance, would significantly drop. In some instances, some employers rush into surveillance at the slightest provocation and sometimes the business organization is non warranted at all. Majority of the organizations are rushing to install monitoring systems not because of security threats but rather because of technical evolution. S. Elizabeth, 1998.Their argument is valid bearing in mind that many organizations are bewail to embrace sophisticated breeding applied science for the sake of public relations as opposed to warranted situations. Revolution in information engineering science has impacted on professionalism in that employers are more likely to absolve the professional aspe ct of a determination in favor of technological advantage, which comes with the winsome of decision. Interestingly, many managers do not involve out studies to establish the employees attitudes towards such a decision before making those decisions. Privacy.Privacy can be defined as the personal interests touching on the privates right to personal space, whereby freedom from interference is guaranteed by the state or the organizations one works for. Hunt, 1984. Privacy of personal communication in the work place is jeopardized when an individuals communications is inured with, therefore curtailing the freedom of communication of the individual. The most common way this occurs in organizations is whereby the employer or management tracks and accesses employee communication otherwise not meant or directed to them.This occurs when employers use fresh engine room such as electronic surveillance to hack employees private information. A recent business survey on the extent of electr onic surveillance in work places in US found a growing trend of employers in many corporate organizations using modern technologies to hack employees private information. This is alarming curiously when it is coming in the wake of employee concerns about the advent of one being surveilled against their appetite all day long.The prospect of host and sharing information amongst departments in organizations has do it easy to conduct business musical composition at the same time penetrative cost of communication dramatically. According to present-day(prenominal) research findings, it is approximated that most companies save up to 20 percent of operational costs by include modern technology. Finkin,1995. This is a significant amount of revenue considering that businesses live to make profits by embracing effective and efficient technology.This leaves no discredit that effort to embrace information technology as long as it is applied in the right way is welcome. patronage the r anging debate on the right of employees to privacy, the employers reckon to justify their action and every criterion of it. Before the advent of surveillance technology in the local organizations, the existence of employee larceny especially in retail companies and in some key departments in organizations was a common occurrence. Finkin, 1995.Employers monitor employees for trinity major(ip) reasons one legal liability, security, and productivity. All the three reasons put out front seem to be justifiable reasons but there is a need for legislation to govern the do work for such legal framework lacks in most of the organizations. Majority of the big organizations in USA have adopted monitoring as way of ensuring security and not mainly for surveillance of employees. The latter is not a priority but employers raise it as a good balk to those employees who may want to misuse caller-up property.Although the main purpose put forward for the introduction of the monitoring system was for the purposes of find crime, it is worthy mentioning that employers do use certainty garnered from the cctvs in apprehending workers for gross misconduct in the work place. McWhirter, 1989. In conclusion, it is not fair for an employee to oppose being monitored while he/she continues to act unprofessionally in the workplace. No employer allow for risk their business at the cost of employee privacy. It is therefore worthy noting that, depending on the situation, monitoring employees can be justified as long as it makes business sense.