What is Internet Bureaucracy and its importance?
Internet bureaucracy is a set rules and procedures for internet use within an administration. Internet bureaucracy objective is regualte internet use so a company will run efficiently. Everyday employees on the job use the internet to maximize their work performance, but what about those that abuse the internet insufficiently that initially hurt the company? However, monitoring your employee comes with its pros and cons.
Why might Internet Bureacracy effect employee morale?
It is always important to remember that your employees are the base of the organization. Each employee has their own unique essence that they contribute toward the company's agenda. To receive the maximum contribution from these members, you must have their maximum participation; to have their maximum participation, their morale must be at its pinnacle. Morale of an employee is established by one’s sense of worth in the company and their sense of privacy and comfort. Internet bureaucracy has an effect on both of those characteristics that establish employee morale, rather those effects be positive or negative. Positive effects include increase of employee work productivity, less malware, spyware, virus infections, etc. that all lead to a decrease in financial burdens. With every pro characteristic, there is a negative one to follow along. It’s stated that potential employee morale can be in question due to the effects of company internet surveillance.
Below, is a set of guidelines and procedures that state current use of internet at GFI Software. In the disadvantages section, it states that employees have a feeling of being untrusted that lowers morale, and that studies show evidence of a positive correlation between work morale and productivity.
Conclusion
It is important to determine an equilibrium in which internet misuse at work is understood by your employees without them feeling offended. You do not want you employees to get the feeling that they are being watched over by the “big brother” of the company. So, is internet bureaucracy worth losing your employee’s moral at their job?
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Please post your thoughts and comments
I am an employer and I do believe that employees do need to have a certain amount of freedom. We go thru life being taught how to be independent and should not be watched over like we are in prison. I believe that if employers hire competent people that do their jobs and the outcome does not reflect otherwise then "so be it." I know that there is always an exception to the rule but as the employer you should deal with each situation on an individual bases and not punish the entire company because of a few "bad apples."
ReplyDeleteI am echoing a lot of what Kristi said, but I feel that because internet surveillance policy in the workplace is designed for the select few who abuse their workplace internet privileges, it becomes a balancing act in monitoring employees. Too strict a policy leads to injustice on behalf of the employees who do not abuse his/her privileges, and too lax of a policy gives those who do abuse his/her privileges more leeway. That's why it is my belief that companies should have flexible, moving policies designed to treat individuals as individuals rather than as just another employee. Of course, larger corporations are unable to accommodate the "treat each individual by his/herself" strategy. Therefore, it would be necessary to group individuals based on certain characteristics or past experiences. Just have some policy in place that doesn't give a select few (Kristi's "bad apples") more power/say over the rest of the employees.
ReplyDeleteI really think that It comes down to how important the information is. For example would you monitor your employees the more if they working in Nuclear power plant than in a small business. Of course the employees at the power plant should be watched more because their mistakes could be disastrous.
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