COMPUTER ETHICS AT WORKPLACE

The paper first defines what are ethics and values and then discusses a major ethical issue of misuse of computers at work place by employees. It deals with the various ways of misusing computers at work and the threats that it causes to the employers reputation and profitability. Further it discusses the steps through which employers can deal with this serious issue. It also discusses the right and ethical way in which employers can monitor the online activities of their employees and their legal rights to do so. The sources of information used for this paper includes research papers and articles from internet.

The meaning of ethics is hard to understand as different people have different views about what ethics is. A lot of people think that being ethical has to do a lot with your personal feeling of what is right or wrong. But in reality it is not always true because many a times people tend to get deviated form what is ethical just because of their feelings.  Many argue that being ethical is same as doing what is acceptable to the society but many times people get deviated from ethics because of the standards of behavior of the society.

The question still remains that if the above mentioned arguments are not correct then what actually ethics is Ethics are those standards of right and wrong that conveys what man should do. It pertains to the human rights and advantages to the society and fair laws etc.  These standards are supported by well defined reasons.

There are many issues in the field of Information Technology. Some of which include privacy of information, violation of copy right laws and other cyber crimes like hacking. This paper aims to focus on one of the main issues of technological use and that is using computers for personal use at workplace. This has become a very serious problem due to increasing social networks.  Not only this but using official email id for personal use and visiting personal sites like shopping and gaming has also increased greatly. This is considered unethical because computer at workplace has been provided for official work therefore one should not misuse it.

Issue Statement  Misuse of computer at work place
Discussion
Internet is used widely for many businesses nowadays. Almost all the offices are equipped with computers and internet facilities are provided to the employees for official purpose in order to enhance the work environment. Internet has become a valuable tool nowadays but this valuable tool also has its negative side. It has been provided to increase productivity of the employees but many times it has been noticed that instead of increasing productivity it is actually decreasing the productivity of employees. This is because employees use internet for their personal use and their office work gets neglected.  Some unethical  practices observed in various organization involves using internet for purchasing offensive material on office email system, visiting sex sites, shopping sites, games sites, sending violent material etc.

Excessive use of social networking sites like face book is increasing to a greater extend at work place.  An It Company, Nucleus Research conducted a survey and found that companies that do not block the access of face book loose the productivity of their employees at an average of 1.5.  This is a huge drain in the over all productivity of the company.

Another major practice observed in various organizations is using office computer for job hunting. This is a highly unethical practice. Employees consider it as one of their rights but they should realize that job hunting is entirely a personal use and office computers cannot be used for this purpose.

Employees also use office computers for pornographic or racist purposes. This kind of act can damage the reputation of the organization to a greater extent in the business community. It not only affects the productivity of the employee but also causes a threat to the computer system of the company as the systems can be infected with viruses from the pornographic or racist websites.

Company emails are also being misused often by employees. This can cause a serious threat to the organization because companys can be liable for the misuse of company email by employees. Emails are misused in a number of ways which include harassment such as racial and sexual, violent threats, unauthorized sharing of company information and spreading viruses through email etc.Companies have all the rights fire those employees who are using computer for personal use and not only this but company can also file a civil or criminal charges against the employees. Therefore apart from being an unethical act, it can also result in salary loss, penalty charges and ultimately job loss.

In order to deal with this problem proper steps should be taken by the employers. Some of the ways to overcome these problems are discussed below

1. Enforce an internet usage policy at work place.
A well stated policy should be made keeping in mind that which employee need computer and to what extend they have to use so that the policy can well state the dos and donts for each employee and also the cost of not complying.  All this helps in raising the productivity of employees. It is of course not a complete solutions but it can prove to be an effective tool to minimize the misuse of internet because use become cautious when they know such policy exists in the organization.(Arora,n.d.).

2. Self Control
It is very important to make the employees part of the policy making procedure because their involvement in this procedure automatically bounds them to agree the guidelines. Employees have to have a self control in order to make policies effective. This self control can be achieved through various training sessions. Employers should make their employee aware that they are monitoring their actions so that they can have some self control over their activities. However excessive monitoring can prove to be negative in this whole procedure so employers should make very intelligent moves. (Arora, n.d.).

3. Software Tools
Softwares such as Online Activity Management should be used by employers to monitor and restrict the activities of employees. Such soft wares categorize the sites such as shopping site, gaming site etc and thus restricts the access according to the categories allowed by the employer.

4. Follow up Actions
After setting up the policy and training the employees and soft wares being installed, there is a need to review that if these policies are being implemented or not and what are the patterns that the soft ware depicts. If the software is showing a pattern of inappropriate use then it is the responsibility f the HR to take actions against it. These actions may include counseling of the employees, training sessions, revising the policies etc. (Internet Monitoring in the

Workplace A People Issue)
Right way to Monitor
As suggested above that employers need to monitor the online activities of their employees on regular basis but they should understand one thing that employees would never feel comfortable about this act of employers. Employees usually think that it is unethical for their employers to keep a check on their online activities as this may affect their privacy. They should be made aware that it is the legal right of all employers to monitor their employees actions whether it be their online activities or any other activities during work hours.

If the employees are well informed about the monitoring process then their personal use would automatically decrease and they would themselves secure their privacy. However employers should use the right way to monitor their employees so that they dont feel as if they are being spied.  Providing a list of dos and Donts also act as warning that they can protect their privacy themselves.

While monitoring employers should take care of not being partial to any employer whether it be a senior employee or a junior employee. Employers should understand that they are fighting against an unethical issue so they themselves cannot be unethical in any ways. Discrimination is itself an unethical issue therefore employees should treat all the employees equally during the monitoring process.

Conclusion
Technology on one side has great advantages for business owners but on the other hand there are a number of ethical issues regarding the use of computers at work. These issues are causing serious harms to the organizations. Employees use the computers for their personal use and thus a lot of their working hours are wasted. Low productivity not only harms the reputation and profitability of the company but also effects the overall commitment of the organization towards its customers. Apart from this organizations also become liable for the misconduct of employees through office computers because if they are using company emails for harassments or other abusive acts then the company becomes responsible. Computer misuse range from using social networking sites to viewing inappropriate material and sites and sending offensive emails. All this needs to be controlled at the workplace. Employers along with their employees should come up with steps to deal with this serious issue. A well stated policy should be made in which employees should also be included so that a better implementation is expected. Employers should make use of their rights to monitor the online activities of their employees and proper soft ware tools for monitoring online activities should be installed. Follow up actions should be taken by the employers so that the employees know that actions would be taken if they dont abide by the set rules and regulations. Training sessions help the most because many times employees are not aware of their small unethical acts. What the employee consider a right is sometimes an unethical act therefore it is important educate employees through proper trainings.

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