Ethical Considerations Involved in Employers

Ethical Considerations Involved in Employers Using Cyber Surveillance to Monitor Their Employees

Means, Standard Deviations, Zero-Order Correlations, and Scale Reliabilities (N = 206)

Technology has brought many benefits to organizations around the globe. A truly globalized economy is fast becoming a reality, thanks to technology. However, with these benefits come new considerations and new challenges for businesses. One such challenge is the ethical considerations involved when an employer uses cyber surveillance to monitor their employees, especially the issue of invasion of privacy. Previous research has shown that this is the most significant concern employees have about monitoring of their activities. A survey of 206 subjects found that perceived invasion of privacy was diminished when employees understood the monitoring policy and had input on the development of the policy. In the end, these two items need to be taken into consideration when developing any cyber surveillance strategies.

Ethical Considerations Involved in Employers Using Cyber Surveillance to Monitor Their Employees

Background:

Technology has brought many benefits to organizations around the globe. A truly globalized economy is fast becoming a reality, thanks to technology. However, with these benefits come new considerations and new challenges for businesses. One such challenge is the ethical considerations involved when an employer uses cyber surveillance to monitor their employees.

Electronic performance monitoring and control systems can include methods of counting keystrokes, reading employee e-mails, tracking employee locations, monitoring of Internet usage, videotaping areas of the organization, recording phone conversations, and even peeking into an employee's computer screen or files (Alge, 2001). The most significant ethical concern, in all of these cases, is whether or not this surveillance is an invasion of the employee's privacy. Utilizing 206 subjects, a survey was given covering 13 items to determine how each individual perceived the invasion on their personal privacy. Of course, as technology and legislation regarding employee-monitoring changes, this limits the discussion to current trends.

Sample:

206 undergraduate management students from a large Midwestern university were recruited to work at an on-campus satellite office. The average age of the subjects was 21.6 years. and, 62% of the subjects were male (Alge, 2001).

Design and Procedure:

The experimental design, of the study, was a 2 (relevance) x 2 (participation) x 2 (consistency) between subjects factorial design. Subjects attended a 1-hour session at the on campus location, with a maximum of 3 students per session. Upon arrival, a confederate greeted the subjects, acting the part of a supervisor. The subjects were led to believe that the satellite office was a partnership between the university and the local business community, and functioned as part of a real organization (Alge, 2001).

The subjects were informed that their job would involve supporting the maintenance of the organization's home page on the Internet. In addition, they were asked to participate in a study to assess their experience at the position. They were each given a tour of the facilities, which included 3 individual offices with only a desk, chair and a computer. The subjects were then informed that each of the three computers in the offices were networked together and connected to the Internet and the main office of the organization. The participants were then given specific task instructions to complete (Alge, 2001).

The subjects were given a hard copy of Internet addresses they were to visit. They were instructed to sequentially visit each site on the list and verify that it could be reached. After 5 minutes of work, the subjects were given a 5-minute break, which was followed by another 5-minute work session. The subjects were instructed to not leave the office during their break. The hope was that during this period, given the lack of anything else to do, that the subject would begin in discretionary computer activity (Alge, 2001).

It was discovered that 96% of the workers used their computer during their first task break. Subsequently, after 15 minutes of working, the subjects were told that they were being electronically monitored, in order to evaluate their performance. Each subject was shown a demonstration on the site supervisor's workstation of the digital video playback of a hypothetical worker. After this demonstration, the manipulations were brought into play. Following these manipulations, the subjects were given a post-treatment questionnaire assessing invasion of privacy (Alge, 2001).

Manipulations:

The high-participation condition subjects were given the chance to provide input into the monitoring and evaluation process, while the low-participation subjects were not. Subjects in the high-relevance manipulation were shown a blank performance evaluation form and organizational policy indicating that only computer activity during the work periods was being monitored, while those of mixed-relevance were informed that their break periods were monitored and that it was against organizational policy to use the computers for personal use. and, lastly, the high-consistency subjects were told that their activities were being monitored and evaluated the same as all other workers, where the low-consistency subjects were told that there were a variety of ways that workers were being monitored and evaluated (Alge, 2001).

Measures:

7-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree), were used for the self-report scales. Scale reliabilities are reported in Table 1. Utilizing 13 items, invasion of privacy was measured with the study (Alge, 2001). (See Table 1)

Results:

The results of the study showed causal evidence that procedural variation of cyber surveillance affects perceived privacy invasion. Both of the relevance and participation manipulations reduced perceived invasion of privacy, whereas consistency did not (Alge, 2001).

Secondary Research:

Smith (1997) also investigated the ethical concerns of monitoring employees. She too noted that monitoring employees is now easier than ever, however if monitoring programs are not implemented correctly, they are received as an invasion on the employee's privacy. This perception is counterproductive, and as such, the organization needs to hold the highest of ethical standards when it comes to cyber-surveillance.

Weisband and Reinig (1995) note the interesting phenomenon that employees perceive electronic mail as private when, in fact, the opposite is the case. It is this false perception, they note that has led to the ethical controversies experienced by organizations, and the employees' feeling of invasion of their privacy. The authors note that to avoid this misunderstanding, e-mail policies must be specific about what monitoring is occurring and when.

Goldsborough (1999) echoes the research by Weisband and Reinig (1995). Although the Internet has made international communications easier than ever, these communications are not completely private. This is especially the case, he notes, when an employee utilized a company computer for e-mail, and as such should be prepared for company officials monitoring their e-mail messages.

Taras and Bennett (2003) concur with the previous research. Once upon a time, management closely monitored employees, physically. Today, technology has made it so this is now not always the case. As such, cyber surveillance has become evermore popular and the privacy fight has begun. Employees simply feel that monitoring their computer activities is an invasion of privacy and this undermines the management-employee relationship.