Term Paper on "Technology to Define Ethical Guidelines"

Term Paper 5 pages (1526 words) Sources: 3 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Technology to Define Ethical Guidelines

The use of technologies to set and manage ethical standards is accelerating in companies globally, mainly as a result of the burgeoning growth of all forms of Internet communication including e-mail, voice mail, instant messaging, blogging and web surfing to the literally billions of websites online today. The use of technologies is having a direct impact on the cultures of companies today, with many cultures becoming much more transparent as a result. For many companies using technologies to monitor and at times enforce ethical standards and guidelines, they are finding that the span of control needs to be a flexible one. Many companies begin using technology more stringently to enforce ethical standards for Internet need to selectively allow exceptions so employees can remain productive. The pervasive growth of Acceptable Use Policies (AUP) is evidence of the fact that more companies than ever before are actively monitoring all Internet-related activity. According to the American Management Association (2005) 76% of all companies today are monitoring websites visited by their employees, with 65% using both filtering routers and software to block access to inappropriate sites. This is expected to grow significantly throughout the next five years as more and more companies are realizing that they are liable for inappropriate content being stored on employees' PCs, or the harassment lawsuits that are becoming more prevalent based on materials accessed and distributed from the Internet. At the intersection of how companies define their ethical standards and guidelines and technology is the emergence of the AUP.

Defining Acceptable Use Policies Based on Mission Statements

The foundational elements of AUP programs however must first be defined from the core mission statement and values of a company. Often the rapid growth of technologies for communicating with the outside world force companies to define their core mission statements to make them more aligned with the rapidity and scope of changes occurring in their external environments. A prime example of this would be a manufacturing company changing from a mission statement of being the leader in a specific region of the U.S. To being a global leader. This shift in mission statement has an immediate and significant impact on the definition of an AUP and the technologies used to measure, monitor, and modify direction based on the needs of customers and the alignment of internal resources to respond to them.

While the content and direction of an AUP varies significantly by each company given the variation in mission statements, all of them share a common set of attributes. These attributes include the following: security levels as they pertain to the use of company e-mail, Internet access, and instant messaging; Monitoring and filtering of both e-mail and website visits; a definition of privacy rights for employees in the company; definitions of acceptable and unacceptable personal use; clear definition of what constitutes a violation of the policy and corrective action, and a definition of misrepresentations of all electronic communications activities. These components are often sequenced into a launch strategy that puts the AUP into the context of the company's broader vision, mission and values. Ultimately the definition of an AUP however needs to be seen from the perspective of increasing available network bandwidth for more productive use of communications. In fact an effectively defined and administered AUP can drastically improve an organizations' bandwidth and free network resources for essential work-related activities according to Flynn & Hackett (2005).

AUPs and their influence on Company Culture

Clearly there is the need for adaptability of AUPs and a strong commitment on the part of companies using them to be flexible in their use and refinement is necessary if company cultures are to remain open and transparent. To use these monitoring technologies without the corresponding level of transparency is to invite distrust. According to the Management Association (2005) 84% of companies have established policies for monitoring e-mail traffic, 81% actively monitor Internet use, and 42% have policies for monitoring the use of instant messaging (IM) applications. Additionally, according to the American Management Association survey, 34% of companies actively monitor employees who use the Internet during company time to manage their own personal websites, 23% are tracking employees managing and writing their own blogs, and 20% are monitoring the use of personal blogs on company time.

With so many monitoring technologies in place the dilemma is one of providing the employee with enough privacy on the one hand, and enough visibility into just what is being monitored and what is being done with the information. The use of monitoring is not to enforce and through coercion make an AUP's potential to protect the company and also preserve Internet bandwidth accomplished, but rather to serve as a benchmark for system wide performance over time as behavior is changed for the positive in the entire employee community, according to Siau, Nah & Teng (2002). The focus then on AUPs then is to be a set of guidelines according to Welebir & Kleiner (2005). Forward-thinking companies are creating advisory boards to ensure their filtering and Internet blocking software and technologies are not impeding the employees' ability to do their jobs. These advisory councils are making a major difference in the level of job satisfaction and overall control employees have over their job, which is critical to retaining key employees. While AUPs are necessary today the managing of them to promote and not deter from trust and transparency is the most difficult part of the implementation of these technologies.

The Impact of Technologies on Human Resources' Role In Defining Culture

In addition to the role of technologies being used for the implementation of AUPs in organizations, there is a corresponding growth in the use of technologies to perform the human resource functions. The role of Software as a Service (SaaS) platforms have in fact made the availability of human resources applications employees need access to much more available, as the SaaS platform is centered on delivering applications directly through a web browse. In fact the functionality in terms of applications, the platform used for delivering the applications, and the span of control given to employees through web-enabled applications has a direct implication on the culture of an organization. The greater the level of self-governance and control an employee has, there is a correspondingly higher level of job satisfaction. Alstyne, Brynjolfsson and Madnick (1997) comment that "The very act of decentralizing decision-making - asking workers for their values and then taking them seriously - can have a positive effect on the change process by giving employees a sense of ownership and responsibility," and from previous work show the impact of theories of ownership on change management with this insight from their work Alstyne, Brynjolfsson and Madnick (1995): "Theories of ownership, for example, suggest that decentralizing data management can boost quality levels in systems users control themselves." As these researchers observe and many management analysts will also agree, the greater the level of individual control over information, especially of the highly personal kind that human resources has a direct implication on the level of long-term job satisfaction and security employees have. Simply put, using SaaS-based platforms to host human resources applications for the use of employees and managers can greatly contribute to a more transparent and trusting corporate culture. Conversely the opposite is also very true; the greater the level of secrecy and information control the higher the levels of mistrust, lack of ownership within the company, and a great sense of not being connected to the company. Clearly the growth in web-based applications and the more egalitarian approach to information sharing from a human resources perspective is a great advantage to companies using this technology to ensure high levels of employee customer satisfaction. It's good business to be transparent and hold onto employees, and also… READ MORE

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