In the workplace internet use is only authorized during company time if it is for conducting some official business. But the internet plays a highly significant role in our modern organizations since they serve as the principal medium of communication along with resource utility. Since we live in an age of technological dependence, we cannot understate the important service the internet provides to us daily. It is thus highly important that the employees of an organization understand the importance of the internet as a resource and efficiently utilize it for the betterment of the organization (De Cieri 2008).
Personal privacy of employees at workplaces has been under scrutiny for a long time. And in this age of information technology, privacy issues frequently involve the employers monitoring the internet usage and e-mails of their employees. People often think that with a personal user id or password they can protect their messages and data keeping them private. But this is not always the case. An organization can always capture and review the communications which take place through the organization’s network without telling the employees (De Cieri 2008). Many countries have laws that can forbid organizations from monitoring the personal data and emails of the employees and also the websites that the employees visit. In case the law is breached, the companies can also be charged by the employees since their privacy and secrecy of telecommunications and the post has been violated. However, if the company suspects that the employee is involved in a serious misuse of the internet, then the charges will not apply, making an exception to their data protection laws (Kuhn 2007).
Monitoring an employee’s personal usage of the internet by an organization should be forbidden except in cases of serious misuse of the internet. Personal information or employee data must be allowed to be ascertained or processed by the company only in case of distinctly established legal intentions necessary to carry out acceptable legal proceedings. For the study Mullins International would be taken into consideration. Alongside, it would be compared with the policies of Telstra, according to which as per media release, “Telstra staff will ….. on social networking sites” (Winterford 2009).
Concern about employees’ use of the internet during work hours
Organizations need to be concerned about their employee’s use of the internet during business and work hours. The main reason for this is if the internet usage is not regulated then it has been found that the productivity of the employees get hampered since they spend hours and hours surfing the internet such that it has reached epidemic levels. A business lecturer at the Griffith University, Dr Tino Fenech, has proved through his studies that practically almost half of the time the employees use the internet at their workplaces is for their private usage. Although very few people deliberately abuse their workplace system, the percentile is quite high. Thus organizations must be highly proactive when implementing their acceptable internet usage policies as the employees may unknowingly enter a site or open a mail that may contain worms and viruses whose effect is such that the entire system of the organization can be ruined. Dealing with private emails at workplaces can not only lead to the creation of a potential security hole but also causes high levels of productivity drain since almost 60% of the employees check their personal emails during business hours (Halcrow 2007). After the system has been contaminated a spyware or virus may allow unauthorized access by people outside of the company direct admittance to important passwords, account numbers and other significant files. Unmonitored internet use can also lead to the possibility of security breeches of the organization’s confidential information.
Another reason why organizations need to be concerned about their employees’ private usage of the internet during work hours is because the internet has turned out to be among the biggest distractions faced by the employees at offices. Employers do not need to snoop on what their employees are doing at all times or baby-sit them but rather prepare rules and guidelines to protect the organization and the employees from accessing materials on the internet which may be inappropriate for the workplace environment and could even result in legal consequences. (De Cieri 2008) Organizations, thus, need to monitor the internet usage of its employees so that, even though the employees can access the internet to acquire the information required by them, the company’s exposure to public relations nightmares and legal liabilities can be limited. Organizations are concerned about their employee’s use of the internet during business and work hours since they do not want to get entangled with any internet content that promotes illegal activities, hate or pornography which not only hampers the reputation of the company but also wastes a lot of their valuable time (Lieber 2007).
It has been found that in countries like the USA and UK more than 50% of the employees use internet social networking, streaming media and news sites, like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube, while at work. Furthermore, almost 80% of the employees in these countries feel that they should be allowed full access to these social networks while at work, for their personal usage. (Mantouvalou 2008)These figures prove that employees are certainly obsessed with social networking sites so much so that they even visit them while at work. Organizations cannot ban private use of internet at workplaces and thus, should introduce standard regulations and policies for acceptable use of the internet which must be followed by all. They should clarify whether the employees are allowed to use the internet for private purposes during business hours and what is permitted and to what extent. Some organizations are concerned about their employees’ private use of the internet during business hours since most of the employees are addicted to surfing and their excessive usage of certain sites, like auction sites, social network sites and personal e-mail accounts, has even lead to cyberslacking where employees shun away most of their work responsibilities since they cannot stop browsing the internet. This has thus, resulted in very low levels of productivity and has also caused a number of security issues that have resulted mainly since their internet usage and browsing activities were left unmonitored (Kuhn 2007).
Case study: Mullins International and Telstra’s management of Internet policy
The company I have chosen here is called Mullins International. Being a multinational company consisting of a large number of employees, Mullins International has a unique culture of its own. Their internet usage policy has been tailored keeping in mind the specific needs of all the employees who have to daily use the internet to do their work. Thus the employees must understand that access to the internet during business hours is a privilege given by the company which they should not misuse. Those employees who have been allowed this privilege must absolutely adhere to the guidelines and rules of the internet usage policy. Disciplinary actions will be taken against those who violate this policy by dishonoring the provisions that have been outlined here and the actions can even include termination. Furthermore those inappropriate usages of the internet which may involve any criminal offence can also lead to legal actions. Every employee having access to the internet through Mullins International’s network infrastructures are required to understand these guidelines and then acknowledge them by signing the document containing them. (Kuhn 2007). On the other hand, in Telstra, “Employees will need to gain ….. or journals of record such as Wikipedia.” (Winterford 2009)
This internet usage policy has been created by Mullins International as an advice to all her employees notifying them that the company is constantly monitoring their internet usage. The following guidelines have been set by the Human Resource Department of the company and it exhibits what is acceptable and what is not by the company. The employees can access the internet for their work related activities anytime of the day during their business hours. However, they must only access the internet for their personal usage during their lunch breaks, before and after the official working hours and for only 1 hour during the official working hours. Employees must go online only if they need to instead of keeping the internet connection on throughout the entire day.
The usage policies have been divided in to the following broad categories which are direct alignment with legal requirements: (Aguinis 2009).
Acceptable Use
Acceptable access to the internet is explicitly restricted to those activities which directly support the official business of Mullins International. However, in addition to using the network infrastructure for particular work related activities, the employees can use Mullins International’s Internet connection for research and other educational purposes. The employees are not allowed to download, copy or pirate electronic files and software using the company’s internet connection without any authorization. They must not send or post proprietary information, confidential materials or trade secrets to people outside the company who are not authorized to receive them. At all times the employees are required to observe licensing agreements. The employees must not engage themselves in any unauthorized transactions due to which Mullins International may have to pay a price or unwanted internet transmissions and services are started in its account. The employees of Mullins International are also not allowed to post or send any images or messages that could cause damage to the company’s reputation or image. As a result, it can be stated that there is no violation legal status (Aguinis 2009).
However, in case of Mullins International, the employees of Mullins International are also forbidden to post or send messages through the company’s internet connection which disparages the products and services of another organization. They are also forbidden from passing off their personal views as that of the Mullins International’s without proper authorization. If any employee of the company lands up on an objectionable site or opens an unacceptable e-mail by mistake, for example, by following an apparently relevant link required to perform work related activities, then he or she must immediately report to the Information Services Manager about the mishap so as to prevent any unnecessary censor. If an employee has further queries as to what constitutes acceptable internet usage, he or she may check with the supervisor for further guidance. The supervisor or management personal must confer the queries to the Information Services Manager to further clarify these guidelines (Mantouvalou 2008).
Inappropriate Use
The employees of Mullins International must not use the company’s network infrastructures and internet connection for any unlawful or illegal activities including the transmission of obscene, defrauding, violent, pornographic, threatening or otherwise unlawful and illegal materials. Further, unacceptable contents that the company employees should not read, send, write or receive through the company’s internet connection include, sexual images or comments, gender related comments, racial specific slurs, or any other images or comments which can somewhat offend other people on the basis of their sex, age, race, political or religious beliefs, sexual orientation, disability, national origin or other feature that have been protected by the law. The massaging or electronic mail services of Mullins International must be used by the employees only for conducting business for the company. These services must not be utilized for annoying, harassing or otherwise intimidating other people outside or inside of the company. No company personnel should access the internet for recreational or private activities that are not related to any company business during official working hours. The employees cannot use Mullins International’s internet connection for their political or commercial activities (Aguinis 2009).
The company’s user login is created for the sole purpose of being used by the employee it is meant for. Thus he or she cannot sell access of that login for their personal gain. The internet connection must not be utilized by or for executing any work for profit by using the company’s resources and services in a way that has not been authorized by Mullins International. None of the employees must try to either subvert or circumvent the security measures of Mullins International by using its own network resources and connection or through other systems that has been connected or is accessible by the internet. Employees having access to the internet must not use their explicit access for intercepting the network traffic to perform any illegal activities until and unless he or she is authorized to engage as a network administrator. The employees of the company are not authorized to use or create any illegal or unlawful copies having copyrights materials in them. They must not save such illegal copies on any of the company’s equipment or broadcast them through the company’s network (Ryan 2009).
Internet Etiquettes
Every employee of Mullins International must ensure that all business communications through the company’s messaging services or electronic mail is carried out in an absolute professional manner. Use of obscene or vulgar languages in the messages is completely prohibited by the company. The employees must seek explicit approval from the management personals before revealing any personal or private information during business hours using the company’s internet messaging system. It must be ensured by the company employees that only business related electronic mail messages are mailed to only those employees falling under a particular need to know basis. Employees must avoid sending electronic mail messages to large groups of people or sending a message having a large attachment to it due to security reasons. Since electronic mail messages cannot be guaranteed by the company to be private, every message that is transmitted by using the company’s network infrastructure and messaging system belongs to the company and thus, can be inspected by them anytime (Roy 2008).
Social Media
Before the employees of Mulins International are allowed to make any representations about the company on any social networking sites, like MySpace, Orkut or Facebook, microblogging sites, like Twitter, forums or blogs, like Whirlpool, file sharing sites, like YouTube or Flickr, or record journals at sites like Wikipedia, they must obtain authorization both from the company’s Public Policy Staff and their immediate superiors and also take part in the company’s social media training programs (Aguinis 2009).
Security
If any employee of Mullins International who has access to the internet identify or come across a potential or actual security problem, then he or she must immediately approach the company’s Information Systems Manager and confer the problem. The employees must not reveal their user id or account passwords to other people and not allow them to use their private accounts. (Ryan 2009) Likewise, employees must not use other people’s account if they come across their user id or password. Mullins International can at any time revoke the access of any employee to its network resources if the particular employee has been identified as a potential security risk or he or she has demonstrated a record of similar security problems. Since the technology, equipments and services used by the employees of Mullins International to access the internet belong solely to the company, the company has every right to observe how its employees are using the internet. They also have the right to retrieve and read any data that the employees may have written, sent or received through the internet connection or has stored on the company’s system. The employees of Mullins international must not try to break into an associate’s computer without the latter’s knowledge and if such a security breech occurs then every employee of the company must cooperate with and not refuse to a security investigation (Barlow 2007).
Penalties
Any employee who violates the terms of this policy that has been laid out by Mullins International will receive a written or verbal warning but in serious cases he or she can even loose his or hers network privileges, immediately, and can also be subjugated to other disciplinary actions that are deemed appropriate by the company. Furthermore his or hers engagement or terms of employment may also be terminated by Mullins International.
Mullins International’s effective internet usage policy has optimized their network bandwidth, immensely improved their network speed, increased employee productivity, has blocked important information from getting lost, stemmed the possibility of any legal lawsuits due to the inappropriate surfing habits of the employees, thus saving them a lot of time. Their clear and direct internet usage policy has completely stopped the employees from abusing network resources at their workplaces and has also protected the entire system from outside threats. The staff members have clearly understood what is expected of them and how much internet usage is acceptable. This internet policy has helped Mullins International by not only saving her precious time and company resources but also network bandwidth guaranteeing a pleasant working environment where both the company and the employees are safeguarded from any legal lawsuits (Aguinis 2009).
Company policy: Telstra’s 3 Rs of Social Media Engagement
The company maintains a rigid policy about the social media interaction of the employees. It accepts in its policy that social media is an important aspect of today’s environment. However, there are norms to be maintained if an employee of the company decides to discuss about Telstra. The company also identifies the tools and sites that are regarded as social media in its policy. It includes interactive web sites, Wikipedia or other online encyclopaedias, discussion boards or forums such as Google Groups, Yahoo! Groups or Whirlpool, weblogs like personal blogs or corporate blogs, micro-blogging sites such as Twitter, YouTube or Flickr type websites with photo sharing facilities and all social networks like Friendster, Bebo, MySpace and Facebook. (Telstra Business Principles and Company Policies, 2009).
The company policy or Telstra’s 3 Rs of Social Media Engagement is applicable when “you are authorised and accredited to represent Telstra on social media platforms and are using a social media platform for business purposes.” (Telstra Business Principles and Company Policies, 2009) It is also applicable when “you choose to make references to Telstra, its people, products or services, and/or other business related individuals or organisations when you are using a social media platform in a personal capacity.” (Telstra Business Principles and Company Policies, 2009).
It also details that while using social platform and using the company name one much clarify and detail personal company related details like job profile and identity that are only publicly available. Alongside, there are seven step responsibility measures that should be maintained where any employee of the company whose job responsibility is to represent the company must follow the social media engagements of the company which includes:
Respect – He or she must respect all the communities and individuals with whom they interact online, be polite towards other people’s opinions and maintain their dignity during heated debates and discussions, must always bind to the terms of the policy and try to conform to the behavioral and cultural norms that are used in a particular social media platform.
Responsibility – It is the responsibility of the employee to complete the social media training programs of Mullins International before representing the company. It is also required that the employee takes responsibility of all financial disclosures, privacy, copyright and other laws that are applicable while publishing contents on the social media sites.
Breach of these policies is severe. The policy mentions, “As is the case with all of Telstra’s company policies, if you do not comply with this Policy you may face disciplinary action under Telstra’s Performance Improvement and Conduct Management (PICM) process. This disciplinary action may involve a verbal or written warning or, in serious cases, termination of your employment or engagement with Telstra. Telstra may recover from you any costs incurred as a result of a breach of this Company Policy.” (Telstra Business Principles and Company Policies, 2009)
In the case of Telstra, the policy is rigid but even here there is no violation of employment laws and rights. This is because, in accordance to the policy, “The policy does not apply to personal use….nowwearetalking.com.au” (Winterford 2009). As a result, the company is well aligned with the employment laws laid down by the Australian Human Rights Commission which states, “These laws are:
- Racial Discrimination Act 1975
- Sex Discrimination Act 1984
- Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Act 1986
- Disability Discrimination Act 1992
- Age Discrimination Act 2004” (Humanrights 2009)
Thus, on legal ground Telstra evokes a rigid but fair legal policy about the issue of internet use. The policy of Telstra states, “As is the case with all of Telstra’s company policies…… termination of your employment or engagement with Telstra.” (Telstra Business Principles and Company Policies, 2009). Thus, it is seen that on legal ground the company is very strict but true to the authoritative laws laid down by the government.
Analysis of Mullins International’s achievement in terms of encouraging social responsibility of internet usage in the workplace
The organization discussed above has been trying to achieve its policy objectives regarding the encouragement of social responsibility of internet usage in the workplace. The policy makers are not bothered about what the employees do on the internet as long as their work and productivity does not get hampered. Every employee is responsible for themselves and as long as they do not take part in terrorist activities, online scams and watch pornography online, the policy makers are happy with them since they believe that paranoia and distrust will quickly kill the spirit of collaboration and the creative energy of the employees. The organization understands that as long as the employees get their work done and honor their commitments to their clients and associates, there can be no complains as to how they do their business. (Aguinis 2009) And also, in today’s fast paced life people cannot shut themselves off from the outer world since it is their experiences and curiosities that take a company forward. Thus, the organizations respect the sprit of the employees as long as they stick to the terms of the internet usage policy.
It would be a very self-defeating and impractical idea if any employee or organization decided to ban usage of internet at workplaces in order to solve their problems. Companies need to address their employee’s internet usage issues with immediacy and develop a responsible strategy so that the company’s precious resources do not get wasted. Mullins International has not blocked any social networking sites and neither has she banned her employees from using the internet. Banning and blocking does not solve any problems but rather alienates the workers from the managers since the technology they are using gets denigrated due to which they are unable to collaborate productively. Since the company’s internet usage policy includes a time controlled access to the internet, there are no moral or ethical problems involved and the guidelines suit both the policy makers and users of the internet. So that the employees of the organization can represent the company at social networking sites, microblogging sites, forums and blogs and file sharing sites, the company has organized social media training programs which aims at updating the knowledge of the trainees of the emerging and present social trends as well as the best evolving practices of social media. After an employee has been accredited, he or she can offer support and advice only in that domain in which he or she specializes in (Barlow 2007).
In conclusion, it should be stated that the organization has been to some extent successful in achieving their policy objectives. Earlier, there was almost no computer privacy due to which sometimes uncomfortable moments were also created. If the managers approached their team member’s desk, the latter would quickly turn off the monitor or with a few keystrokes close the page he or she was working on, which would either be that of Facebook or YouTube. This created an awkward moment between them. But after the organization issued their policy objectives regarding acceptable internet use, the employees no longer hide what they are doing on the internet. Sometimes, if one of them stumbled upon certain important application or cool content on the internet they take it on to them to share and discuss it with others, including their managers. However such explorations have been limited during the business hours. The employees have limited their internet surfing habits to a certain degree which is fairly reasonable and they no longer flip to a PowerPoint or Word document the moment their managers show up (Roy 2008).
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