From the perspective of the employees, technology enables to accomplish goals in an efficient manner. For instance, videoconference systems connect employees who are oversea; email helps employees to communicate faster with almost all levels of the organization. In addition to that, because employees tend to spend more time at work then with their families, sometimes they use technology to resolve personal issues, such as pay bills, communicate with their family and friends, etc.
From the perspective of the organizations, in addition to all the benefits cited above, technology also enables to monitor employees, and assure certain order within the companies. According to page 265 of the textbook “electronic monitoring of employees’ work behavior is becoming more common in many sectors, and it takes several different forms.” Where I work, for instance, people only can have access to the building using a Smart Badge. Managers and Team Leads can control how many times employees enter or leave the building in one day. In addition to being a security measure, this is also a way to monitor employees.
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3 comments:
It is very surprising to hear Mangers and Team leads can control how many times employees enter or leave the building in one day. I always thought the smart badge is a security process and not related to any monitoring. A lot of companies normally block certain websites etc., so that employees do not waste time accessing them. My personal opinion is that it is a very silly practice and this is especially true for technology companies. Research shows that most people spend certain amount of time at work doing some personal things and companies should accept that design ways to track work done rather than trying to control things. If management can estimate how long it takes to do certain work and it is assigned to somebody why should they care how the person gets it done as long as it is done. All the above comments are mostly relevant people working with software etc.,
Electronic monitoring serves many purposes. One of the purpose is to protect employees. For example, using a badge prevents non employees to enter a building. About 4 years ago, I was working for a corporation and my wallet was stolen. Turned out, security managed to have a 10 minute video of the thief going through my personal items in my cube. Because the thief just looked like a regular employee with a badge they did not question his actions. Only when I reported that my wallet had been stolen that they looked at their tapes and gave the footage to the police. Electronic monitoring can be great for checking that employees do not look at unappropriate content on the web or for badges but still has ways to to to protect employees from thieves.
Cathy -- In the example about monitoring door usage, we have to be concerned that corporate leaders are monitoring the length of the break in the hopes that trapping them indoors will make them more productive. In this case, it forces employees to stay indoors but it will also foster resistance techniques such as longer restroom breaks, chatting with coworkers, and sitting in the office without working. Although surveillance can be used to protect employees, more times than not it is used to punish them. In my opinion, it doesn't foster a healthy relationship between the employees and employers.
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