Employee Privacy in the Electronic Workplace: Current Issues for IT Professionals

Today’s managers – drawing on the expertise of their IT professionals – can use technology for both effective monitoring of employee output and achieving unprecedented degrees of control over their workers. On the other hand Australian workers reportedly spend 3.6 hours per week using the Internet for personal reasons. Top Fortune 500 U.S companies have also reported losing billions of dollars because of ‘cyber-bludging’. Yet workplace surveillance – taken to extremes - may also entail important “control” issues. It may impact negatively on both the organisation’s communication climate and its culture, contribute to employees’ increased stress and decreased job dissatisfaction, and affect productivity. It may also create role ambiguity for the IT professional whose loyalties may be divided between management and co-workers. This interactive presentation identifies current trends in workplace privacy, highlights key communication and control issues, points to the current legal climate, addresses IT professionals’ areas of concern and –using a ‘control’ framework – suggests future research directions