Reference no: EM132918612

They're Watching You!Time

Ironically, at a time that American managers are moving more towards more positive, employee-empowering approaches to motivation, technology has allowed for ever-closer monitoring of employee activities. In a recent article titled "Snooping Bosses,"  magazine pulled startling data from some recent studies: nine out of ten employers observe your electronic behavior; 76% of employers watch you surf the Web; 36% track content, keystrokes, and time spent at the keyboard; and 38% hire staff to sift through your email. The article also cites more extreme examples. A new product called HyGenius can detect restaurant employee handwashing and soap usage. A security firm in California installed specialized GPS systems in company cell phones to alert the boss if workers strayed from their territories or drove too fast. And at an Ohio firm called Citywatcher, some workers volunteered to have ID chips embedded in their arms.

 While these examples are somewhat extreme, technology consulting firm Gartner claims that 60% of companies will have implemented formal programs for monitoring external social media by 2015 (e.g. your personal Facebook and Twitter accounts). According to a senior VP of Gartner, "employers will continue to pursue greater visibility of social media conversations held by employees, customers and the general public when the topics are of interest to the corporation... Security organizations are beginning to see value in capturing and analyzing social media content, not just for internal security surveillance, but also to detect shifting threats that might affect the organization. These might include physical threats to facilities revealed through postings, or planned attacks by hacktivists."

Select 1 question and decide:

1. Do you believe managers are justified in monitoring employees?
2. Should managers always alert workers about monitoring?
3. At what point (if any) does management monitoring become unethical? 
4. Do you have a different perspective as a manager versus an employee?