Research Paper - Final

6

Is Monitoring Employees' Online Behavior by Companies Ethical?

Chandler Rosas

Liberty University

BUSI 472-B02

Professor Obradovich

June 7, 2021

Annotated Bibliography

Ahmad, Z., Ong, T. S., Liew, T. H., & Norhashim, M. (2019). Security monitoring and information security assurance behaviour among employees: An empirical analysis. Information & Computer Security.

Ahmad et al. (2019) analyzed why employers closely monitored the online behaviors of their workers. According to the authors, the primary purpose of the practice is to determine any actions that the workers engaged in that could pose a risk to the company's information systems. The write-up indicated that cybercriminals could use mobile devices and numerous internet sites to install malware such as spyware and botnets that can be used to infiltrate critical information in the organization. Therefore, the authors concluded that analyzing the workers' online activities was a sound and ethical practice because it saved the organization from unnecessary losses.

Fusi, F., & Feeney, M. K. (2018). Electronic monitoring in public organizations: evidence from US local governments. Public Management Review, 20(10), 1465-1489.

Fusi and Feeney (2018) explore the varying strategies that employers use to monitor their workers' online activities. Some of the techniques they utilize include website tracking and social media monitoring. The authors argue that the process of monitoring the activities of employees is unethical because it violates the workers' entitlement to privacy and autonomy. Additionally, it disrupts the trust that the employees have in their employers. Although the process is used to ensure that there are no security breaches in the organization, it is unethical because of its negative implications on the workforce.

Gautam, O., & Agrawal, P. (2021). Employees' Attitudes and Perceptions Towards Electronic Monitoring Surveillance Affecting Employee Behavior: An Exploratory Evidence From the Airline Industry. In Critical Issues on Changing Dynamics in Employee Relations and Workforce Diversity (pp. 160-174). IGI Global.

The authors investigated the effectiveness of an emerging trend of the organization using EMS to control the online behavior of the workers. The article indicates that the process consisted of those in the supervisory level using different measures to scrutinize the workers' activities on the internet. The method includes putting in place CCTV cameras that can be used to peruse their activities. It also includes checking the correspondences they make through mail and the internet sites they visit during working hours to determine whether they are work-related. The authors posit that such measures helped the workers to focus on their assigned tasks and accomplish them promptly and effectively. Additionally, it helped in preventing unethical behaviors in the workplace, such as visiting indecent sites. Therefore, the authors argued that the process was morally appropriate because it instilled moral values and a commitment to perform tasks astutely.

Holt, M., Lang, B., & Sutton, S. G. (2017). Potential employees' ethical perceptions of active monitoring: The dark side of data analytics. Journal of Information Systems, 31(2), 107-124.

Holt et al. (2017) analyzed the impact of the current trend of employers scrutinizing the activities that their employees engaged in, including the activities that they undertook on the online platform. The authors indicate that monitoring their engagement helped improve their performance rates and the productivity of the organizations and reduce the expenses it incurred in its operations. However, the write-up also states that the practice was unethical because it failed to give the workers the privacy they desired while performing their day-to-day tasks. Additionally, the authors indicated that many workers viewed the process as an invasion of their privacy, an aspect that demoralized them. The study showed that many employees were demotivated by the practice, which caused them to fail to perform their assigned tasks competently.

Hurrell, S. A., Scholarios, D., & Richards, J. (2017). 'The kids are alert': Generation Y responses to employer use and monitoring of social networking sites. New Technology, Work and Employment, 32(1), 64-83.

Hurrell et al. (2017) investigated the pattern of employers scrutinizing the online mannerisms of their workers and its implications on the continuity of their workflow in the organization. The article indicated that the legality and the ethical underpinnings of the action are questionable. According to the contextual message in the text, the trend caused high levels of tension in the workers that disrupted their ability to concentrate fully on their assigned task and perform optimally. The write-up indicates that the workers who experienced monitoring their online activities, such as their engagements in networking sites, perceived the actions as a procedural justice violation against which stringent measures should be taken. Subsequently, the pattern was visualized as an unprecedented invasion of their private space, which is unacceptable.

Hu, S., & Hsu, C. (2019). Employees' workplace cyberloafing: based on the perspective of guanxi. In PACIS (p. 199).

The article explores cyberloafing as a negative trend that precipitates the step of monitoring workers' online activities. According to the authors, cyberloafing alludes to the process of misusing the time that should be used in undertaking professional tasks to browse the internet. The process leads to a decline in workers' performance because of the time wastage that reduces their productivity. The authors posit that monitoring the workers' online engagement is an ethical practice because it prevents them from spending time on activities that do not contribute to the organization's performance. It also prevents the workers from accessing sites that may cause security breaches.

Kaupins, G., & Coco, M. (2017). Human Resource Manager Perceptions of Reasons to Electronically Monitor or Not Monitor Employees. International Journal of Management and Human Resources, 5(1), 1-19.

The article outlines the different strategies that HR managers use when monitoring employees, including the location model of monitoring and the traditional approach. However, according to the write-up, the department leaders had significant difficulties deciding whether they should put in place the measures needed to evaluate the employees' online activities. Further, according to the authors, the workers who were familiar with the internet of things could devise strategies that prevented their online activities from being monitored; hence only the engagements of those who were not privy to such information were available for scrutiny. Therefore, it caused the process to become biased and flawed, hence impeding the purpose for which the practice ensures the security of the information systems and prevents the use of office hours to engage to network and engage in other activities unrelated to their assigned tasks.

McCord, M. N. (2018). Employees' Fairness Perceptions of Workplace Social Media Monitoring: Privacy Invasiveness, Smartphone Ownership, and Employee Work Period. Middle Tennessee State University

The write-up analyzes the practice of monitoring workers' online activities to determine the extent to which it can be visualized as unjust practices that violated their privacy. It also scrutinized whether the employees perceived the practice as a procedural injustice that they should protest. The authors indicated that many workers were dissatisfied when their employers monitored their online behaviors and considered the act to be unethical. The article further demonstrates that the practice negatively impacted workplaces where there was procedural monitoring of the workers' online activities because they experienced high employee turnover rates. The individuals left the workplaces to seek employment in other places with lesser restrictions. The resignation of employees caused the organization to incur additional expenses of recruiting and training new employees. They also suffered from low production rates due to the inconveniences.

Yost, A. B., Behrend, T. S., Howardson, G., Darrow, J. B., & Jensen, J. M. (2019). Reactance to electronic surveillance: a test of antecedents and outcomes. Journal of Business and Psychology, 34(1), 71-86.

Yost et al. (2019) noted the emerging trend of employers using electronic devices to monitor the activities of their workers, especially networking sites. The authors highlighted the fact that the trend caused an adverse reaction in the employees. Many of the workers considered it an invasion of their privacy because the employers had access to their private conversations unrelated to their work. Therefore, the practice lowered their commitment to the organizations they work for and reduced their productivity rates. The authors indicated that although the practice of monitoring the activities of the employees helped in detecting inappropriate online behavior in the workers, the unnecessary tension that it caused made the workplace environment unconducive for the workers; hence, it was unethical.