Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
Workplace surveillance typically involves any of a number of different methods of monitoring or tracking employees, including email monitoring, location tracking, biometrics and covert surveillance (Ball, 2010). Organizations arguing in favor of workplace surveillance typically do so for the purpose of safeguarding assets, but this surveillance has consequences for both employees and employers. Certainly, employee perceptions of their employer will be affected by the degree of and types of surveillance. There are privacy issues at play as well. Creativity and motivation are among the task elements that affected negatively by high levels of surveillance (Ball, 2010). Yet, as the level of workplace surveillance increases, there are unresolved legal issues surrounding the practice, which combined with the high level of controversy will mediate the future directions of such surveillance.
The legal framework for workplace surveillance is patchwork, leading to confusion on certain issues. At the federal level, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act rules that an employer-owned computer is the property of the employer and therefore may be subject to monitoring, and this includes keystrokes, Internet use and any files downloaded or stored on the computer (Worktime,2015). The only protections given to employees under this law are that employers...
a personal email that does not come through the corporate email client). Otherwise, much of the legal environment exists at the state level, and there can be significant variations from one state to another in this regard (SRHM.org, 2015).
The main point of controversy with these laws is employee privacy. Introna (2003) argues that workplace surveillance in unethical. The basis for his argument is that workplace surveillance first makes the other to be faceless and nameless -- those who are conducting the surveillance are unknown to and distant from the people being surveyed. This alone raises ethical issues, moreover, there are ethical issues surrounding what such faceless others will do with the information that they have gathered.
It is not just libertarians and privacy advocates who question some of the surveillance techniques and the level to which they are sometimes applied in the workplace. Employee perceptions of a high surveillance environment are usually negative -- good people are turned off from working at a company that would disrespect them on such a basic human level. Companies that seek to establish surveillance during onboarding are viewed as coercive and controlling, and that is right at the beginning of the employer-employee…
References
Ball, K. (2010). Workplace surveillance: An overview. Labor History. Vol. 51 (1) 87-106
Worktime (2015). USA employee monitoring laws: What can and can't employers do in the workplace? Worktime.com. Retrieved November 28, 2015 from http://www.worktime.com/usa-employee-monitoring-laws-what-can-and-cant-employers-do-in-the-workplace/
SHRM.org (2015). Workplace monitoring laws. SHRM.org. Retrieved November 28, 2015 from https://www.shrm.org/legalissues/stateandlocalresources/stateandlocalstatutesandregulations/documents/state%20surveillance%20and%20monitoring%20laws.pdf
Introna, L. (2003). Opinion: Workplace surveillance is unethical and unfair. Surveillance & Society. Vol. 1 (2) 210-216.
Studies done by the United States Defense Department have discovered the technology to be correct only fifty-four percent of the time. Furthermore, the study found that the systems could easily be compromised by alterations in weight, hair color, sunglasses, and even weather and lighting alterations (McCullagh & Zarate, 2002). Additionally, behavioral recognition software can often incorrectly identify movements, such as tree branches, and follow those objects instead of actual
Employee Privacy Torts History of Employee Privacy Changing Trends of Employee Privacy Impact of Innovative Technology on Employee Privacy Role of Social Media towards Employee Privacy Impact of Changing Community/Society on Employee Privacy Adaptation to the new Environment pertaining to Employee Privacy Employee Monitoring and Surveillance Laws and Employer Policies for Text Messaging and Social Media Electronic Communication Privacy Act Monitoring of Employee Conversations over Telephone & Email Recommendations for creating Effective Policies Future Implications of Employee Privacy As years have passed and
Internet: Privacy for High School Students An Analysis of Privacy Issues and High School Students in the United States Today In the Age of Information, the issue of invasion of privacy continues to dominate the headlines. More and more people, it seems, are becoming victims of identity theft, one of the major forms of privacy invasion, and personal information on just about everyone in the world is available at the click of
Air traffic has continued to increase and it now constitutes a considerable proportion of the travelling public. The amount of long-hour flights has increased significantly. Based on the International Civil Aviation authority, air traffic can be anticipated to double amid till 2020. Airline travel, especially over longer distances, makes air travelers vulnerable to numerous facets that will impact their health and well-being. Particularly, the speed with which influenza spreads and
These strategies should focus on parolees' risks and need and conducted in a way that would motivate change. Aware of these realities, States continue to innovate and evolve reentry strategies towards this end (Yahner et al.). The BRI was a particularly ambitious correctional program in that it targeted the most difficult offenders for rehabilitation and incorporation into the community. These are young offenders with violent criminal histories, who are likeliest
In places such as Richmond, that have an already checkered past in their relationship with the public, the public perception is further damaged by the rise in crime. This is true of the police department in the rest of the country as well. The rise in crime affects the perception of the public with regard to the police department, and not the government. In actions such as racism and