Electronic Monitoring in work place

ASSIGNMENT 06 BU490 Business Ethics Directions: Unless otherwise stated, answer in complete sentences, and be sure to use correct English spelling and grammar. Sources must be cited in APA format. Your response should be a minimum of one (1) single-spaced page to a maximum of two (2) pages in length; refer to the "Assignment Format" page for specific format requirements. Discuss the employer and employee position on electronic monitoring at the workplace. This is the end of Assignment 06. Example is below, but don't copy it! In this paper, we will discuss about the process of electronic monitoring at the workplace and the role of employee and employers in this context. We will also explain which equipments or systems are being used by the organization in order to monitor the performance of employees. The paper will also discuss the advantage and disadvantage of using these systems for the monitoring of employees. // Several organizations use electronic monitoring process with the help of electronic systems or devices such as computers, audio devices, sensors, video cameras, Global positioning systems (GPS), telephones, electronic mail and voice mail, etc. in order to monitor their employees. Electronic monitoring is very helpful for the organization in collecting, storing, analyzing and reporting the information about the productive activities of employees at workplace, i.e. it helps in evaluating whether the employees are working properly or not. Electronic monitoring also helps in observing the stealing, and other bad activities done by employees (Kizza, 2010). Employer plays a very important role in electronic monitoring. It has been recorded that most of the employees misuse the Internet, i.e. they use it for their personal use such as checking personal mails, online shopping, gambling, etc., which is very harmful for the workplace. Therefore, it becomes the responsibility of employers that they prevent the workplace from misuse of the Internet. Hence, the employer monitors its employees for preventing non-work related Internet surfing in order to increase the productivity of employees (Kizza, 2010). With the help of using such monitoring systems, the employers can also prevent the misuse of computers, Internet and phone calls by employees at workplace. The employer also evaluates the attendance of employees with the help of electronic monitoring systems. Some of the employees are in the habit of using drug, which can hamper the employee productivity. Thus, with the help of using electronic monitoring equipment, the employer can watch this type of employee activities and can take strict action among these employees (Kizza, 2010). Although it is very helpful for the employers in order to make its employees realize that if they will do non-productive activities at the workplace, they can be fired by the employer. Therefore, the employees will not perform non-productive activities at workplace, which will result into increasing the employee productivity and improving competitiveness, but there are also some negative consequences of these systems for the employees. Due to the use of electronic monitoring at the workplace, the employees do not feel themselves safe at workplace because their phone calls and other activities are tracked and recorded with these systems, and thus the morale of employees decreases. The employees' interest towards work decreases due to this; hence, the performance of the employees also decreases (Kizza, 2010).