Progress report on internet abuse and employee productivity case study Essay

The internet has able to improve business by increasing productivity because of improved information dissemination and decision-making, however employers are concerned by employees who use it for their personal and social needs during working hours which occurs because the workplace give them a sense of privacy. The monitoring of employee internet use has created tensions between employers, who monitor employee use to protect data leakage and check employee productivity, and employees, who feel a breach of trust whenever monitored, who suggest that casual internet use is not detrimental, and who have felt emotional and physical problems because of monitoring. The internet has had significant impact in the 1995 economic boom despite studies which show that this is only felt in the microeconomic level. A UN report has shown that American employees are less productive than their European and Asian counterparts because they cannot improve side-by-side with the effects of Moore’s Law. Organizations which have put in investments in technology improvements have not felt the supposed exponential increase in revenue and increase in market share because they have not reduced input resources such as the number of employees and that their employees have not increased in knowledge or productivity. It was suggested that to reduce productivity losses non-internet tasks should increase, productivity benchmark methods revised and incentives given to productive employees. IT was also suggested that to avoid employee-employer conflicts, the employer must give ample time for internet use, enforce a written internet and e-mail use policy, forge a company website that will help employees to finish tasks, and keep a friendly working atmosphere. The employees in turn must not use the internet often for personal use and enhance their productivity in line with the company’s premier interests. I have completed the entire research project and found out that employee and employer relations can be resolved following my proposed guidelines which I have made after preceding research from articles in magazines and books. I have found that employees regard monitoring as a beach of trust and had felt emotional tolls during monitoring by their bosses. Employers on the other hand only move to monitor to ensure the security of company data. I have found out that employee productivity has decreased with the increase in IT investments among companies. I have proposed guidelines and suggestions basing on my readings to decrease worker productivity losses. Work Completed I found this survey conducted by Mercer Management Consulting and have gathered that companies though they have invested much on improving technology to increase their business’ efficiency, have not yet felt the projected increase in sales. I have gathered from an article on The Economist that according to the joint research venture between MIT and U Penn the paradox that is the decrease of worker productivity despite increase in IT investments can be attributed to the factors they have laid out. This information I have placed under Technology vs. Productivity. After connecting ideas, and finding the real root of this paradox, I have now searched for references to build a suitable to-do list for employers and employees to resolve the worker productivity losses. I read a New York Times copy dated February 9, 2000, with an article saying that employers who give incentives to productive employees contributed to the increase in US productivity in the 2nd quarter of 1999. I have gathered form a copy of PC week that filtering and monitoring policies increased productivity of employees, from this idea I suggested in my research paper that employers must impose strict e-mail and internet use policy. Conclusion After so much consideration of facts, I have come up with a research paper that will explain the problems of employee productivity and internet abuse and guide employees and employers while joining forces to reduce productivity losses. Reference Gupta, Jatinder, and Sushil Sharma. â€Å"Improving Worker’s Productivity and Reducing Internet Abuse. † The Journal of Computer Information Systems 44. 2 (2004): 75-78.