Monitoring Employees on Networks Essay

Monitoring Employees on Networks

*How does e-mail benefit an organization? Why might an organization want to limit how an employee uses e-mail during work hours? What is an e-mail’s path once it leaves an organization?

One benefit of an organization using e-mail would be that the exchange of information between an organization, employees, clients, and suppliers is much faster with e-mail than it would be with postal mail. The time saved by using e-mail also allows employees more time to work on job tasks. Although sending and receiving e-mails pertaining to the organization allows an employee extra time to focus on work, sending and receiving personal e-mails distracts them from job tasks, which can result in monetary loss for the company due to decreased activity by employees (Laudon, Laudon, 2013). It is also a possibility an employee may use e-mail to leak potentially embarrassing or confidential, information, and trade secrets (Laudon, Laudon, 2013). Whether an employee intentionally sends embarrassing or confidential information and trade secrets for profit to a competing organization, or the information is seen by someone else who will, this could cause serious problems and monetary loss for the organization. When an e-mail leaves an organization, its intended path is to the recipient of the e-mail, but there are many ways an e-mail can be intercepted by someone who was not intended to see it. If someone outside of the organization wanted to look for confidential information or trade secrets, it is possible for them to intercept the e-mail and cause serious problems for the organization.

*What is the effect of instant messaging on organizational networks? What are benefits and drawbacks of using instant messaging in an organization?

The effect of instant messaging on organizational networks could be very useful and also somewhat of a concern. Instant messages to and from employees, suppliers, and clients can benefit an organization by speeding up the communication process that would otherwise take significantly longer with phone calls, face-to-face meetings, and postal mail. I think the time saved by using instant messaging should be considered a large benefit for organizations. Instead of searching for the person you need to communicate with or trying to reach them by phone, instant messaging enables sharing of information in a timely manner which allows more time to for job tasks. Instant messaging could also be important when sharing of time sensitive information is involved. If a last minute exchange of information is needed minutes before a deadline, instant messaging could help in the transaction of that information before the deadline expires. Instant messaging can help an organization by enabling their employees more time for job task, but when instant messaging is used by employees for personal use, it takes away time from the task needing attention. Personal use of instant messaging by employees, not only distracts employees from job tasks, it may also lead to leakage of information in the same way e-mail is susceptible. Instant message is just as susceptible to outside interception as any other information sent through electronic communication.

*What are benefits and drawbacks of web page and search engine use in an organization?

Search engines allow organizations and their employees to find important information quickly without going to the library, results of surveys and studies without conducting them themselves, and even information about possible and future people employed by the organization. Some organizations may require research done by their employees that can be found on web pages accessed by search engines. There are also many survey companies out there that publish research concerning many topics, some which may be useful to an organization. Another way web page and search engine use may be beneficial to an organization would be access to

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