22 September 2006

The ethical aspect of the CYBER SLACKING

Is the cyber slacking on the job theft or increased productivity?
In the red corner, cyber slacking could be defined as “indirect theft”: ”A fair extension of the notion of stealing to embrace more than property, but in fact anything whatsoever that is of value to an individual or organization, is in order. The time employees misuse, but for which they are compensated, as well as the monetary value of Internet access privileges via company equipment are properly considered objects of theft. Something of economic value has obviously been stolen.”
But in the blue corner: “If, however, the apparent Internet addict somehow still renders value to the company, perhaps even as a result of the cyberactivity, which might foster subconscious problem solving or provide a necessary break from drudgery or intense creative endeavor; there is obviously then no swindle” and “the widespread tendency to use the web for healthy relaxation or occasional business, yes, even for moderate cyber slacking. Productivity might actually increase with such a corporate culture.”
So, what is it? The problem with putting the matter in this way is that the answer could be: both. This is because the two of them are not contrary to each other.
In order to make sense of this phenomenon, we must consider this problem separately. Whether it is theft or not depends, entirely, upon the contact in force, whether explicit or implicit. If the employer posts signs on the walls to the effect that time wasting will be considered theft, and offenders will be fired, and stipulates this in all its employment contracts, there is an easy answer to the question. Then, yes, cyber slacking is explicit theft in such contexts. If not, then it is not explicit theft. What about implicit theft? This, too, depends upon the contract in force. In accordance to Polish Labour Law there's no direct regulations but IAUP (Internet Acceptable Use Policy) was implemented in many Polish enterprises. On the other hand surfing in the Internet could be reason of the productivity or rather creativity growth. But like usual, there’s no immediate and direct answer.



Block Walter "Cyberslacking, Business Ethics and Managerial Economics" Journal of Business Ethics
Friedman William "Is the Answer to Internet Addiction Internet Interdiction?"

08 September 2006

Less than three weeks left... - Prof. Gatarski message

Today I took a look at the situation. According to my notes there are 28 registered blogs, of which many are just one post. On the other hand, some of you are doing just fine.I do not know how many students are in the class, but more than the registered blogs I guess. Most likely those who have not yet created a blog will not make an acceptable assignment.Neither will those of you who have made only one or two posts...Please feel to publish what you think about the assignment. Either as posts in your blogs, or by commenting others thoughts on this subject (but I might miss reading such comment).And I hope you bear with me as I grade your efforts. Quite a complicated task...but you will help. More on that later on.

http://aedbe.blogspot.com/

06 September 2006

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You never know who's watching You... and Your computer screen
http://www.bbc.co.uk/