Internet Abuse in the Workplace
10 Pages Posted: 11 Jul 2015
Date Written: 2011
Abstract
Statistics show that employee Internet abuse during work hours causes significant productivity and liability issues. Internet abuse within organizations is defined as the unfettered use of the Internet for personal purposes during standard working hours, which may include accessing inappropriate content such as pornographic material, Internet gambling sites, virtual casinos, or sites that provide downloading of illegal music or video. Previous research has shown that the implementation of software monitoring of employees and acceptable Internet use policies have not proven effective ways to stop or curb employee Internet misuse and abuse. Therefore, this study examines the use of employee training as a proactive way to stop employee Internet abuse. Training has not been investigated regarding its efficacy. Utilizing three organizational case studies, this study examines pre and post training incidents of employee Internet abuse. Results showed that training is an effective deterrent to stop Internet abuse in the workplace. The paper discusses the managerial and organizational implications of this research.
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