Register now or log in to join your professional community.
Since it became accessible in the mid-1990s, the Internet has had a major impact on the workplace. From email communication with colleagues and customers to ecommerce, social media and smartphones, the majority of business and personal communication is now conducted over the Internet. As a consequence, there has been some blurring of lines between professional and personal lives. This raises issues concerning trust in the workplace.
Anyone connected to the Internet has access to a vast international shopping mall at the click of a mouse. For employers this creates two problems. Staff who use online shopping sites at work may inadvertently introduce viruses and other security threats. A greater fear is that staff will spend their entire working days surfing and shopping, leading to a drop in productivity. The first issue can be addressed by training. The second is a matter of trust: employers must decide if they trust their employees to restrict their personal Internet activity during the day so that it does not affect their work.
In fact, most employers do trust their employees to use the Internet responsibly. A November2012 survey by Robert Harris Technology of1400 chief information officers revealed that only33 percent of companies block access to Internet shopping sites. The others either allow unrestricted access, or they allow access and monitor for excessive use. The Chief Executive of Robert Harris Technology, John Reed, said in a press release that by trusting their employees to limit their personal Internet use and allowing them to tackle personal to-do lists at work, these companies can raise productivity.
Wireless connections and laptop ownership make it possible for employees to tap into their company network from any location, leading to a rise in telecommuting at least some of the time. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in2010, some22.9 percent of men and24.5 percent of women expected to do some or all of their work at home. This also involves trust. Employers have to change their focus to measuring outcomes rather than time served in the office, and trust that employees will not in fact spend all day in front of the TV. Employees tend to repay that trust, however. A report by Staffordshire University in the U.K. revealed typical productivity improvements of between20 and30 percent.
Social media has further blurred the lines between employees' professional and personal lives. Many colleagues are Facebook friends and may even be expected to "like" their company's Facebook page. Employees may have personal blogs and comment on other blogs and forums, while every career-minded person is on LinkedIn. This means that most workers have online identities that connect them to their employers, but over which their employers have no control. Companies may develop stringent social media policies and may even be able to discipline staff for bringing their employers into disrepute. But, ultimately, they have to trust that their employees behave professionally at all times, whether at or outside work.
Most trust issues in the workplace exist between employer and employee. But the subject of knowledge sharing can raise questions of trust between employees. In knowledge-based organizations, such as professional firms, knowledge is power and is proprietary to each professional. As firms have adapted to the Internet, they have seen its potential and have tried to encourage their staff to use Internet-based tools to pool knowledge. This has been met with varying success, as indiviidual employees are often reluctant to trust other staff with their own knowledge, which represents their source of power and security.
Good Question.
Though the emergence of the Internet or Web portal services has changed the way you communicate, carry out business etc & facilitated ease & cost effective way of doing things which was almost impossible till it became a reality.
Having said it : It has certain draw backs.
It has also facilitated problems in workplace as it is easy to take companies strategies, secrets, competitive leverage outside the company by just a click of a button.
Thus, it has made a situation where the level of Trust has been reduced affecting the quality of the workforce & it's relationship.
Internet is also used to hack the computers of competitor's, steal all the information's or simply spoil years of hard work in seconds. There are instances of misrepresentation where Millions's of peoples bank accounts are breached & emptied their life long savings bringing literally to the roads.
Though there are lots of benefits also hides lots of problems which can be create devastating problems.
:-)
[Trust, absent mindedness, relationship, efficiency]
honestly very much deteriorated
[unauthorized usage other than for official purpose]
very much increased
[More affected persons]
??
I don't think the internet affects trust at the workplace. I have not experienced anything of that sort, YET.
I don't think the internet affects trust at the workplace.
Internet affects lives of all the people. Some use this as a way of communication, some use this for business, some use this for school/office projects. It will only affect trust issues if someone within the organization use this in any form of stealing like spreading private documents.
In a positive and a negative ways but unfortunately in more negative than positive ways of at least breaking into people privacy is a known issue.
i think use of soical media during working hours affected trust in the workplace
I don't believe that Internet affected trust at the workplace unless we look at it as a utility that reduces the human interaction and therefore weakening the interpersonal relationships between employees and therefore, perhaps, less trust.
No impact on the workplace
But the work of the team and management policies
And team spirit
Complementary online only
