Case Study Recap/Analysis

This past week, Bailey Abercrombie and I tackled the case study, “Big Brother is Watching: Browsing on Company Time.” This case can be found in the Employee Relations chapter in the “Cases in Public Relations Management” textbook.

ComXSoft, a computer products company, founded only a few years ago, prides itself on strong sales, fun and relaxed atmospheres at the workplace and frequently gives bonuses and salary rises because of their successes. Nelson Perry, the public relations director works closely with his employees to maintain the atmosphere in a positive manner.

That was until his assistant, Larry Meyers complained about Perry’s secretary’s Web site traffic. Meyers told Perry that his secretary spends all her time on eBay. Upon talking to his secretary, she reacted very defensively and maintained she only used eBay during non-office hours and during her lunch breaks. For the next few weeks, Perry kept a close eye on her and noticed she did in fact spend more time on eBay then she stated.

Perry then enlisted the help of the human resources director, Paul Johnson. Johnson instructed Perry to explain the differences between nonwork related material and work appropriate material.

Several months later, Johnson returned to inform Perry that his employees’ computers could be monitored through use of a surveillance technology. The study found that Perry’s secretary was not the only one guilty of looking at nonwork related Web pages. In all, 20 employees were found guilty of this dilemma.

According to Johnson, the matter was completely legal due to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Perry then decided to form a plan of action to prevent this from happening in the near future.

The case outlined many issues in employee relations. If one doesn’t have employee relations done in a positive way, there is the risk of losing morale and respect within your business. There may be the ethical question of using nonwork related material on company time, but no one can be expected to adhere to this for eight straight hours. In my personal opinion, the use of nonwork related material does not infringe upon someone’s ability to do an effective job, within a limit. There must be some boundaries, but not so much that someone is completely limited from personal use of a computer. This can jeopardize both the success of the individual and the company as a whole. Basically, just cut your employees some slack.