On the one hand, tech managers have an obligation to protect their company's reputation and resources. Yet there remains the thorny issue of how much privacy employees are entitled to in the workplace, and what can happen to IT managers who overstep the line.
ZDNet Australia's IT Manager channel recently ran a story looking at the issues surrounding the roll-out of an IT policy within an organisation. It found that growing use of the Internet by staff for business purposes also led to increased risk, particularly when they weren't given limits on how to use the tools.
It's an issue which has been increasingly facing managers at both strategic and practical levels during the past couple of years. Concern by businesses also heightened in the lead-up to the Privacy Act coming into effect late last year. IT managers were forced to look at what their electronic usage policies contained, and whether they were legally binding for employees.
Research from industry analyst Gartner (US) has found that as much as 40 percent of employee Web usage can be non-business related. Although productivity concerns for the company aren't usually the domain of the IT department, issues such as bandwidth are.
However, there's always that fear at the back of your mind that you'll be caught-up in the worst case scenario-that you'll get it wrong and have to pay the consequences. Yet I personally don't believe it has to be such a scary concept to implement a policy which can be easily understood by staff, without making them feel that they're working in an environment that is regulated by the heavy hand of Big Brother.
What do you think? Is it possible for IT managers to walk the tightrope and create an IT usage policy which keeps everyone happy?
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