Essay: Guidelines for Ethical Network Management in Organizations

This essay delves into the critical aspects of network management within organizations, focusing on the ethical considerations of computer usage. It identifies various issues associated with unethical practices, such as spam, cyberbullying, identity theft, and data breaches, highlighting their potential impact on organizational productivity and financial stability. The essay analyzes the severity of these issues, emphasizing the risks of internet and email abuse, unauthorized access to confidential information, and the dissemination of proprietary data. It then proposes a set of guidelines for ethical computer usage, including limiting the use of organizational property for work-related tasks, strict supervision of employees, and the prohibition of activities that may harm others or compromise data security. The author argues that establishing and enforcing these guidelines is crucial for safeguarding data confidentiality, protecting employee productivity, and preventing significant financial losses, concluding that a proactive approach to ethical network management is essential for maintaining a secure and productive work environment. The essay also provides references to support the claims made.

Running head: NETWORK MANAGEMENT IN ORGANIZATIONS
Network Management in Organizations
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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NETWORK MANAGEMENT IN ORGANIZATIONS
Introduction
Unauthorized use of hardware and software, the theft of the software, use of computers
for committing frauds such as hacking and data theft, sabotaging the system by viruses are some
unethical usage of the computers and networks. This is a serious crime and should be prevented
in organizations for ensuring the security and confidentiality of the data. In order to achieve so,
the organizations should employ certain guidelines for preventing the unethical use of computers
[2]. The essay discusses the guidelines for the ethical use of computers and networks in an
organization.
Identifying the Issues
The different issues associated with the unethical usage of computers include spam, cyber
bullying, identity theft, virus attack, cyber terrorism phishing and other such crimes. The
unethical uses of computers in any organization refers to the compromise of valuable
information and assets of the organization, internet abuse, misuse of computing assets and emails
that are generally used to disclose the strategic plans of any organization [4]. In order to prevent
all these unethical usage of computers in an organization proper guidelines are necessary to
ensure that the unethical use of computers does not cost the company a severe loss of billions of
dollars due to information leakage or data theft.
Analyzing why are these issues severe?
The unethical uses of computers such as internet abuse may result in the reduced
productivity of the employees, which in may cost the company a million of dollars. Internet
abuse is not bad but in workplace or an organization, it certainly results in the lost productivity

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and furthermore, risks the organization computers by downloading viruses from different
websites unknowingly [8].
Another unethical use of computers includes email abuse, which deals with reading
someone else’s emails without permission. The major concern associated with email abuse is
that, it may danger the company if an employee e-mails proprietary information to a competitor
with an aim of harming the computer.
Another unethical use of computer in an organization in unauthorized access of the
confidential information and dissemination of the company’s information results in critical
violation of the computer ethics [1].
In order to eliminate the risks associated with the unethical uses of computers, the
company should set a clear guideline for ethical uses of computers in the workplace.
Evaluation of the issues and the need for guidelines
The different guidelines for ethical uses of computers include limiting the use of
organization’s property solely for the work of the organization. A strict supervision upon the
employees is needed to prevent the email and internet abuse [5]. Setting up proper guidelines is
necessary for saving the company from severe loss due to the unethical usage of the computer.
Computers should not be used in the ways that may harm the other people or organization.
Furthermore, along with the supervision of employees, the organization should also look into
ensuring that no programs are written or executed within the organization that may lead to the
stealing, gaining unauthorized access to the company’s information [3].

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The computer technology should not be used in a way that it may disturb other people’s work or
disrupt the normal functioning of the computer.
Spying on another person’s computer data should be strictly prohibited in an
organization. It is unethical to read someone else’s email or access their files. Snooping round
for reading an accessing other’s personal messages should ensure severe punishments [7].
The use of computer and technology in stealing sensitive information or leaking the
confidential information is unethical and therefore proper guidelines should be set in order to ban
these activities in an organization. Furthermore, the activities such as copying of software or
spreading pirated copies of software and using it can further lead to the loss of confidential data
and information and therefore, proper guidelines should be set to prevent the unethical use of
computers in the workplace.
It is justified for an organization to set proper guidelines for ethical use of computers
because it is necessary to protect the data and confidentiality of the information. Furthermore,
employees productivity can be hampered with the unethical use of computers, that should be
prevented in order to save the company from severe losses [6]. Having a proper set of guidelines
will help preventing the unethical use of computers in the organization and in turn save the
organization from further losses.
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that there can be seen many
instance of unethical usage of computers in the workplace that may affect the workflow and
business processes of the company severely. Examples of unethical usage of computer in an
organization includes accessing the confidential information of the organization without

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permission, internet abuse that may result in decrease of the productivity, email abuse that
includes reading someone else email without permission or using the email for leaking the
confidential information of the organization. This unethical use of computers in the workplace
should be prevented in order to protect eliminate the risk of losing confidential data and
information. Setting up of a proper set of guidelines is necessary for the organization to eliminate
the unethical use computers in an organization.

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References
[1] Chatterjee S, Sarker S, Valacich JS. The behavioral roots of information systems security:
Exploring key factors related to unethical IT use. Journal of Management Information Systems.
2015 Jan 1;31(4):49-87.
[2] Guo KH. Security-related behavior in using information systems in the workplace: A review
and synthesis. Computers & Security. 2013 Feb 28;32:242-51.
[3] Chatterjee S, Valacich JS, Sarker S. Unethical use of information technology: A two-country
study. InSystem Science (HICSS), 2012 45th Hawaii International Conference on 2012 Jan 4
(pp. 3071-3080). IEEE.
[4] Kamil M. Factors influencing computer ethics at the workplace: A study of professionals in
South-East Asia.
[5] Shepherd MM, Klein G. Using deterrence to mitigate employee Internet abuse. InSystem
Science (HICSS), 2012 45th Hawaii International Conference on 2012 Jan 4 (pp. 5261-5266).
IEEE.
[6] Cheng L, Li W, Zhai Q, Smyth R. Understanding personal use of the Internet at work: An
integrated model of neutralization techniques and general deterrence theory. Computers in
Human Behavior. 2014 Sep 30;38:220-8.
[7] Stylianou AC, Winter S, Niu Y, Giacalone RA, Campbell M. Understanding the behavioral
intention to report unethical information technology practices: The role of Machiavellianism,
gender, and computer expertise. Journal of business ethics. 2013 Oct 1;117(2):333-43.

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[8] D'Arcy J, Devaraj S. Employee misuse of information technology resources: testing a
contemporary deterrence model. Decision Sciences. 2012 Dec 1;43(6):1091-124.