Internet Abuse and Addiction in the Workplace

The Internet as a communication medium has become an increasing part of many people’s day-to-day working lives. As with the introduction of other mass communication technologies, issues surrounding use, abuse, and addiction have surfaced. For instance, according to a recent report carried out by the company SurfControl (Snoddy, 2000), office workers who while away one hour a day at work on various non-work activities (e.g., trading shares, booking holidays, shopping online, etc.) could be costing businesses as much as $35 million a year. The survey found that 59% of office Internet use was not work related and that those who traded in shares, played sports, shopped, and booked holidays cost companies the most. It is clear from research such as this that Internet abuse is a serious cause for concern — particularly to employers. This chapter has a number of objectives. It will first introduce readers to the concept of Internet addiction, before going on to look at the wider issue of Internet abuse in the workplace. Generic types of Internet abuse will be described, in addition to further examination of the reasons why Internet abuse occurs. The chapter ends with an overview of three very specific types of Internet abuse (i.e., online pornography, sexually related Internet crime, and online gambling), that will be of concern to employers, before concluding with some guidelines and recommendations for employers and human resources departments.

Personal Web Page Usage in Organization

This chapter presents an empirical investigation of why employees use the Internet for personal purpose during work hours. We are especially interested in perceptual difference between personal Web usage groups and non-personal Web usage groups in the context of non-work-related usage of the Internet. Drawing from previous studies in behavioral intention and human attitude, criminology, and moral and ethical decision-making, a comprehensive model was developed and tested through a field survey of 546 business professionals.

Monitoring Strategies for Internet Technologies

Managers are faced with many decisions regarding monitoring. For an electronic monitoring effort to be successful, it is important to match the correct monitoring strategy with a complimentary monitoring technology and implementation. This chapter lists many of the potential goals for monitoring, strategies to accomplish those goals, technologies which match the strategies, and implementation plans. Managers can consult this chapter to assist in ensuring that unintended effects do not occur from a haphazard approach to electronic monitoring.

A Deterrence Theory Perspective on Personal Web Usage

Personal Web usage (PWU) in the workplace is a matter of considerable concern to organizations today. However, human resources managers are not fully aware of the range of actions they can take to reduce PWU. This chapter examines general deterrence theory in the context of PWU and identifies actions that managers can take to reduce PWU. It uses a two-stage research methodology consisting of: (1) interviews with managers to gather qualitative data, and (2) a field survey of end users to gather quantitative data on PWU. It finds support for the deterrence theory and recommends that managers use a sequential implementation of four deterrence stages to contain PWU. These are: (1) framing an ‘Internet use policy,’ (2) implementing measures to prevent PWU such as restricting Internet access only to certain employees, (3) implementing appropriate content management software to detect PWU, and (4) standardizing policies to remedy non-acceptable Web usage. These four deterrence stages can protect an organization from the harmful effects of PWU of its employees.

Impact of Personal Internet Usage on Employee's Well-Being

The Internet has become one of most technological necessity tools in today’s workplace. With the broad scope of its usefulness and its ease of use, employees find the technology most beneficial to their daily work activities as well as their personal activities. Using the established behavioral theory with data collected from Internet users in the workplace, the chapter investigates the impact of personal Internet usage on employees’ job satisfaction and performance. This chapter also recommends several strategies that management can implement to increase employees’ well-being — such as Workplace Internet Usage Decision Grid, and Adaptive Internet Monitoring and Filtering Policy — while enhancing their work performance through personal Internet usage in the workplace.

A Psychoanalytic Perspective of Internet Abuse

In this chapter I discuss Internet abuse from a psychoanalytic perspective. Internet abuse refers to the misuse of the Internet that leads to deterioration of both public and individual welfares. While past research has treated most computer abuse as the result of conscious decisions, the school of psychoanalysis provides insight into how the unconscious mind may influence one’s abusive conduct. Therefore, I argue that effective resolution of Internet abuse requires the knowledge of the unconscious mind. Although modern knowledge of this domain is still limited, I believe that this orientation is beneficiary to the construction of social systems embedding the Internet and their application to our work.

Legal Implications of Personal Web Use in the Workplace

The virtues of the Internet as a business tool have been widely extolled: the Internet instantly makes available information that may be difficult or time consuming to obtain by other means. However, use of the Internet in the workplace is fraught with potential problems. This chapter examines the legal implications of personal Web use in the workplace. Specifically, it focuses on the legal issues which can arise for both employers and employees when an employee uses organizational computing facilities for non-work related activities such as surfing the Internet, sending e-mail, chatting online, or instant messaging.

Convergence or Divergence? Web Usage in the Workplace in Nigeria, Malaysia, and the United States

This study sets out to examine whether employee web usage patterns, attitudes toward web usage in the workplace, and organizational policies are more similar (convergence thesis) or less similar (divergence thesis) in three countries: Nigeria (n = 224), Malaysia (n = 107), and the United States (n = 334). Our results show general support for the divergence thesis. We found strong differences in employee usage patterns by country, even after controlling for differences in several demographic variables. However, there is less support for the divergence thesis in attitudes and organizational policies. In half of the eight indicators of employee attitudes, there were no differences among the three countries. Agreement that personal web usage at work is acceptable behavior is widespread. Other common perceptions are that companies tolerate personal web searches and that Internet usage policies are not enforced.

The Effect of Trust on Personal Web Usage in the Workplace

This chapter addresses the concept and importance of interpersonal trust through the use of the Internet in an organizational setting. In particular, personal Web usage is explored by examining employee interpersonal trust. Personal Web use refers to an employee’s utilization of the Internet for non-job related activities within a work environment. Examples of personal Web use include online banking, participating in instant messaging or chat sessions, buying goods or services, and any other activity in which the Internet is accessed for non-work-related tasks. A discussion regarding the importance of trust, its nature, and strategies for building interpersonal trust in an organizational setting are offered. Generalized guidelines for organizational practice and recommendations to support a culture of trust within the work environment are presented. This chapter addresses the notion of trust through personal Web usage as a human resource management issue.

A Multidimensional Sealing Approach to Personal Web Usage in the Workplace

In this study, a typology of workplace personal Web usage (PWU) behaviors was developed using multidimensional scaling techniques. Results suggest that personal Web usage behaviors vary along two dimensions: opportunities versus threats and organizational versus interpersonal. On the foundation of these two dimensions, PWU behaviors appear to fall into four distinct categories: disruptive, recreational, personal learning, and ambiguous PWU. This typology should prove useful for developing conceptual and empirical research agendas of PWU behavior in the workplace.