ORGANIZATIONAL PHILOSOPHIES AND TECHNOLOGY

Organizational Philosophies and Technology

Organizational Philosophies and Technology

Introduction

In today's society, technology has become a growing factor in our everyday lives. Technology is a big key to the way businesses run. The organizations may use machines to produce products or use computers for emailing customer orders. There are so many ways to utilize technology in a positive way, and there are many ways to abuse the technology that is being offered. There are different ways that companies can use technology to help set up and manage ethical standards in the workplace. Some companies may sensor emails being sent to all of their employees to make sure that there are no personal emails being sent to one another. Some companies record phone conversations to make sure that the employees are doing what is needed to be done with their customer service phone calls. Companies may also use technology to manage the ethics of its personal information within the corporation. There is a lot of information that is stored on computers within a company, so if the information got into the wrong hands there may be some big risks the company may have to face. To protect confidential information, companies use several layers of safeguards within their systems, such as firewalls, password protected programs and specific security policies to keep the information within the company.

Analysis

It is not the ethical standards of a company alone that demand safeguards relating to technology. The absence of certain safeguards and policies not only endangers the confidential data files of a company, but endangers the software and hardware systems utilized by a company and in many cases can affect company morale and productivity. A truly ethical company installs multiple safeguards to protect itself, its employees, and its customers.

Technology to Manage Ethics

With the amount of customer and company information that is housed electronically in today's business world, it is imperative that companies set up multiple layers of safeguards such as firewalls, password protected programs, and security policies to keep that information from the hands of those who would mean to the do the company or its clients wrong. This information is even protected by law in some cases and therefore, companies can get into legal trouble if the proper safeguards and not in place. For example, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley (GLB) Act requires that companies that are defined as financial institutions ensure the security and confidentiality of information such as customer names, addresses, phone numbers, bank and credit card numbers, income and credit histories, and social security numbers.

It is not only company and client information that is at risk. Vast amounts of employee information are also electronically cataloged within a company's servers. Although the leaking of employee information may not have a direct impact on the business itself, ethics dictate that a company must take measures to protect their employees' information as well. This is often done through the requirement of an array of passwords to access such information to ensure that only authorized persons may access ...