Information Policies in Organizations

The culture age has brought or so rapid changes to the ways in which businesses sackalise day to day operations. Although this move to electronic commerce has resulted in extraordinary advantages in terms of speed and cost-effectiveness of business, it as well as presents in the buff ch in wholeenges in the workplace. The development that is available to everyone on the internet, and more particularly to individuals indoors an organisation is far peachyer now than it was on the dot a fewer years ago. disrespect the obvious advantages of this beforehand movement of technology, it creates a severe problem with control of information. Whereas organisational information in the past would typically result a formal chemical chain of command or an informal ability colloquy network, it nooky now be passed around the world in milliseconds all over the internet. Implementing and maintaining a set of checks and balances to look that e-mail and untried(prenominal) means o f electronic communication atomic number 18 recitationd plainly in an pleasant manner fag probe to be a difficult, time-consuming and pricy endeavor.Therefore it is faultfinding for any memorial tablet to establish policies and procedures for dealing with these problems in browse to ensure the fellowship is non go about with a liability problem for the diffusion of indecent, harassing or protected information. A well behaved starting point for an organization to test to minimize vulnerability to these sort of problems is by defining what is and what is not acceptable use of e-mail and different office communication systems. Policies and procedures can then be essential around this exposition. Acceptable use is delimitate as the use of e-mail and other confederation information systems for business purposes.The policies and procedures regarding acceptable use moldiness(prenominal) be in writing and be communicated to all the employees of the organization. A wri tten insurance should include about of the following the key elements which atomic number 18 infallible for a typical organization enter the information age. Define what is and is not leave use of go with communication systems. This definition must(prenominal)(prenominal) be congruent with other company policies. For example, it should outline what is considered to be loathly or harassing material and the form _or_ system of government should understandably state that the company lines of communication are not to be used to get by this sort of material.Furthermore, this definition should be all-inclusive in that it must cover all types of potency problems from discrimination, to individuals personal information rights. The background this is so critical is because this definition give form the framework of the companys information policy and will therefore be the critical legal element which stands to hold back these potential problems and serves to protect the co mpany from liability should problems pop off regardless of existing policies.In nightspot to protect the company come on from exposure to legal action, the formal policy must also include the procedure that employees can follow should their rights be infringed upon. Not tho should dupes of e-mail harassment or discrimination be encouraged to come foregoing and report the problem, they must also be assured that the company will not let much(prenominal) action impress the employee in any negative way. other than the organization is leaving themselves open to allegations of application program up or failing to follow through on employee complaints.The policy must state that such reports will be kept in the strictest pledge and that victim is informal to report an incident to individual other than their direct supervisor if necessary. Generating the confidence necessary for someone to come forward with allegations of harassment involving misuse of company information systems can be improved by clearly stating in the company policy that each complaint will be investigated thoroughly. Although the previous policies may foster bleakness with regard to reporting problems in the organization, they do not do a great deal to prevent the problem.Therefore it is pivotal that the policy state the legal implications for everyone gnarly in such an incident. This portion of the policy should state that victims will be free from retaliatory actions from carry awayment and other employees and that those trustworthy for investigation will keep all information as confident as practical and conduct the investigation as objectively as possible. Most authorizedly however, the consequences for those who are unrighteous of causing the problems must be clearly outlined.Prompt and determinative disciplinary action should be administered as soon as anyone in the company is found guilty of wrongdoing. It would be cockamamie for management to expect that such a policy would exempt the organization from belittled complaints or even large casing law suits resulting from information systems misuse. It is necessary for organizations to give instruction their employees on the proper use company communication systems and it is best to do this at the initial orientation phase of an employees career.Since almost companies hire on a invariable basis, it would be tedious to train impudently employees using a shopworn speech communication method. The use of programmed instruction and calculator establish bringing up can help to pacify this problem through the use of pre-programmed software system specific to the companies needs. This sort of cooking would only time by introducing new employees to banner procedures such as logging on and conducting daily communications.Computer based gentility can also pay off propagation to company policy and procedure including rights of victims and consequences of those guilty of misuse. A self-administe red computer based training program can be genuine using standard office applications such as Microsoft Office and can be generated by a knowledgeable substance abuser in just a few days. This type of training program must be supplemented by a hard written matter of standard rules and procedures for use of company e-mail and also include a copy of the companys policy as previously outlined.Each new employee would be required to complete the self-administered training program and to sign a copy of the companys polices and procedures before receiving e-mail authorization. Once in place, this programmed instruction can be further modified to include guidelines for storing classified documents and messages. authorized information that is passed through company information lines is not intended to go immaterial of the organization and it is important for management to make sure all employees are awake that they are responsible for protecting company information.Computer based trainin g can also teach new employees how to manage their e-mail charge ups so that important messages are stored in a received file in which only that employee can coming with their personal password. It is very difficult to ensure all employees follow e-mail polices and procedures, particularly if the companys computers have internet access and can sent e-mail to outside organizations from within the company.Periodically reminding staff about the excitable nature of company information and ghost changing of passwords can help to prevent distribution of important information to those with no need or right to the information. In the case of highly sensitive documents, it is possible to arrange communication networks so that the important documents or data can only be accessed on certain computer terminals. This will allow the company to rear firewalls, which can be useful for guarding the justness of the information.