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Chapter 7 Telecommunications, the Internet, and Wireless Technology 297

flags certain types of messages and keywords within and Twitter. The guidelines urge employees not to
messages for further investigation. conceal their identities, to remember that they are
A number of firms have fired employees who personally responsible for what they publish, and to
have stepped out of bounds. A Proofpoint survey refrain from discussing controversial topics that are
found that one in five large U.S. companies fired an not related to their IBM role.
employee for violating e-mail policies in the past The rules should be tailored to specific business
year. Among managers who fired employees for needs and organizational cultures. For example,
Internet misuse, the majority did so because the investment firms will need to allow many of their
employees’ e-mail contained sensitive, confidential, employees access to other investment sites. A
or embarrassing information. company dependent on widespread information
No solution is problem free, but many consultants sharing, innovation, and independence could very
believe companies should write corporate policies well find that monitoring creates more problems
on employee e-mail, social media, and Web use. The than it solves.
policies should include explicit ground rules that
state, by position or level, under what circumstances Sources: Emily Glazer, “P&G Curbs Employees' Internet Use,”
The Wall Street Journal, April 4, 2012; David L. Barron, “Social
employees can use company facilities for e-mail,
Media: Frontier for Employee Disputes,” Baseline, January 19,
blogging, or Web surfing. The policies should also 2012; Jennifer Lawinski, “Social Media Costs Companies Bigtime,”
inform employees whether these activities are Baseline, August 29, 2011; Don Reisinger, “March Madness: The
monitored and explain why. Great Productivity Killer,” CIO Insight, March 18, 2011; “Seven
Employee Monitoring Tips for Small Business,” IT BusinessEdge,
IBM now has “social computing guidelines” that May 29, 2011; Catey Hill, “Things Your Boss Won’t Tell You,” Smart
cover employee activity on sites such as Facebook Money, January 12, 2011.

CASE STUDY QUESTIONS

1. Should managers monitor employee e-mail and 3. Should managers inform employees that their Web
Internet usage? Why or why not? behavior is being monitored? Or should managers
2. Describe an effective e-mail and Web use policy monitor secretly? Why or why not?
for a company.

would ordinarily be transmitted over public telephone networks travel over the
corporate network based on the Internet Protocol, or the public Internet. Voice
calls can be made and received with a computer equipped with a microphone
and speakers or with a VoIP-enabled telephone.
Cable firms such as Time Warner and Cablevision provide VoIP service
bundled with their high-speed Internet and cable offerings. Skype offers free
VoIP worldwide using a peer-to-peer network, and Google has its own free VoIP
service.
Although there are up-front investments required for an IP phone system,
VoIP can reduce communication and network management costs by 20 to 30
percent. For example, VoIP saves Virgin Entertainment Group $700,000 per
year in long-distance bills. In addition to lowering long-distance costs and
eliminating monthly fees for private lines, an IP network provides a single
voice-data infrastructure for both telecommunications and computing services.
Companies no longer have to maintain separate networks or provide support
services and personnel for each different type of network.
Another advantage of VoIP is its flexibility. Unlike the traditional
telephone network, phones can be added or moved to different offices
without rewiring or reconfiguring the network. With VoIP, a conference call

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