Journal 3: How has cyber technology created opportunities for workplace deviance?

Workplace deviance is a deliberate, malicious attempt to sabotage an organization by causing problems within. Workplace deviance is seen frequently in the Cyber field. There are many reasons why leaving the company open to attack. Typically, workplace deviance begins with a disgruntled worker who has been let go. The IT department did not remove their credentials from their station; the former worker now has access and can cause harm. The action would leave the company at risk of hackers entering the system and stealing critical information from the company. A typical example of workplace deviance would be with an unsatisfied employee who decided to lash out at his company, whether he got fired or felt he deserved something he did not receive, such as a promotion. For example, in the cyber technology field, if the boss decided to fire an employee from a job before he left, the individual could download sensitive information and sell it to rival companies for financial gain. If that employee’s authorization was not restricted, he could return to work and continue harming the company; therefore, this would be considered workplace deviance because it departs from what the company expects of you. Another instance of workplace deviance is when an employee has been given too much access to private files. Sometimes when an IT professional sets up the user profiles in GPO, they can tend to provide all of the users’ access to other files and folders. For example, a regular employee should not have access to the payroll folder. Only the HR and manager should have access to this information because it can contain sensitive data. This frequently happens in workplaces, but this is an easy fix compared to a disgruntled employee. Cyber technology has created new opportunities because it is much harder to find the person when they are doing the harmful acts behind a computer than when they are in person and can be caught on a security camera. This could allow the employee to do more damage for a longer time before getting caught. Comprehensive cyber technology has created more ways for workplace deviance to occur and has also made it easier to do and makes it harder to get noticed. Workplace deviance will always happen in all types of work, but cyber technology makes it easier to execute.

REFERENCE:

  1. Weatherbee, T. G. (2010). Counterproductive use of technology at work: Information & communications technologies and cyberdeviancy. Human Resource Management Review, 20(1), 35–44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2009.03.012
  2. Anwar, A., Kee, D. M., & Ahmed, A. (2020). Workplace Cyberbullying and Interpersonal Deviance: Understanding the Mediating Effect of Silence and Emotional Exhaustion. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 23(5), 290–296. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2019.0407