How has cyber technology created opportunities for workplace deviance?

Workplace deviance can be allowed to happen from nonrestrictive cyber technology in the workplace. Workplace deviance is when employees of the job perform mischievous actions in an attempt to cause harm to the organization or business. When cyber technology is involved, it is generally related to things that employees may have access to through either legitimate or illegitimate means of obtaining. These “things” that employees may have access to could be data, files, network settings, or general assets of the company. Some of the ways that they can obtain them through legitimate means are by either having permissions from the IT department, having them in general, or data being sent to them from other co-workers. More commonly, illegitimate means of obtaining these things could be by stealing them, using another co-workers information to have access, or in some cases hacking to get them.

The reasons why workplace deviance can occur can range a lot. An employee could have recently been fired and want revenge against their employer. Someone could be offering them sums of money for data or vital information. In some cases, their intent when applying for that job could have been to cause as much damage as possible in the first place, also known as corporate espionage. Being able to pinpoint why an employee causes damage to the company may not be possible sometimes for whatever reason, but knowing some very basic reasons why an employee might do what they do is important for figuring out how to prevent it.

Even though there is no one true way to prevent workplace deviance, there are many ways to reduce the chances of it happening. Employers must take steps to do background checks on future hires, knowing what kind of history the applicant has can sometimes predict how they will act. Providing permissions to employees is okay, but permissions for vital data, assets, and information must be given out sparingly and only to the most trusted employees. It is hard to do so for some employers because the more people that have these permissions, the more potential data leaks and company damages could incur. Again, there is no surefire way to prevent workplace deviance, but there is ways to reduce the chances of catastrophe.