Deviance is defined as “a violation of social rules and conventions” (Britannica, 2021). Deviance can be anything from, robbery, theft to rape and murder. So how did cyber technology create opportunities for work place deviance? Anonymity, access and the ability to reach out to sources and people are three things I fill technology did to increase deviance in the work place.
Anonymity or the ability to remain hidden is not always a problem in the work place in reality most companies require individuals to log into personalized accounts that can easily be tracked by internal IT staff. In the case a company has open access to its networks an employee can easily hide in plain sight. One can search through files and steal information and not be tracked. Cyber bullying in the work place could happen and no single person could be pinpointed. If I can hop onto any computer in my office space, I could easily do things such as look up adult web pages on company time and get away with it.
Access to me is the biggest problem that technology has created in the work place. It was a time that important files and folders sat in cabinets put away behind lock and key. In 2021 it is rare to find all of a company’s document in a hard copy format most information is stored on the computer. If I am up to no good and I have access to important company files I can steal them. Stealing ideas, accessing private employee information are two examples of how access can be detrimental to a company.
Last but not least the ability to reach out from the inside or have the outside reach in. People are easy to manipulate an example of this would be employees receiving scam emails and falling fore tricks and once they do so the criminal can now make them do things they don’t want to in the form of black mail. On the other hand, an employee can reach out to other people up to no good and share data that they legally can’t.
Work place deviance will occur in many forms but it is up to the employer to insure that they have the proper safeguards in place to fight it.
Abrams, Dominic. “Deviance”. Encyclopedia Britannica, Invalid Date, https://www.britannica.com/topic/deviance. Accessed 10 October 2021.