Ethics issues arising from the Internet are tough to monitor and difficult to enforce. There are many gray areas that we will have to examine if we actually monitor. So, we wait. The Internet is a new workplace phenomenon that has not received much attention from senior management. So, nothing happens until upper management takes up the issue.
Many companies encourage employees to express themselves and exercise their curiosity.
If they monitor this type of communication channel too closely and if employees know about the monitoring, they may fear that the act of monitoring will stifle the very curiosity and initiative that they want to encourage. The reasons for not monitoring employee Internet usage are interesting. Few companies want to be the trendsetter when it comes to charting new ethical territory. The good news is that three-quarters of the responding companies have policies about the Internet. Though monitoring activity may be more daunting than companies are ready to address, at least the vast majority of organizations have adopted some type of corporate policy on the Internet.