MISUSE OF ICT REDUCES EMPLOYEE PRODUCTIVITY

By Everest Turyahikayo

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can provide remedy to many performance related challenges in organizations. One challenge that can be overcome due to ICT is poor organizational communication. Traditionally, communication in organizations used to be effected through the use of notice boards, meetings, and internal memos delivered to offices by office messengers. Many organizations could be overwhelmed by tons of waste paper and high costs of purchasing stationary. The need to employee full time workers to organize and keep these documents became inevitable. As a consequence, hard copy files and documents started competing with employees for space. Organizations would communicate with the outside environment by use of posting letters and office telephones. There were no mobile phones to ease communication.
Today, this communication mechanism has been made archaic by the introduction of ICT. Organizations use electronic gadgets to communicate not only internally but also to the outside world. Instead of employing office messengers, officers communicate through emails, twitter, facebook, blogs, Skype, yahoo messenger to mention but a few.. Organizations can use Facebook to discuss corporate issues with colleagues who may not be able to meet physically. Instead of discussing on phone with someone overseas about urgent issues in an organization, modern organizations use email, facebook, YouTube, twitter among others.
Websites are gradually replacing the traditional methods of advertizing which used to be radios and one or two public television stations. They are becoming the primary source of information about services or products offered by respective organizations. Yet, organizations offering consultancy services can use this channel to look for business all over the world. Many companies use facebook to get feedback from the consumers of their products or services.
Organizations are investing heavily in ICT because it is cost effective and makes corporate governance easy. However, ICT can easily be misused by employees thereby reducing employee productivity. As you read this article, an employee in a corporation is busy surfing the internet to find some funny pictures or messages they will email to their friends in other organizations. The time they would spend working to meet targets is wasted surfing the internet for irrelevant materials. Facebook can be used as a tool to search for intimate relationships. When employees cheat employers of their time by building personal social networks through facebook, we say facebook has been abused.
The marginal propensity to misuse ICT by communicating irrelevant issues is high because of its addictive nature. Instead of increasing productivity of employees, ICT can reduce performance of workers in organizations. Without regulation and sensitization, ICT cannot meet the purpose for which it was intended. I suggest the following measures in ensuring that employees use ICT for the effective and efficient performance of their duties and responsibilities.
There is need to train employees in organizations about the proper use of ICT. It is not enough to install ICT and leave it to the workers to choose how to use it. Every organizational strategic objective hinges on the use of ICT as a means to achieve it. Training employees on how best they can manipulate ICT to achieve organizational objectives is fundamental.
Sometimes workers need self judgement in discerning why and when to use ICT. Some scholars like John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham advise that people can make good decisions in a given situation if only they follow the principal of utilitarianism. That is, a decision that creates happiness for the greatest number of people is considered good. Another scholar Immanuel Kant in his philosophy of categorical imperativism advises human beings to act in such a way that if everyone acted in a similar way, the world would be a better place. I find these views important in guiding employees about the use of ICT in organizations.