[OPE] Big brother in USrael

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Study: 'Big Brother' monitoring alive and well in Israeli workplace  

By Ruth Sinai, Haaretz Correspondent  

"There is no doubt about it, big brother is very much alive and well in employment bodies in Israel," says Professor Itzhak Harpaz of Haifa University, who heads the Center for the Study of Organizations and Human Resource Management, and serves as the chairman of the Industrial Relations Research Association of Israel. 

The findings presented by Harpaz are based on a study conducted among the subscribers of the biannual professional publication "Mashabe Enosh" (Human Resources), nearly all (96 percent) of which hold academic degrees. About 45 percent of the respondents are managers, and 20 percent are board members. Some 75 percent of respondents work for institutions that employ more than 100 persons. They represent about 370 jobs in a variety of fields. The largest group in the study comes from the high-tech sector (22 percent). 

Respondents were asked whether the organization they work for makes use of cameras for anti-theft or violence surveillance or supervises employee's use of computers, electronic mail, internet, landline and cellular telephones as well as satellite technologies and smart cards. They were also asked whether the employer customarily informs employees of the surveillance. The findings were compared to a similar study conducted recently by the American Management Association. 

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More than 53 percent of the Israeli respondents reported that the organization they work for makes use of video cameras, compared to just 32 percent in the U.S. In addition, the study found that just 39 percent of all employers inform employees of their use of video cameras in Israel, compared to 80 percent of the American employers. 

About 63 percent of the Israelis polled reported that their employers monitor internet use and operate blocking programs to prevent them from entering certain sites, compared to 70 percent of American employers. But whereas in Israel just 57 percent of employers inform workers that their internet use is monitored, the U.S. standard reflects more transparency - 89 percent of the respondents reported that their employer had informed them of the fact. 

Complete text: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/967340.html
http://organizations.haifa.ac.il/html/html_eng/Srvey2-tables.pdf

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