The following formal outline brought order to Anna Orlov’s research paper on Internet surveillance in the workplace.
Thesis: Although companies often have legitimate concerns that lead them to monitor employees’ Internet usage—from expensive security breaches to reduced productivity—the benefits of electronic surveillance are outweighed by its costs to employees’ privacy and autonomy.
Employers can gather data in large quantities.
Electronic surveillance can be continuous.
Electronic surveillance can be conducted secretly, with keystroke logging programs.
Unmonitored employees could accidentally breach security.
Setting the boundaries for employee autonomy is difficult in the wired workplace.
Using the Internet is the most popular way of wasting time at work.
Web surfing can relieve stress, and restricting it can generate tension between managers and workers.
It shouldn’t matter to the company how many hours salaried employees work as long as they get the job done.
The Internet may spark business ideas.
Few federal guidelines exist on electronic surveillance.
Employers and employees are negotiating the boundaries without legal guidance.
As technological capabilities increase, there will be an increased need to define boundaries.
Go to related page: Formal outlines
Sample paper based on outline: Orlov, "Online Monitoring: A Threat to Employee Privacy in the Wired Workplace”