GMAT Essays (AWA)

ESSAY QUESTION:
"Companies should be prohibited from monitoring e-mail correspondence of their employees, since this policy destroys the atmosphere of trust and undermines employee morale."

From your perspective, how accurate is the above statement? Support your position with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.

MY RESPONSE:
There are multiple management methods that incorporated by different leaders have proved successful. We often contrast a Steve Jobs to a Bill Gates two very different leaders who have both seen success in a similar industry. There are therefore leaders that have seen and appreciated the merits of monitoring employee email correspondence - in fact over 70% of companies in the United States monitor employee email correspondence. It it however my opinion that it does in fact destroy the atmosphere of trust and undermine employee moral.

Monitoring email correspondence seems to indicate that you suspect the employees morals and therefore need to monitor what information they are sending out to externals and internal colleagues lest it be confidential. If company management did trust their employees they would not feel the need to micro-manage to this degree and having lost the mutual confidence the atmosphere of trust is destroyed.

Companies have multiple HR methods to review employee performance such as appraisals, performance scorecards and KPIs. Most of all team performance and financial results indicate the employee contribution. In this even it is unnecessary to monitor email and any other employee communication to see exactly what they are doing during work hours as long as they are meeting deliverables in time. A demonstrated lack of trust and empowerment on behalf of the management could demotivate employees.

It is my belief that if employees are trusted, challenged and appreciated in their roles they will feel a sense of loyalty and encouragement to perform in their given role. There is therefore no need to monitor employee email correspondence. Chinas screening of internet usage in its territory including email has been widely criticized by multiple countries and companies like Google who even chose to exit China as a result of a disagreement on this account. If the outrage to Chinas monitoring is so unanimous then why the hypocriscy closer home with employees?

Hi All,

Would really appreciate feedback on my issue essay. This is the second one I have put up but never received any feedback on either. Getting your opinion on the poll would really help me analyze how much more I need to put into this and expert opinion would help me focus my efforts.

I only have a week for the GMAT so really really need your opinions. I know a lot of essays go up every day but I hope we can still help each other out!

Thanks a lot!