The Work Place Autonomy vs. the SEC Porn Scandal

In class we have been discussing the types of management styles conducive to high productivity, happy employees, and new emerging corporate cultures. Much of the discussion has centered around allowing people more freedom in the work place which often would include an open internet access.

I believe this management style works and hope to someday develop my own company with a corporate culture similar to that of Tom's or Zappo's. My only question is, if you allow people the autonomy in the work place, how do you keep them on task?

My concern stems from a recent report about the amount of time that multiple senior level employees at the SEC spent watching porn as the economy crumbled around us. Jobs with lots of autonomy are good for those in higher level positions. How then was a senior level attorney spending up to eight hours a day watching and downloading pornography. When his hard drive was full, he amassed boxes full of DVDs which he burned. Seventeen of the employees who were found out to have been watching porn earned salaries over $220,000.

My guess is that we wouldn't be reading about this in the headlines if we weren't coming our of the worst recession since the Great Depression (but still raises an eyebrow).

My proposed solution for issues like this is to still allow for free web browsing but communicate openly about the stringency with which SEC like behaviors will be monitored. Also, depending on the business, open communication seems like a natural control to keeping people honest about their productivity.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126206058&ft=1&f=1001