(a) Legal Issues
Microsoft is a company famous for bringing a computer in the lives of people. It has been in business since a long time and works in different jurisdictions. Owing to these reasons, it has to follow the laws of all the jurisdictions in which it operates. All in all, Microsoft is a company which follows the legislations which apply on it. These include both general and specific legislations which apply on the company. For instance, it complies with Gramm Leach Bliley Act, Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, etc (Microsoft, 2017a).
There is a need for the companies like Data Protection Act, 1998 where the companies have to ensure that the information of the people is not misused. As per this act, businesses have to store and use the information of the users in a manner where the information is not misused. The information has to be used for the purpose it was collected in a lawful and fair manner, and subject to procedures for preventing any accidental loss, unlawful processing, and destruction and damage to their personal data. There is also a need to follow the Freedom of Information Act 2000, which gives the businesses and individuals the right for requesting the information which is held by the public authority. So, where information is sought out by the public authority, the businesses have to inform about the information, based on the provisions of this act. There are other legislations also which have to be followed and included in this is the Computer Misuses Act 1990. In this statute, certain activities with regards to computers, is legislated, for instance, hacking in computer of other people for retrieving some information, or for the purpose of helping the individuals for gaining access to information which is one computer of another person (Weebly, 2017).
However, the company has had fair share of breaches in law, which has proved costly for the company, at different instances. For instance, as per the Dutch DPA, Microsoft’s Windows breached the privacy laws, as no valid consent had been attained by the company from its users resulting in multiple contraventions of the data protection law (Lomas, 2017). The company had been ordered to split in two companies by a federal judge of US in 2000 and this had been seen as the biggest corporate breakup from the time when AT&T had been rebuked harshly for stifling corporate age competition. In Microsoft’s case, Microsoft had breached the antitrust law and this is the reason for the split order being passed against the company. The split had to be done in two parts, where the first would oversee the operating system of Windows, and the second one who handle the other softwares of Microsoft like the ‘word’ program (The Guardian, 2000). But, the company managed to avoid this split by settling this matter with Department of Justice and gulping a tough pill (Fitzpatrick, 2014).
Ethical Issues
There are a number of ethical issues which can be raised in an organization, which includes using the information of the clients, customers, suppliers, and the other stakeholders in an ethical manner. It is the ethical responsibility of Microsoft to access the information systems in an ethical manner. The technology has to be particularly used in a manner where ethics are followed. The use of emails have to be done on the basis of code of practices; for instance for the purpose of office use only. The internet has to be properly used for the work to be done, instead of using it for searching for jobs or tampering data of others in form of hacking. The businesses have to present a clear whistle-blowing policy which allows the individuals to come forward and highlight the wrongdoings without any fears, particularly as these have to be compliant to the Public Interest Disclosure Act. The employees also have to be taught the manner in which in which their wrong clicks could result in the information of the clients being misused, and have to be properly taught about privacy invasion.
The company also ensures that it follows ethical practices by following code of practice and ethical standards. In this regard, the company is committed to integrity and corporate responsibility which defines the compliance program and work of ethics. Through the Standards of Business Conduct, this commitment of the company is expressed. This code of conduct of the company is focused around building trust with communities, customers, governments, representatives, and investors. These standards are reflective of the values and the culture of the company, which describe the principles which guide their behaviour and also help the company in getting the help when the same is needed, and in making good choices (Microsoft, 2017b). This code applies to the employees of the company, its subsidiaries and controlled affiliates, executive officers, and the board of directors (Microsoft, 2017c). The company, due to its ethical values, has been named as the most ethical company for consecutive five years. The company is committed to ethical business practices, along with strong corporate governance policies which are designed for promoting long term interest of the shareholders, promoting accountability at all levels, maintaining internal checks and balances, and also in fostering responsible decision making. The most ethical company tag for five years had been given by the Ethisphere Institute (Harnick, 2015).
(b)
The organizations are required to store and have to manage numerous pieces of information, where some have more significance in comparison to others. The businesses have to make certain that the company gets the information which is required and the suitable staff members get the information. In order to make certain that there is proper management of information, there are a number of procedures which have to be followed and the adoption of different policies in proper place, which relates to health and safety, backups, security information, business continuance plans, and organizational policies (Phillips and Gully, 2013). Some examples of operational issues include the delay issues, quality issues, work cultural issues, and cultural and management issues. So, there may be an issue of giving quality work in a time bound manner causing delays. There could be a different in culture of two or more employees, posing an issue in controlling the team.
This also touches upon the legal sphere particularly in context of Data Protection Act 1998. The security of data is particularly important for Microsoft as it easily gets their hand on the user information. This requires the company to protect the database from the destructive forces, along with the unwanted action from the unauthorized users. Microsoft also needs to adopt proper measures of backups so that the data is not lost, and can be restored to the original place, upon being lost. The Health and Safety of employees also has to be ensured by the company, so as to avoid instances of workplace injuries or accidents. The business continuance plans are the set of documents, procedure and instructions through which the businesses are enabled to respond to threats, accidents, disaster and emergencies, without any kind of hindrance in the operations of the company (Yull, 2009).
In order to disseminate the information of the company, the companies have to make use of electronic and non-electronic methods for the purpose of communicating the business information, based on the different types of audience (Furlonger and Haywood, 2013).
The electronic communication includes email, video conferencing, phone call, SMS, fax, and digital broadcasting. The internet is used globally and is accessed by everyone. It is used primarily as a mode of communicating with any person. There are a number of subheads of electronic communications, and are majorly email and screen based. So, anyone with access to internet becomes the target audience. Microsoft enables the individuals to use the internet through its program Google Edge. Email is another electronic mode of communicating which is an electronic type of letter. This mode is relied heavily upon by the businesses. The target audience for emails are the employees, the suppliers, and any other person who has to be given some information by the company or vice versa. The other electronic mode includes phone and sms, particularly which are used through internet, like whatsapp, hike. These are helpful in context of business meetings, or taking interview for the possible job profile. A phone call can be used to fix an appointment with a client, a potential employee, a supplier, and other stakeholders. For the same purpose, details can be exchanged through SMS, particularly where address or phone number of another person is to be shared. Whatsapp and Hike are used for the same purpose as is done for SMS, but instead through the use of internet. Video conferencing is another important tool for business communications, which enables the individuals to communicate across borders, simply by using the electronic mode. In business sense, these are used for undertaking business meetings with key personnel who are in different parts of the world. Lastly, digital broadcasting is another important electronic mode of business communication, which allows the views to make interactions with the services and programmes provided by the broadcasters like Freeview and Sky (Infogram, 2017). In context of companies, digital broadcasting helps for the consumers as target audience. In other words, the consumers can be targeted for promotion of a particular product or feature through the use of digital broadcasting.
The non-electronic communication includes face to face meets, which is deemed as the most efficient form of business communication with anyone. This mode allows the parties to express their points and also respond to one another. The best example of face to face communication is of a boss with their employee in giving the employee their performance review and discussing the problems being faced by the employee, in addition to asking for suggestions. A key advantage of this form is availability of hard copies of information and a personal touch. The target audience in cases of face to face meets are business associates, employees, future talent, and government/ regulatory personnel. Memorandums allows for the internal business communication amidst the organization, in its different departments. The target audience is the company’s employees. So, a new policy of the company could be communicated to the employees through the use of a memorandum. Another substantial mode of business communication is letter, which needs to be of high standard, due to the same being a formal letter being used in the business communications. It needs to state the information in a clear manner and needs to have a proper introduction, details and the manner in which the reader can respond to the letter (Infogram, 2017). This can be used for the different stakeholders of the company, which includes employees, government departments, suppliers, creditors and the like. Through a letter, an employee could be rewarded or given a warning for poor performance.
An interesting mode of electronic communication which relates the communication in businesses is the intra-company communication through adoption of company based chats, which provides an informal mode to the employees to discuss their problems and communicate the information which is needed. Such softwares have to be integrated across the company even for formal communications. For instance, the data request by one department could simply be pinged on the intra-company communication mode of company based chat. Where complex softwares are adopted, the requisite staff training is to be provided to the employees.
The privacy policy of Microsoft depicts that they follow the legal regulations and they provide all the information which is gathered from the customers follows the terms of the data protection legislation. In this regard, the company has to follow the Data Protection Act, 1998 along with the other legislations mentioned earlier. Microsoft ensures that it complies with the legislations which are applicable on it. It constantly cooperates with the US Government for investigating upon the allegations that the business partners and employees have been engaged in illegal activity in Russia and Pakistan. This cooperation is due to the company proving that it has made no breach. This is the reason why the company takes pride in its work and the positive economic impact it has on communities (Microsoft, 2013).
The company also ensures that no ethical issues are raised and a particular code of practice ensures that the business communications are proper and ethical. In this regard, the emails which are used to give information to large groups have to be properly ethical. The use of internet is used to propagate code of practices and the individuals in the company are stopped from making a misuse of internet, for instance, for the purpose of accessing indecent websites. The company follows a strong whistle blowing policy, to ensure that the employees have no fears in bringing forth any wrongdoing in the company. In doing so, the company provides the Whistle blowing Reporting Procedure and Guidelines, and the Standards of Business Conduct in the Employee Handbook (Microsoft, 2017d).
The operational issues, for Microsoft are the ones stated earlier. The company ensures that there is security of information and that is not only properly secured but protected also. The company uses bulk of information which makes the backups crucial for the company. It ensures that the information is not lost. The health and safety is also an important aspect and the company ensures that all the individuals at its workplace are safe and no threat is caused to their safety (Microsoft, 2017e).
Business information is the set of customized groups of information which is usually about the organization of the individuals and which can be made use of for quickly filling in the appropriate places in publications like flyers and business cards. It can include the components like the name of the individual, their title or job position, address, fax numbers, phone, organization name, logo, and motto or tagline. When a publication is created, the business information set which the person has used recently, is made use of for populating the new publication. Where the business information sets are not created, in such cases the 2007 (or any other version of) Microsoft Office system is made use of (Microsoft, 2007).
Microsoft, through its word program, provides a key base for business communication, which includes both electronic and non-electronic communication. This is because of the availability of different features like business card, letterhead, fax cover and envelope. Through the different styles and templates available on this software, the business communication is channelled effectively. Microsoft through its Office pack allows for different business communication to be made with ease. Drafting of letters is made easy through word (Starks, 2013). There are a number of other softwares, based on the time period, which can be made use of for the purpose of business communication. An important communication tool used and created by Microsoft is Skype, which enables virtual meetings in businesses through video conferencing with clients. With a simple click, meetings can be conducted from any device. It helps in powerful collaborations which help in sharing screen, recording meetings, and annotating PowerPoint for real time collaboration for as high as 250 individuals. This is particularly built for businesses which help through advancing calling options like transferring presenter control and muting a single or a group of participants. It is packed with different features, which make the business communication very easy (Skype, 2017).
A key tool for Microsoft, apart from its Excel and Word, is the Microsoft Access which helps in creation of database and maintains what seems to be an unnecessary use of resources. This program provides a number of advantages which allows for the businesses to grow, which in turn helps Microsoft in its personal growth. It provides a robust manner of tracking data and projects in comparison to Word or Excel. Even though it requires it takes more time to learn, but it is a valuable tool in tracking the growth, projects, and budgets. This software enables the businesses in tracking the information for the customers and clients, which includes addresses, payments, order information, and invoices. Microsoft Access also helps in tracking the financial data, in managing marketing and sales, tracking productivity and inventory, running reports and analysis, and in maintaining customer information (Chapple, 2017).
References
Chapple, M. (2017) Using Microsoft Access in Your Small Business. [Online] Thought Co. Available from: https://www.thoughtco.com/using-microsoft-access-1019748 [Accessed on: 22/12/17]
Fitzpatrick, A. (2014) A Judge Ordered Microsoft to Split. Here’s Why It’s Still a Single Company. [Online] Time. Available from: https://time.com/3553242/microsoft-monopoly/ [Accessed on: 22/12/17]
Furlonger, C., and Haywood, S. (2013) Teaching the National ICT Strategy at Key Stage 3: A Practical Guide. Oxon: Routledge.
Harnick, L.F. (2015) Microsoft on The World’s Most Ethical Companies list 5 years in a row. [Online] Microsoft. Available from: https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2015/03/09/microsoft-on-the-worlds-most-ethical-companies-list-5-years-in-a-row/ [Accessed on: 22/12/17]
Infogram. (2017) Electronic and Non Electronic Communication. [Online] Infogram. Available from: https://infogram.com/electronic-and-non-electronic-communication-1gk9vp14rxz9p4y [Accessed on: 22/12/17]
Lomas, N. (2017) Microsoft’s Windows 10 breaches privacy law, says Dutch DPA. [Online] Tech Crunch. Available from: https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/13/microsofts-windows-10-breaches-privacy-law-says-dutch-dpa/ [Accessed on: 22/12/17]
Microsoft. (2007) Create, change, or remove business information data. [Online] Microsoft. Available from: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Create-change-or-remove-business-information-data-40b87ab6-ef15-4e30-8025-f6d3b18cf699 [Accessed on: 22/12/17]
Microsoft. (2013) Upholding legal and ethical standards. [Online] Microsoft. Available from: https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2013/08/21/upholding-legal-and-ethical-standards/ [Accessed on: 22/12/17]
Microsoft. (2017a) Regulatory compliance. [Online] Microsoft. Available from: https://www.microsoft.com/online/legal/v2/en-us/MOS_PTC_Regulatory_Comp.htm [Accessed on: 22/12/17]
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Microsoft. (2017d) Microsoft Finance Code of Professional Conduct. [Online] Microsoft. Available from: https://www.microsoft.com/investor/CorporateGovernance/BoardOfDirectors/Contacts/MSFinanceCode.aspx [Accessed on: 22/12/17]
Microsoft. (2017e) Empowering our employees. [Online] Microsoft. Available from: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/about/corporate-responsibility/empowering-employees [Accessed on: 22/12/17]
Phillips, J.M., and Gully, S.M. (2013) Human Resource Management. Mason, OH: South-Western.
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Yull, S. (2009) BTEC National for IT Practitioners: Core units. Burlington, MA: Elsevier.
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