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Risks Associated with Co-Location
Contents
TOC o “1-3” h z u 1. Introduction PAGEREF _Toc70220540 h 12. Discussion and Analysis PAGEREF _Toc70220541 h 22.1 Co-Location PAGEREF _Toc70220542 h 22.2 Risks Associated with Co-Sharing PAGEREF _Toc70220543 h 23. Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc70220544 h 5References PAGEREF _Toc70220545 h 6
Risks Associated with Co-Location
1. IntroductionAttainment of organizational objectives is one of the major goals for many organizations, governments included. In order to engage in the different activities such as production and distribution of goods and services, various organizations and institutions have been forced to adopt several strategies. The process of co-location is one of the major strategies different organizations and institutions have been forced to adopt in order to continue operating effectively. Through co-location, a vast majority of institutions small and large have been able to save on cost by sharing various types of costs such as rental cost and infrastructure investment with other co-locating institutions. In addition, through co-location organizational departments are able to come together, share resources, while collaborating with each other in the attainment of both short and long term organizational goals. Despite the various benefits associated with co-location in an organization, it is imperative for institutions to note that there also exist various major risks associated with the co-location process. Bearing this in mind, the purpose of this report therefore is to identity and communicate the various major risks associated with the new government co-location of office space between the the Ministry of Health & Wellness and Ministry of Social Services in downtown Wellington.
2. Discussion and Analysis2.1 Co-LocationCo-location commonly known as co-sharing is one of the major approaches adopted by various institutions with the aim of attaining various objectives. It involves the process of placing several entities such as departments in a single sharing location (Mariotti & Di Vita, 2017). For most organizations, co-location is adopted as an approach in team building which utilizes the strategy of putting members of different departments in the same location with the aim of improving their performance as a team or reducing the costs of operation (Bueno et al., 2018). Bearing this in mind, it is clear that co-sharing has revolutionized the traditional approaches to work. Despite its major purpose in encouraging team development and reducing costs in an organization, there are various major risks associated with co-sharing arrangement. Cyber security and data privacy is one of the major risks associated with co-location arrangements in organizations.
2.2 Risks Associated with Co-SharingIndustrial revolutions have created rapid coupling of the digital and physical worlds, and as a result leading to an increased reliance on the internet and other forms of networked cyber technologies (Wheatley & Sornette, 2019). Despite the great benefits, this increased change in technology has been associated with an increase in aggravated man made perils, bringing along new ways to commit crimes such as cyberattacks. Recently, malware attacks and data breaches have been the number one prime issues for many organizations and institutions globally. Being placed among the most extreme risks today, data breaches and cyber threats are considered some of the most dangerous crimes extending to theft, extortion, fraud, and business disruption. Mariotti & Di Vita (2017) indicate that, with the World Economic Forum report indicating that cyberattack is among the biggest risk and challenge to global instability, it seems that operating organizational activities in an open space while sharing internet connectivity with dozens of departments from other institutions as result of co-location arrangement is a data breach on the verge of happen.
In the world today, as organizations and institutions globalize and the number employees in the organization increases, expectations of instant access to information also increases. Bearing in mind that internet connectivity such as WIFI connection is considered as one of the most important tools a working environment can offer to access instant information, cases of data breach and cyber security have been on the rise as a result of this (Mariotti & Di Vita, 2017). Therefore, through co-location arrangement, many organizations and institutions are able to experience increased risks of data breach and cyber security which in one way or another affects the operations of the organization. The availability of public internet connectivity which is associated with co-location arrangement makes it easier for individuals to access personal information belonging to clients or organizational financial information which in many times results to wrongful acts such as fraud, theft, and exploitation.
Loss of data privacy and cyber security within an organization due to data breach and cyberattack is considered a major risk for most institutions such as social services and health departments. Establishment of co-location arrangements creates an environment of enhanced sharing and access within organization which typically requires opening of information systems so that relevant information can be accessed and shared (De Peuter et al., 2017). In many cases, this can be done online through the use of publicly accessible organizational networks. As a result, this may expose an organization to digital security issues that can lead to various major incidents that disrupt the integrity, availability, and confidentiality of data such as health care data and information systems on which organizations rely in the distribution of key mandate services. In addition, organizations’ reputation, assets, and the physical activities conducted can be impacted to an extent of affecting its competitiveness and ability to engage in productive services.
In cases involving institutions such as social services and health ministries, co-location is considered a major risk due to the fact that it increases the impacts of data breaches. De Peuter et al. (2017) states that, operating organizational activities in an open space while sharing internet connectivity with dozens of departments from other institutions as result of co-location arrangement can cause an increase in access and sharing of personal data which in turn results to data breaches. As a result, this causes personal harm to individuals due to violation of privacy from the breached personal data. To the institution, this can cause economic losses to the institution affected due to filled suits against it. In addition, increases in these cases of personal data breaches can also affect the reputation of the institution and as a result leading to loss of competitiveness in terms of its services. Bearing this in mind, it is therefore clear that if no actions are taken against mitigating the risk of data breach as a result of cyberattacks, organizations are able to suffer various consequences such as loss of clients due to the fear of violation of privacy, loss of competition, and the loss of facing different law suits from angry and violated clients (Wheatley& Sornette, 2019). Apart from these consequences, it is also clear that the risks of data breach and cyber threat also results to other consequences such as loss of control over the important data if the security risk is not addressed early in advanced. In this case the information will move from the institution’s information system (data holder) to the outside world thus moving out of the institutions control reach.
Apart from data breached and cyber security, co-location and hotdesking arrangements can also result to the risk of leadership disruption within the organization. When two departments from different ministries such as the Ministry of Health & Wellness and Ministry of Social Services start working under the same location and building, issues of leadership always become a major problem. In this case, employees become disrupted which leadership to flow due to the fact that they are sharing the same space and as a result his creates problems within the organizations such as delay in service distribution, on the job quarrelling, lack of collaboration which results to poor performance in both the short term and long term (Vanichvatana, 2018). In addition, it is often the dream of a majority of employees to occupy offices with luxurious equipment in it. However, the, the co-location and hotdesking system of organization might affect these dreams due to the fact that it does not put in place any system or measures of identifying who the veteran and leaders of the organizations are. Despite this, this system treats all the employees equally regardless of the experience and time of stay in the organization. Due to this, the system of arrangement of workplace may result to various disputes such as hierarchy of office which in turn starts affecting operation of services due to increased rivalry within the organization. Additionally, this dispute in leadership can also cause resentment among the organisational employees in the co-location arrangement, especially for those who feel they are about to attain their personal goals. Bearing this in mind, it is therefore clear that disruption in leadership is another major risk associated with both co-location and hotdesking in an organization. according to (Vanichvatana, 2018) findings, in order to avoid the major consequences such as poor performance and attainment of organization goals associated with it, it is imperative for the organizational management to always establish a clear line of authority in the organization before adopting the use of hotdesking or co-location in the organization. In so doing, organizations are able to reduce increase cases of disruption in leadership as a result of co-location and hotdesking.
3. ConclusionIn summary, attainment of organizational goals is one of the major goals for many organizations and institutions. In order to engage in different activities such as production and distribution of goods and services, various organizations and institutions have been forced to adopt several strategies such as co-location. Through co-location, a vast majority of institutions small and large have been able to save on cost by sharing various types of costs such as rental cost and infrastructure investment with other co-locating institutions. Despite the various benefits associated with co-location in an organization, it is imperative for institutions to note that there also exist various major risks such as data breach and cyber security associated with the co-location arrangements. To avoid the issues of disruption in leadership, organizational management should always establish a clear line of authority in the organization before adopting the use of hotdesking or co-location in the organization. In regard to data breach and cyber security, the organization should implement a security policy that every employee should go through when signing their work contract and abide by it to the end.
ReferencesBueno, S., Rodríguez-Baltanás, G., & Gallego, M. D. (2018). Coworking spaces: a new way of
achieving productivity. Journal of Facilities Management.
De Peuter, G., Cohen, N. S., & Saraco, F. (2017). The ambivalence of coworking: On the politics
of an emerging work practice. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 20(6), 687-706.
Mariotti, I., Pacchi, C., & Di Vita, S. (2017). Co-working spaces in Milan: Location patterns and
urban effects. Journal of Urban Technology, 24(3), 47-66.
Vanichvatana, S. (2018). Investigating users’ perspectives of coworking space: cases of Bangkok
CBD. Chinese Business Review, 17(9), 465-478.
Wheatley, S., Hofmann, A., & Sornette, D. (2019). Data breaches in the catastrophe framework
& beyond. arXiv preprint arXiv:1901.00699.
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