PROFESSIONAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES

Decem

ber 2

1,2011

Employee Monitoring And Privacy At Workplace

Agenda

0 Introduction to Employee monitoring0 Types of Employee Monitoring0 Pro’s and Con’s of Employee monitoring0 Ethical, Legal and Social Consequences0 Laws For Monitoring0 Policy guidelines on the issue of privacy0 Conclusion

Introduction To Employee Monitoring

0What is Employee Monitoring?0 Employee monitoring means monitoring the employee and tracking

down what he/she does at the workplace by any method.

Introduction to Employee Monitoring

0 Workplace is like our second home

0 Employee monitoring has been in practice for many years.

0 “before surveillance gadgets –monitoring by human eyes”.

0 Advancements in the technologies-Created new possibilities

0 The human-eye now replaced by electronic eye

Introduction to Employee monitoring

0Employee monitoring has given rise to concerns from many areas in the society.

0Each one of them has their own justification to support or go against of it.

Introduction to Employee monitoringTwo dimensions to it

0Those who see monitoring as a very reasonable controlling and management tool

Introduction to Employee monitoringTwo dimensions to it

0Those who consider monitoring as an absolute wrongdoing

Introduction To Employee Monitoring

0 Ways Employers collect information about their workers.

0Work-Related Information-Provided Voluntarily0Acquiring information privately-Through Surveillance

0 To what depth is the information acquired?

0The question which arises is that is this kind of scrutiny right?

0 Concerns over security threats (viruses and other malicious software).

0 Concerns about inappropriate activities by employees ( harassment, unprofessional comments).

0 Concerns over company’s Reputation.

0 Concerns over Client Satisfaction.

Introduction To Employee Monitoring

0A case that further clouds this issue is of a court which called for an employee.

0 The court requests the employer to provide accurate information about that employee.

0Now if the employer provides false information he can be held answerable by the court .

0However if he doesn’t refuse he can be held answerable for disrespecting employee’s privacy rights.

Types Of Employee Monitoring

0Telephone Monitoring

0Video Monitoring

0Computer Monitoring/ Internet use Monitoring

0Email Monitoring/Email Scanning and Filtering

Types Of Employee Monitoring

0Telephone Monitoring

Types Of Employee Monitoring

0Video Monitoring

Types Of Employee Monitoring

0Computer Monitoring/ Internet use Monitoring

Types Of Employee Monitoring

0Email Monitoring/Email Scanning and Filtering

Advantages

0Driving economy 0A Tool for increasing productivity.0Focus-satisfy the clients and customers.0Employer will be aware of the problem areas - judge -

better decision0Relationships among the employees.0Monitor company’s performance - supervise better0Preventing misconduct0Monitor and evaluate the performance0Make sure that the rules are being followed.

Advantages

0View what web pages they have been visiting0Record the pattern of their keystrokes0Time spent on a particular page or website.0Employee’s access to the shared data0Monitor the emails sent and received by any computer

terminal at their workplace.

Disadvantages

0 Physical and psychological problems0 Increasing stress0 Lack of job satisfaction0 Lack of trust on the higher management.0 Eliminates the privacy that employee expected0 Affect the employee’s creativity0 Discomfort at work-create dislike among employees0 Hostile Work Environment

Ethical, Legal and Social Consequences

0Talking about privacy as an ethical matter0 Employment contract

Ethical, Legal and Social Consequences

0Talking about privacy as an legal matter

0Laws for monitoring0Electronic

communications privacy act

0National labor relations act

0The USA patriot act

Policy Guidelines on the Issue of Privacy

1. Disclose/Ask the nature of any surveillance

2. Discuss the type of information which has to be private .

3. Rules for accessing internet, computer ,phone, fax….etc

Conclusion0 Inform the employees what is expected from them

0Employees aware of when the monitoring will take place.

0Open communication before framing any policy

0What will be tracked about them .

Conclusion0 Employees aware of the nature, degree and purpose of monitoring-

get familiar to the policy easily

0 Secret monitoring allowed if justified.

0 Provide copy of the company’s policy

0 Changes in company’s policy-employees informed timely.

Conclusion0 This will motivate the employee as they’ll feel respected and

valued.

0 Monitoring should be done without any discrimination (age, gender, nationality or seniority.)

0 Instead of continuous monitoring, it should be carried out only when a certain kind of risk arises or have spot-checking.

References[1] Kizza, Joseph Migga. Ethical and Social Issues in the Information Age. New York: Springer- Verlag, 2010. [2]Hartman, Laura P. “The rights and wrongs of workplace snooping”. Journal of Business Strategy .vol 19, no.3,(June 1998) :16 [3]Martin, Kristen, and R.Edward Freeman. “Some problems with employee monitoring”. Journal of business ethics. vol.43, (2003): 353-361.

[4]Duffy, Daintry. “Watch This Way”.CSO. Feb.2003, vol.2, no.2: 34-39. Date of access: 24 April, 2011

[5]Agre, Philip E. and Christine A Mailloux. ‘Social Choice about Privacy’, in Friedman batya (ed.), Human Values and Design of Computer Technology. CLSI Publication, Cambridge University Press-Stanford, 1992

[6]Bowers, J. Bowers on Employment Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Stanton, Jaffery M. ,Kathryn R. Stam . The Visible Employee .Medford, NJ: Information Today Inc. , 2006.