An Ethical Dilemma 1
Megan, a new employee of a company has been instructed to browse company files and seek out ethics violations through company tracking technology. Although Megan has not violated any of the ethics issues presented in the files, she finds issue with certain violations that are not necessarily part of the GAC’s code and completed outside of work hours. For Megan, the …show more content…
However, where do we draw the figurative lines between the privacy of employees and wellbeing of the company? When it comes to the subject of employee monitoring, current laws mandate that monitoring is legal, yet the questions of effectiveness and ethics arise. If a company decides that they will benefit from a monitoring policy, then the next ethical step to take would be to notify employees of the benefits of such a policy (Bezek, et al, 2001). For liability issues, this would be important in regards to indicated consent to have their privacy monitored. The dilemma case 1 fails to suggest that either Megan or Jeremy were officially notified of such a policy, only that company monitoring was a normal part of working. A company policy should inform employees that by using any company vehicles or equipment, the employee renounces any expectation to privacy. Doing so decreases risk of liability issues, receives informed consent from workers, and establishes communication with …show more content…
Organizations must monitor employees to protect both the company as well as the employee, but organizations must also give thorough attention to the ethical treatment of employee information collected. One form of ethical treatment is to protect the confidentiality of employees. Within the protection of privacy, it important to look at the contextual integrity which establishes certain requirements for the distribution of information. Its distribution should remain context applicable and honorable. For example, an employee could sign waivers that allow a company to assess their use of company vehicles with supervisors. However, the contextual integrity would be dishonored if that information was shared with fellow employees outside of this expectation. Unfortunately, these expectations were not addressed with Megan prior to receiving the documents allowing room for confidentially mistakes to