PROFESSIONAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES

1. PROFESSIONAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES December 21,2011 By: Misbah Saleem

2. Employee Monitoring And Privacy At Workplace

3. Agenda • Introduction to Employee monitoring • Types of Employee Monitoring • Pro’s and Con’s of Employee monitoring • Ethical, Legal and Social Consequences • Laws For Monitoring • Policy guidelines on the issue of privacy • Conclusion

4. Introduction To Employee Monitoring • What is Employee Monitoring? • Employee monitoring means monitoring the employee and tracking down what he/she does at the workplace by any method.

5. Introduction to Employee Monitoring • Workplace is like our second home • Employee monitoring has been in practice for many years. • “before surveillance gadgets –monitoring by human eyes”. • Advancements in the technologies-Created new possibilities • The human-eye now replaced by electronic eye

6. Introduction to Employee monitoring • Employee monitoring has given rise to concerns from many areas in the society. • Each one of them has their own justification to support or go against of it.

7. Introduction to Employee monitoringTwo dimensions to it Those who see monitoring as a very reasonable controlling and management tool

8. Introduction to Employee monitoringTwo dimensions to it Those who consider monitoring as an absolute wrongdoing

9. Introduction To Employee Monitoring • Ways Employers collect information about their workers. • Work-Related Information-Provided Voluntarily • Acquiring information privately-Through Surveillance • To what depth is the information acquired?

10. The question which arises is that is this kind of scrutiny right? • Concerns over security threats (viruses and other malicious software). • Concerns about inappropriate activities by employees ( harassment, unprofessional comments). • Concerns over company’s Reputation. • Concerns over Client Satisfaction.

11. Introduction To Employee Monitoring • A case that further clouds this issue is of a court which called for an employee. • The court requests the employer to provide accurate information about that employee. • Now if the employer provides false information he can be held answerable by the court . • However if he doesn’t refuse he can be held answerable for disrespecting employee’s privacy rights.

12. Types Of Employee Monitoring • Telephone Monitoring • Video Monitoring • Computer Monitoring/ Internet use Monitoring • Email Monitoring/Email Scanning and Filtering

13. Types Of Employee Monitoring • Telephone Monitoring

14. Types Of Employee Monitoring • Video Monitoring

15. Types Of Employee Monitoring • Computer Monitoring/ Internet use Monitoring

16. Types Of Employee Monitoring • Email Monitoring/Email Scanning and Filtering

17. Advantages • Driving economy • A Tool for increasing productivity. • Focus-satisfy the clients and customers. • Employer will be aware of the problem areas - judge -better decision • Relationships among the employees. • Monitor company’s performance - supervise better • Preventing misconduct • Monitor and evaluate the performance • Make sure that the rules are being followed.

18. Advantages • View what web pages they have been visiting • Record the pattern of their keystrokes • Time spent on a particular page or website. • Employee’s access to the shared data • Monitor the emails sent and received by any computer terminal at their workplace.

19. Disadvantages • Physical and psychological problems • Increasing stress • Lack of job satisfaction • Lack of trust on the higher management. • Eliminates the privacy that employee expected • Affect the employee’s creativity • Discomfort at work-create dislike among employees • Hostile Work Environment

20. Ethical, Legal and Social Consequences • Talking about privacy as an ethical matter • Employment contract

21. Ethical, Legal and Social Consequences • Talking about privacy as an legal matter • Laws for monitoring • Electronic communications privacy act • National labor relations act • The USA patriot act

22. Policy Guidelines on the Issue of Privacy • Disclose/Ask the nature of any surveillance • Discuss the type of information which has to be private . • Rules for accessing internet, computer ,phone, fax….etc

23. Conclusion • Inform the employees what is expected from them • Employees aware of when the monitoring will take place. • Open communication before framing any policy • What will be tracked about them .

24. Conclusion • Employees aware of the nature, degree and purpose of monitoring-get familiar to the policy easily • Secret monitoring allowed if justified. • Provide copy of the company’s policy • Changes in company’s policy-employees informed timely.

25. Conclusion • This will motivate the employee as they’ll feel respected and valued. • Monitoring should be done without any discrimination (age, gender, nationality or seniority.) • Instead of continuous monitoring, it should be carried out only when a certain kind of risk arises or have spot-checking.

26. 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.