Question

Visit YouTube and search for the video “Ethics in the Workplace to IT – Team 8.” Answer the following questions.

1. Why do you think employers monitor their online behaviour at work?
2. Name the policies the company has put in place in regard to ethics in the workplace.
3. What monitoring technologies does the company use to keep track of sites employees access.
4. Do you think it’s ethical for employers to monitor sites that employees access?
5. Which is more expensive—firing an employee or putting policies in place for employees to follow?

Answer 1

1.

One of the key reason why employers monitor their employees’ online behavior at work is to protect themselves against some wrongdoing or harm that the employees can bring to themselves or the company. For example, use of illegal websites may cause legal challenge for which the employers may be held responsible. By monitoring their employees, the organizations attempt to minimize this risk.

2.

The policies that the company has put in place are

Internet Use policy

Nonrepudiation acceptable use policy

Email privacy policy

3.

Company uses various technologies to keep track of employee access. They view the cookie on the hard drive, they use monitoring software and, they even use clickstream tools to check employee activity.

4.

I think it is ethical for employers to monitor employees’ internet usage behavior as long as the employer does not use this knowledge to harm or put the employee at any situational discomfort. For example, if the company uses this private knowledge to coerce the employee to resign or stick to the job then that is unethical. However, if the employer monitors this information in order to provide security to rest of the organization then it is ethical.

5.

It is more expensive to fire an employee. This is because it comes with various direct and indirect costs associated with firing.