IT ethics kim woods only

Ethical dilemma: Installing cameras at workplace to monitor employees’ actions

Stakeholders

Finality

Autonomy

Tolerance

1: The employees

The employees have a responsibility to take action that override the demands of the organization. If they feel that a particular action is invading their privacy as having surveillance cameras then that should be final.

Autonomy is the duty to maximize the individual’s right to make his or her own decisions. Employees have the right to enjoy their freedom at workplace as long as it is within the limits of the law. Employees should also respect the privacy of their employers in order to bring harmony at work. Employees do not like to be monitored and therefore, employers should respect that.

The employees also have the responsibility to understand and to accept the perspective of the employers if reasons to do so are warranted. Employers are interested in ensuring that employees utilize their work time to the maximum rather than spending it doing other things at workplace.

2: The employer

Also the employers have the accountability to take action that override the demands of the workforce. Their decision to have surveillance cameras at workstations should be final because their aim is to monitor work actions and not personal behavior.

Employers have the duty to allow employees to make their own decisions regarding the issue of camera surveillance at their workstations. On the other hand, this principle works vice versa where employees also have the accountability to let employers make their own decisions without interference because they are the job providers and they feel that if they don’t monitor workers they will do other things apart from work which will lead to losses.

The employers have the responsibility to understand the employees’ point of view. Research shows that workers who feel they are always being monitored do not perform well and this ends up lowering an organization’s productivity. Employers have to understand workers perspective if their reasons are warranted. On the other hand, workers who are being monitored are always on point and finish their works early and therefore, may increase an organization’s productivity and that is why this is an ethical dilemma.

3: The Board of Directors

The Board of Directors is a group of individuals whom the employer is also supposed to answer to. The board of directors have the responsibility to take action that may override the demands of the employer or the employees but in either way, the board will side with one party and it is that which will bring less damage to the organization (Manners, 2008).

The board of directors also has the responsibility to maximize the individual’s rights to make their own decisions. This means that the employers and the workers both have the right to make their own decisions and so does the Board of Directors. Since the board of directors is the higher authority it has the duty to make a decision that will not undermine the employer’s credibility and at the same time will not affect the productivity of the workers (Manners, 2008).

On tolerance, most decisions do not satisfy all parties and therefore, some parties will have to understand and live with the decision that will be made. But before the decision is made considering the circumstances, also the board of directors has the duty to understand and accept the view points of the both the workers and the employer. Without understanding one party will feel that the final decision made to solve the dilemma is not fair (Manners, 2008).