Physical Privacy

RUNNING HEAD: WHAT IS THE UTILITARIAN AND DEONTOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF INFORMATIONAL PRIVACY FOR EMPLOYEES

UTILITARIAN AND DEONTOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF INFORMATION PRIVACY FOR EMPLOYEES

Professor Klein

Business Ethics: ETH 501

5 August 2011

UTILITARIAN AND DEONTOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF INFORMATION 2

PRIVACY FOR EMPLOYEES

ABSTRACT

Employers now have the ability to watch their employees at any given moment

during the day. I guess you can say that lack of trust is the common

demonator that gives employers the right to act on their suspension of their

employees. Also a key factor is the constant improvements in technology. The

Technology field is an ever-changing entity that by all means cannot be

stopped. It gives employees the ability to work extremely quickly and efficiently,

while also allowing them to be extremely mobile for the organization's

advantage (Jennings 2006). While giving these great advantages to businesses

and their employees, technology also allows businesses to track all movements

of their employees. Having so much technology allows businesses to track

computer usage, phone calls, copy machines, etc. There are many different

ethical ways to look at this newly rising issue facing employees today. But by

looking at the employee privacy through a utilitarian view as well as a

deontological view gives two different approaches to this growing problem.

UTILITARIAN AND DEONTOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF INFORMATION 3

PRIVACY FOR EMPLOYEES

Utilitarianism in short is considered as "the ends justify the means." From a

business owner or managers point of view they are essentially looking out for

the end result. They feel that watching over their employees in any way

possible would help keep them acting in a professional manner whether that is

on the phone, through electronic correspondence, face to face with co-workers

or any other position where the employee is a...