East Coast Bank Employee Privacy Case Study Solution

The human resource manager should instruct the two employees who have discovered the internet pop –ups in their computers not to associate it with any employee’s private life. This will enable these employees to limit the spreading of the internet pop-ups to their colleagues. In addition, they will limit associating the information with a particular employee. This approach aims at protecting the privacy of the employee suspected to be visiting the internet sites which sends the pop-up advertisements. Largely, creating mechanisms in the organization to protect the privacy of the employees is critical in promoting team work and organizational performance. The employees cannot work towards achieving the organizational objectives when one of them is pecking on his colleague’s privacy.

The human resource manager should ask the management of the organization responsible in web administration to limit internet navigation for personal usage. Restricting the websites which the company employee is able to visit is necessary because it would help in avoiding similar situations in future. When the company employees use the organizational computers for personal work, they might leave some leading information that might expose their privacy to the rest of the employees. Arguably, when such private information reaches the ears of the organizational employees it might act as the pecking topic in the organization. In some situations, the information might create acrimony between the employees. It is much easier for the organization to control the websites that it intends its employee to visit that controlling the pecking in the organization. The internet pop-ups of cookies are traceable to the computer that visits sites which have strings of network. In this case, the organization can control the websites which its employee visits through the server.

Although instituting privacy and information sharing policy is instrumental in defining the extent to which the employees are able to share information, leaving the computers without protection makes the ethics on privacy unachievable. The employees should help the management to protect their private information by limiting the exposure of such information to the public. Nevertheless, in the event of information leak, the organization should restrict authority to share such information with the rest of the employees. For instance, the management might propose heavy penalty for spreading rumors and private information in the organization. This approach would help to prevent the spread of certain information that leaks from the internet from personal computer. The two employees that are privy to the private information of their colleagues should receive a warning from the human resource limiting their ability to spread such information to rest of the employees.

Workplace Privacy and Ethic of Privacy

The sharing of computers by employees in East Cost Bank seems to open some loopholes for leaking private worker’s information. In this computer era, the activities that one does in the workplace computer might expose information that is privy to identifying the worker’s private life. Thus, employees should be careful when using the organization’s computers. For example, visiting websites which make the next user of the computer to establish the possible private information is risky to the organization’s peaceful existence with its employees. Compromising the privacy of the employee might attract legal feud between the organization and the respective employee. Thus, the human resource manager must not allow the employees that have gained private information of one of their colleagues to reach into the ears of the entire company.

From the case event, it is apparent that the East Cost Bank lacks the mechanism of enhancing internet or computer security hence comprising the privacy of its employees. It should create measures which limits the websites which the employees are able access as well as instructing the employees about the danger of exposing sensitive private information to the public. Evidently, the task to protect private information in the era of computer and internet age goes beyond the employer’s task to the employee’s duty. Thus, the worker and his boss should share in the task of keeping private information secret.

The ethics of privacy dictates that the human resource manager of the East Cost Bank should not share any private information of an employee with his colleagues. Moreover, the health information concerning the employee should remain a preserve of the management and the respective individual. Unfortunately, one of the employees has left leading information in the workplace computer an aspect that has created speculation among his colleagues. Although the content retrieved from the computer could be used as leading information to his personal life, associating the employee with the speculations is weird because anybody might wish to acquire information through the internet. Thus, the human resource management should explain this possibility to the workers that have retrieved this information and explain the consequences of spreading rumors. In addition, the organization should create privacy ethics and explain them to the workers in order to avoid behavior which is likely to compromise the privacy of the workers.

Environment of Ethics in Google Era

            The ethics environment in the Google era seems to predispose organizations to breach of privacy ethics. Although it might not be the intention of the members of the organization to establish the private information of their colleagues, the searches which a person make through the Google website are easily traceable and could lead to disclosure of private information. This situation demands that organizations should create servers which define the websites that an employee using the workplace computer is able to access and prevent internet pop-ups and cookies. Further, employees should help in protecting their information.

In conclusion, treating information in the internet and Google era is tricky to the management and employees. Advisably, the employees should consider the sensitivity of the information they display in the workplace computers. Similarly, the human resource manager should create policy which limits individuals from using the organizational computers for their individual work. Further, employees who retrieve sensitive information from their computers perceived to belong to their colleagues should treat such information as non consequential to their work life and not spread the same to their colleagues.

Reference;

University of Virginia. Google and Internet Privacy.