Aspects of Informational Privacy

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For a while now, the HP board of directors has been a sinking ship with so many loopholes. Looking at the leadership of Hewlett-Packard, it is rather accurate to admit that there have been problems in the past few years. Patricia Dunn was the Chairperson in the organization when the pretext saga broke out. She had been in the position for at least a year. That is, from February 2005 until September 2006 when she was forced to resign. It is important to also bear in mind that Hewlett- Packard has been in the computer industry for a very long time and has had a good competitive edge at least since the 1960s (Kaplan, 2006, p. 1).

Given the various situations in an organization, it may be hard for an individual or a group of people to make sense of a certain act. Ethics and morals can rarely apply when it is a do-or-die situation and when more than just an individual is involved. Making a decision that would serve the interests of both parties can be very complex and even difficult at times. However, there are choices that an individual in any organization may make with the assumption that it will in the long run benefit a majority. Therefore, with this in mind, people go ahead and make such decisions as pretexting just as Patricia Dunn did (Kaplan, 2006, p.2).

This was unethical since it involve the invasion of people’s privacy. Patricia had assumed that this would most definitely benefit a good number of people in HP if the people leaking the organization’s vital information were brought to book. This to a large extent does make sense and is partially right. Considering that for any organization to beat its competitors there has to be a degree of information they let out into public. Otherwise, the frequent information leakage may compromise the success of HP in the market and may eventually lead to the loss of jobs of its employees due to low sales amongst other factors.

On the question as to whether Patricia Dunn should have been forced to resign, the answer is no. This is mainly because she did what most individuals in her situation could have done. More so, she was smart enough to weigh the options on whether she should save the majority through pretexting or let the organization slide down into failure over time. By pretexting, this means that some outsiders were employed secretly and were given the last four digits of their social security numbers to be able to track their communication with the outside world.

This was however done against the will of the employees, as they were deceived into giving their personal information innocently. Well, as much as many people would have denied she did the right thing and forcing her to resign was not the best option. It is to the loss of the organization, which has done away with such a bold and bright individual. The culprits involved in the leakage of info will therefore continue to hide undercover and HP as an electronic organization stands to lose a lot (Jennings, 2004, p.18).

Furthermore, it is unlikely that Patricia Dunn had adequate information on the legalities that surrounded the methods she used. She had consulted a few people on the issues which illustrates that she did not make the decision all by herself. In addition to this, the order to have an investigation conducted was from the new CEO, the ethical question only comes in when Patricia had to decide who would or not be investigated and how the entire process is to take place. This, therefore, means that she was not negligent, and forcing her to resign was rather unreasonable.

Utilitarianism regarding information privacy has various elements to it and can be considered as “the ends justify the means”. Precisely, the employers and managers are always looking at the results, not necessarily the process of getting these results. This includes the choice of the one on activities outside the organization, privacy, and a right to due process amongst others. There are various utilitarian aspects of informational privacy for an employer (Jennings, 2004, p. 44).

Therefore most of these employers, whether managers or business owners feel that it is essential that they always dictate or keep an eye on whatever the employees are doing. This will enable them to ensure that whatever the employees do, is professional and would eventually lead to the overall success of the business institution.

Consequently, they go ahead and use various methods to ensure professionalism is given the seriousness it deserves. For example, they may go ahead and use the electronic surveillance system amongst others. This enables them to track the chain of phone calls made as well as block most of the social sites ensuring that the employees stick to their work.

There is also the human motivation aspect that is brought out by the application of utilitarianism. For instance, in a business organization, a department head who keeps constant track of the emails and other communication means will eventually lead to higher performance in the department. Given the good results from the employees, it is evident that this head has demonstrated leadership skills and will therefore stand a good chance of being promoted.

However, from the employees’ angle, this leads to some sort of conflict between the two parties as the employees would feel that they are not trusted by their employees. To them, this is demotivating. Most of the employees who have worked in the organization for a very long time are bound to feel enslaved if these practices are put in place, especially without a very good reason.

The deontology approach is rather different from the utilitarian one as it concentrates on the principles and rules that bring about the overall happiness that is to be enjoyed by both the employers and the employees. The utilitarian aspect however concentrates on the ways and means that can be used to bring about contentment in the organization.

The advantage of the deontology means of electronic surveillance is letting in on the employees on what is going on. Therefore, as the process is carried out they are aware this does not, therefore, establish a breeding ground for minor conflicts between the two parties ( Batcha et al, 2008)

One of the important elements of deontology is that it is carried out with a good reason behind it. Utilitarianism does not ensure this hence may just be carried out randomly as long as a manager perceives it is right. This was the case in Patricia

Dunn’s situation where the CEO did not look into the implementation technique of the whole process and make an approval. However, deontology ensures that it does take place with a mission be it problem-solving or otherwise. Therefore, a company such as HP may install all types of electronic surveillance only if they are aimed at ensuring that the organization attains both its short-term and long-term goals.

On the other hand, the installation of this electronic equipment may end up instilling fear amongst the employees in HP. This, therefore, leads to poor performance in the various departments as the employees fear to partake in certain activities as they are being monitored constantly (Cording et al, 2002, p.32). Therefore, if managers in certain departments are not careful, they may end up getting negative results contrary to what they expected.

To conclude, it was wrong for Patricia Dunn to have been forced to resign given that the decision to pretext was not made single-handedly. The CEO who assigned her the duty should have been bold enough to step out and explain to the court what exactly was going on. Nevertheless, the duty was handed over to Patricia Dunn and therefore she should have taken the responsibility of ensuring that the process involved did not violate the rights of the people. She should have considered other ways of getting access to the private phone records instead of pretexting. This did not yield the expected results and instead ended up causing more disorder within the organization as the employees could not trust one another.

References

Batcha, et al. (2008). Employee rights. Web.

Cording, M., Donaldson, T., & Werhane, P., (2002). Ethical Issues in Business: A philosophical Approach. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice- Hall.

Jennings, M.M. (2004). Business Ethics: Case studies and selected readings (5^thed.). Arizona State University: Thomson-West.

Kaplan, D. (2006). Suspicions and Spies in Silicon valley. Web.

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Aspects of Informational Privacy

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