Chapter 18
Employee Stakeholders: Privacy, Safety, and Health
LEARNING OUTCOMES
After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
1. Articulate the concerns surrounding the employee’s right to privacy in the workplace.
3. Elaborate on the right to safety and health in the workplace, with particular reference to
violence in the workplace, smoke-free workplaces, and family-friendly workplaces.
TEACHING SUGGESTIONS
INTRODUCTION – This chapter continues the discussion of employees’ rights in the workplace
with particular emphasis on privacy, safety, and a healthy work environment. Managers must
address these issues in order to meet employees’ needs and to treat them fairly as legitimate
stakeholders of the firm.
KEY TALKING POINTS – Historically, employees have often been treated as secondary
stakeholders, behind owners, senior managers, and customers. As the stakeholder perspective of
management gains footing and managers recognize the looming shortage of qualified workers
This chapter addresses three important employee issues—the rights to privacy, safety, and
health. As discussed earlier in Chapter 9, “Business Ethics and Technology,” employees’ right
to privacy is severely restricted in the workplace. Advances in technology have made
monitoring employees’ locations and behaviors much easier and cheaper. Balancing the
employees’ right to (or at least desire for) privacy and the employer’s right to (1) know what
workers are doing and (2) supervise those activities will be an on-going dilemma for managers.
to reduce stress, have access to mental health professionals, and balance their work and personal
lives. Work/life balance is becoming an increasingly important issue for employees and their
managers, and students often identify with this concern. Many students are trying to balance
school, work, extracurricular activities, and family life—they are well aware of the pressures of
PEDAGOGICAL DEVICES – In this chapter, instructors may utilize a combination of:
Cases:
5-Engineered Billing
6-The Waiter Rule: What Makes for a Good CEO?
15-Nike, Inc. and Sweatshops
17-Chiquita – An Excruciating Dilemma
18-Dole’s DBCP Legacy
29-Felony Franks (2)- Home of the Misdemeanor Wiener
31-Moral Dilemma – Head vs. Heart
32-Walmart Labor Practices
33-Case of the Fired Waitress
35-Looksism at A&F
Ethics in Practice Cases:
Employee Health and the Use of Big Data
Co-Workers versus Friendship
Amazon: Using the Digital Bulletin Board to Shame Employees into Good Behavior
Sick Day Snoops
When External Stakeholders Attack
Spotlight on Sustainability:
It’s All Connected
LECTURE OUTLINE
I. PRIVACY IN THE WORKPLACE
A. Collection and Use of Employee Information by Employers
B. Integrity Tests
C. Drug Testing
1. Arguments for Drug Testing
2. Arguments against Drug Testing
D. Workplace Monitoring
1. What Can Be Monitored?
2. Effects of Being Monitored
II. WORKPLACE SAFETY
A. The Workplace Safety Problem
B. Workplace Safety Today
III. HEALTH IN THE WORKPLACE
A. Smoking in the Workplace
B. The Family-Friendly Workplace
1. Family and Medical Leave Act
SUGGESTED ANSWERS TO DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Students should recognize that their answers to these discussion questions should be well
reasoned and supported with evidence. Although some answers will be more correct than others,
students should be aware that simplistic answers to complex questions, problems, or issues such
as these will never be “good” answers.
1. Question: In your own words, describe what privacy means and what privacy protection
companies should give employees.
Answer: Privacy means the right to keep personal information secret if I so choose; to have
the ability to approve or deny any collection of information about me; to not have
2. Question: Enumerate the strengths and weaknesses of the polygraph as a management
tool for decision making. What polygraph uses are legitimate? What uses of the polygraph
are illegitimate?
Answer: The polygraph’s strengths all depend on its accuracy, which is subject to some
question. If the polygraph is accurate, it can solve an age-old problem—how to distinguish
between the truth and a lie. This has obvious benefit to managers, who need to know the
truth. The major weakness of the polygraph is that it is not 100 percent accurate. Some
3. Question: What are the two major arguments for and against integrity (honesty) testing by
employers? Under what circumstances could management most legitimately argue that
integrity testing is necessary?
Answer: The primary benefits of integrity testing seem to be its ease of administration and
low cost. Weaknesses include invasion of privacy and unreliability. If integrity tests are
4. Question: How has technology affected workplace privacy? What are the implications for
the social contract between firms and their employees?
Answer: Technology has provided employers with cheap and easy means to monitor
employees virtually all of the time. On the other hand, access to technology at the
workplace also has increased employee abuse of employer resources, necessitating some of
5. Question: How has the World Trade Center tragedy affected workplace privacy? What
are the long-term implications of that?
Answer: It is necessary to first clarify that it was not the 9/11 attacks, in themselves, that
affected workplace privacy. Rather, it was our chosen response to those attacks that
affected workplace privacy. Lead by passage of the USA Patriot Act, privacy issues have
6. Question: Which two of the four guidelines on the issue of privacy presented in this
chapter do you think are the most important? Why?
Answer: The two most important privacy policy guidelines are first, to obtain informed
consent from employees and applicants before acquiring information about them, and
second, to set controls so as to avoid casual and unauthorized spread of information.
Companies need to obtain employee and applicant consent before gathering personal
7. Question: Identify the privacy, health, and due-process ramifications of violence in the
workplace.
Answer: With violence in the workplace, there seems to be less need for privacy, because
the perpetrator is putting employees’ safety at risk. They should therefore be informed of
the concerns. Violence is also a health issue because employees’ physical and emotional
conditions could be harmed. Finally, due process is an issue in workplace violence
GROUP ACTIVITY
Divide students into eight groups. Have all students read the background information for ABC
Trucking Company below. Designate a committee assignment for each group. The various
committees will address privacy, safety and health issues for ABC Trucking Company.
Specifically, each committee should address the questions listed below their committee
assignment. While each group is responsible for the questions listed under their assigned
committee, the instructor should distribute the questions to be addressed by each committee to
every student. Once the committees have addressed their assigned issues, they should share their
ideas with the entire class. This will enable all students to review the major issues in the chapter.
Background: ABC is a multi-regional trucking company. The company currently employs
3,843 linehaul drivers and 3,142 pickup and delivery drivers. The company ships many
products, including hazardous materials.
Committee 1
(1) Will you monitor your employees’ e-mails and telecommunications?
(2) If the answer to number 1 is yes, for what purpose will you use the information? What
type(s) of information do you think the company needs to know?
(4) Do you have any legal concerns? Specifically, does the Electronic Communication
Privacy Act or the USA Patriot Act apply?
Committee 2
You have been asked to serve on ABC’s privacy committee. It is the committee’s responsibility
to decide whether it will use the polygraph and/or integrity testing in connection with its hiring
process. At this initial meeting, you need to decide the following:
(1) Will the company use a polygraph in its hiring process? If so, why? Can it do so under
the Employee Polygraph Protection Act?
(2) Will the company use an integrity test in its hiring process? If so, why?
Committee 3
You have been asked to serve on ABC’s privacy committee. It is the committee’s responsibility
to make decisions regarding the company’s drug testing policy. At this initial meeting, you need
to decide the following:
(2) If the answer to number 1 is yes, do you have any concerns about drug testing in the
company?
(3) If the answer to number 1 is yes, what guidelines would you recommend for a company
drug testing policy?
Committee 4
You have been asked to serve on ABC’s safety committee. It is the committee’s responsibility to
make sure the company is compliant with state and federal laws that protect the safety and health
of its workers. At this initial meeting, you need to decide the following:
(1) What type(s) of information, if any, is the company required to provide to its employees
generally under state law(s)?
Committee 5
You have been asked to serve on ABC’s safety committee. It is the committee’s responsibility to
determine how the company should respond to issues of workplace violence. At this initial
meeting, you need to decide the following:
(1) Is the company at an increased risk for workplace violence? If so, why?
(3) Does the company need policies and procedures to address workplace violence? If so,
what should be included in these policies and procedures?
Committee 6
You have been asked to serve on ABC’s health committee. It is the committee’s responsibility
to address issues related to employee health. The company has several smokers. At this initial
meeting, you need to decide the following:
(1) Does the company need a smoking policy? If so, why?
Committee 7
You have been asked to serve on ABC’s health committee. It is the committee’s responsibility
to address issues related to serious health conditions that limit employee performance. At this
initial meeting, you need to decide the following:
(1) Is the company required to comply with the Family Medical Leave Act?
(4) If the answers to 1, 2 and/or 3 are yes, does the company have to hold an employee’s job
for the employee during the employee’s leave?
Committee 8
You have been asked to serve on ABC’s work/life balance committee. It is the committee’s
responsibility to address issues related to work/life balance. At this initial meeting, you need to
decide the following:
(2) What types of programs/benefits might the company adopt to address any work/life
balance issues noted in question 1?
INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT
Distribute the following instructions to each student:
Create a general social media policy that could be used by multiple companies. You should
consider the following questions when developing the social media policy: Will these
companies be allowed to monitor employee posts / pages on social media sites? What privacy
concerns does this raise? How should companies deal with leaks of confidential information,