Management Chapter 18 Homework Usa Patriot Act Privacy Issues Have Taken

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Ch 18, Instructor’s Manual, Business & Society, Carroll 10e

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

(due to impending retirement of the baby boom generation), this attitude is changing to some

extent. Although managers are seeing the need to treat workers fairly and to address many of the

issues that workers find important, the global recession has slowed the progress that employees

were making in this area.

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

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?

8-To Hire or Not to Hire

11-Family Business

12-Banned if You Do, Banned if You Don’t

13-Location, Location, Location

15-Nike, Inc. and Sweatshops

17-Chiquita – An Excruciating Dilemma

18-Dole’s DBCP Legacy

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

Power Point slides:

Ch 18, Instructor’s Manual, Business & Society, Carroll 10e

LECTURE OUTLINE

I. PRIVACY IN THE WORKPLACE

A. Collection and Use of Employee Information by Employers

B. Integrity Tests

C. Drug Testing

2. Arguments against Drug Testing

4. State and Federal Legislation

5. Employee Assistance Programs

D. Workplace Monitoring

1. What Can Be Monitored?

2. Effects of Being Monitored

E. Policy Guidelines on the Issue of Privacy

II. WORKPLACE SAFETY

A. The Workplace Safety Problem

B. Workplace Safety Today

C. Right-to-Know Laws

D. Workplace Violence

1. Who Is Affected?

III. HEALTH IN THE WORKPLACE

A. Smoking in the Workplace

B. The Family-Friendly Workplace

1. Family and Medical Leave Act

IV. SUMMARY

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

Ch 18, Instructor’s Manual, Business & Society, Carroll 10e

You have been asked to serve on ABC’s privacy committee. It is the committee’s responsibility

to draft a privacy policy for the company. At this initial meeting, you need to decide the

following:

(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?

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?

(3) If the answer(s) to number 1 and/or 2 is yes, what types of information do you think the

company needs from the tests?

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:

(1) Is the company required to conduct drug tests?

(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?

(2) If the answer to number 1 is yes, what can this company specifically do to deter

workplace violence?

Ch 18, Instructor’s Manual, Business & Society, Carroll 10e

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?

(2) Does the company have to pay female employees during any maternity leave? Does the

company have to provide health benefits for such employees?

(3) Can truck drivers take leave to care for a sick child, spouse or parent?

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:

(1) What work/life balance issues, if any, does the company have?

(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,