Employee monitoring is defined as the use of different kinds of methods to obtain information about staff members’ actions and whereabouts. There are several strategies for firms to boost worker productivity, ranging from removing distractions to implementing technology automation. Businesses monitor people mostly to increase efficiency and safeguard business resources. The basic goal is to avoid inappropriate conduct in the first place and, if that fails, to limit the behavior before it has a detrimental impact on the firm.
Employee surveillance is currently centered on the Internet and emails. Even though emails are becoming unpopular compared to more modern communication channels, they are still used in many businesses. Therefore, reported information might contain browsing history, email content, and timesheets. According to Frye (2017), at least two-thirds of businesses monitor employees for e-mail violations, and half have dismissed people for them. It is legislated that if the company owns the electronic devices and manages the internal computer network in the office, they are allowed to track any information from computers. Businesses attempt to protect a company’s reputation or brand against internal theft or leak of information. Thus, employee monitoring at the workplace can be considered ethical. Moreover, companies want to guarantee that there is no harassment in the workplace (Frye, 2017). At this time, unifying this approach with Kant’s deontological approach of being logically consistent would be more equitable to all stakeholders. The categorical imperative was a fundamental component of Kant’s approach to the ethical examination of the premise that the actions must be acceptable to everyone, not because they have been told to accept them, but because they are acceptable.
When faced with the choice of monitoring or not, implementing employee monitoring is obviously more ethical than the alternative under the suggested paradigm. Failure to supervise workers’ internet activity may result in acts that cause the business or organization to fail. However, employee monitoring must not only fulfill the utilitarian approach’s requirement, but it must also satisfy Kant’s approach of being internally consistent or applied equally across all contexts.
Reference
Frye, L. (2017). Reviewing employee e-mails: When you should, when you shouldn’t. SHRM. Web.