Management Information Systems

Course Lecturer Asst.Prof.Dr. Messer NAT

Kamal A. Mutug Tawer
Student ID: 20132397
Department of Information
Systems Engineering,

Case study 2

MONITORING IN THE WORKPLACE

1- Do you consider the approach taken by Blackburn Rovers to be too
strict on employees, too lenient? Or just right?

When considering approaches to managing an organization,

employees are considered as they can provide a competitive
advantage to the firm but also the approach should be able to
support an organization's goals.

Monitoring in the workplace has always been there though

using different technologies and strategies, for example. CCTV
cameras, checking employee's telephone logs, checking websites
visited.

From

employer

perspective

it

will

Helps

to

increase

productivity, but from employees perspective it is considered

Infringement their privacy.

The approach by Blackburn was just right, not so strict, not so

lenient.

Data Protection Law, the employer has a right to ensure that

the monitoring is justified and takes into account any negative
effects the monitoring may have on staff, but whatever the legal

situation, it is clear where potential problems can occur in the

workplace regarding information technology use for example, emails
used as evidence in court case.

It benefited the employees by easily identifying areas that

needed improvement.

It can also help in staff training and troubleshooting as it can

log exactly what an employee is doing.

It makes the process of rewards much more fairer.

Makes performance appraisal possible as there is easy

identification of employees strengths and weaknesses.

It restored order as shown by the increase in productivity.

It helps employees not to take their jobs for granted and focus
on their daily requirements.

2- Consider the five moral dimensions described in the texto which

are involved in the case of Copeland Vs. the United Kingdom?

1.

Information Rights and obligations: Privacy and freedom in

the information age

What information rights do individuals and social institutions such

as organizations have?
People have the right to privacy.

Social Institutes have the right to

monitor employees uses of the companies resources however, should

inform the employees that they are being monitored. Therefore

Ms.

Copeland had the right to access information that informed her that
systems had been put in place to have her monitored to avoid privacy
violations by the organization. Since Laws have been put in place such as
the UK protection law that state that the employer must ensure that the
monitoring is justified as well as take into account any negative effects the
monitoring may have on staff ,secret monitoring without employees
knowledge is not allowed. Technology and information systems threaten
the privacy of individuals to make cheap, efficient and effective invasion.

Therefore, the monitoring of Ms. Copelands telephone bills, Web sites

views and email communication should have been justified.
2 . Accountability, Liability and Control
Who can and will end up being accountable and liable for the harm

done to individual and collective information and property rights?

Carmarthenshire College should be held accountable for their actions. Due
to the institution having no usage policy in place, it was immoral for them
to take the social practices (monitoring telephone bills, Web sites and
email communication) into action.
3. Systems Quality: Data quality and System error
What standard of data should be demanded to protect individual

rights and safety in society?

Employees

and

employers

(Mrs

Copeland

and

the

principal

of

Carmarthenshire College) should have an agreed-upon policy as part of

the contract of employment that clarifies what is and is not acceptable
computer usage in the workplace.

4.

Quality of life: Equity Access and Boundaries

What values should be preserved in an information and

knowledge - based society?
Although Information systems can be used as advantages such as
increasing productivity in an organization,

ethical values should be

preserved such as, violating a persons privacy or computer abuse which

uses the computer to perform unethical acts. Social, political and
individual factors should still be considered in the use of information
systems.

3- Consider the following scenario. Your 14-year-old son attends a

soccer academy. While there, he downloads unsuitable images,
which he later sells to his friends. He would not have been able to
download the images at home, because you have installed parental
control software. Who is to Blame for his indiscretion?

Blame The soccer academy computer system

They should have been install the Parental Control Software as well to
protect the child from the unsuitable websites and supervise computer use
at school.
Blame the parents who did not educate the child properly.
They should let the child know that the websites are inappropriate for him
and guide him to the right websites.
4- Why is the digital divide problem an ethical dilemma?
The digital divide is considered of the necessary things in modern life, we know that there is
no control or monitoring on the digital divide, for that reason sometimes it be unethical
dilemma, so depending on the users if they use it a negative use it will be an unethical
dilemma if they use it positive use it will not be an unethical dilemma.