Staff Interview: Ethical Issues and Confidentiality Report

This report delves into the ethical considerations surrounding staff interviews, specifically focusing on the conflict between maintaining candidate confidentiality and fulfilling professional obligations to share information with superiors. The report highlights the importance of workplace ethics and the potential for ethical dilemmas, particularly regarding data privacy and the dissemination of personal information. It examines the impact of the Privacy Act 1988 in safeguarding candidate data and preventing legal issues. The report discusses the ethical implications of breaching confidentiality, affecting both candidates' careers and the organization's legal standing. It also presents possible solutions, emphasizing the need for limited information sharing and adherence to data protection principles. The report concludes by underscoring the critical role of ethics in professional practice and the importance of maintaining candidate confidentiality while upholding transparency within the organizational hierarchy.

Running head: STAFF INTERVIEW
Staff Interviews
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Discussion........................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................11

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Executive Summary
This present report focuses on the ICT issues regarding the interview of a candidate.
However, in the Web design consultancy, the interviewer faces ethical conflicts while taking the
data of the candidates through the interview. The interviewer has to maintain the confidentiality
of the data of the candidates; on the other hand, it is also the professional duty of the interviewer
to give the all details of the candidates while he was asked about the interview by the vice
president. However, as a professional, it is important for a person to give the data of the applicant
to the hierarchy while as a person it is the moral duty of every person to maintain the legal
requirement regarding the protection of data. In this report, it has been received that by following
the Privacy Act 1988 the business organization will able to keep the confidentiality of the
candidates.

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Introduction
Staff interview is a crucial approach for every organization to select the knowledgeable
candidates for the desired designation. However, it is important to maintain the confidentiality of
the data of the candidates that are received during the interview. During the interview, different
types of questions are asked to the candidates that reveal many personal data of the candidates
(Ibieta et al. 2017). Thus it is important for the business organization to maintain the
confidentiality of the information of the applicants. This study deals with the staff interview
process and the importance of maintenance of the confidentiality while conducting the interview.
Moreover, the necessity of the staff interview is also addressed in this section.
Discussion
What is going on?
Incorporation of the discussion regarding the workplace ethics while conducting an
interview is a major challenge for the interviewer. This leads a candidate to give a transparent
answer during the interview (Koen, Von Solms and Gerber 2016). However, by providing
several question and workplace ethics during the interview of a candidate enables the interviewer
to understand the strength of the candidates. The main purpose of the staff interview is to
identify the candidate’s skill and to detect the course design that the web design consultant needs
to implement. Moreover, the interview enables the interviewer to carry out a depth analysis of
the knowledge of the candidates, their strength and weakness also.

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What are the facts?
Keeping the confidentiality during the interview is the prime duty of the interviewer as
its breach of the confidentiality may harm the future of the candidates (Madan, Sharma and Seth
2016). However, according to the case study, an interview has conducted by the Web design
consultancy and the senior vice president has asked the interviewer to about the candidates. On
the other hand, the informed consent has stated about the maintenance of the confidentiality of
the applicant. However, it is a big challenge for the interviewer to tackle such situation. Hence,
as a person, it is vital for the interviewer to keep the information of the candidates private and to
distribute with other in order to save the candidates from breaching of financial data and personal
data. On the other hand, while communicating through the internet is it important for the
interviewer to keep the data secure as it is important to secure the career of the candidates.
The very word ethics is originated from the Greek word meaning duty. Thus, ethics can
be defined as a set of duties or responsibilities or obligations that all the professionals obliged to
abide by. It is basically a code of professional conduct. Ethics can be defined as a code of
conduct that helps in inculcating the moral rules and principles that help in the governing, the
actions and activities of a group or an individual. Business ethics or professional ethics is
important because it enables the employees to develop a sense of differentiation between the
right and the wrong. Ethics must be always imbibed within the work culture of the organization
so that the decisions that are taken in a company by any single individual or a group of
individuals are always influenced by the sense of this business ethics. Though ethics is
something that is formulated by the Government but to bring those ethics into a successful
practice is the sole duty of the business organization and its employees. But the most important

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issue or point of analysis that remains is whether each and every individual has maintained this
ethical code of conduct within one's work environment (McPhaden et al 2016).
What are the issues?
The problem that is usually seen in the implementation of this business ethics is the clash
between different levels of hierarchy. Firstly, it has been seen that the professionals who are at a
certain higher post usually have a sense of superiority over their subordinates, as a result of
which they often end up in exploiting their juniors. In order to avoid this, there is the utmost
need of a code of ethics that must guide them to act with a sense of responsibility and
professional obligations. This not only puts a check on the behavior of the professionals but also
helps to maintain several safeguarding measures for protecting the rights and the confidential
information of the clients (Vidlička, Lang and Maršavelski, 2016).
Secondly, every employee at a certain time or the other is young and inexperienced,
things ethical conducts also helps to pass on the knowledge and the time tested wisdom onto
these new employees (Kangasniemi, Pakkanen and Korhonen 2015).
Thirdly, professional ethics also help in putting a check on the undue power that can be
often exerted over the subordinates by their boss. Lastly, professional ethics helps in putting a
check on professionals who often violate the ethics and commit illegal activities (Freire et al
2017.).
Who is affected?

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Breach of the information during the interview affects the candidates as it dissemination
of his personal data may affects his career. On the other hand, if the interviewer or the
organization discloses the candidates’ information then they may face legal issues.
What are the ethical issues and implications?
Ethical dilemma or challenges occur during the interview process in an organization.
Regarding the selected case study the interviewer should maintain the confidentiality of the
information of the candidates as it is stated clearly by the informed consent while the vice
president has asked the interviewer to give an account of the best candidate. However, keeping
the candidate information secure while conducting the interview is a personal duty of the
interviewer as based on it the career of a candidate is dependent (Yagnik 2016). However, if the
information of the candidate disseminates then it can affect their reputation as well as causes the
legal obstruction for the candidates. On the other hand, sharing of the financial information of
the candidates that is received by the interviewer may harm the candidate.
On the other hand, it is the moral duty of the interviewer to give all the detail of the
candidates to the vice president that they have obtained during the interview as based on which
the hierarchy will select the training courses (Serova 2017). In order to make them professional,
it is important for the interviewer to give the candidate's detail to the hierarchy as to identify the
skilled candidate it is crucial to understand them personally and professionally (Rudolph, Young
and Havens 2017). On the other hand, the vice president has asked the interviewer to state the
best candidate and reason of the selection of such candidate. For this reason, the interviewer
needs to give the candidate data to the hierarchy as it will help them to detect the strength and
weakness of the candidates. However, if the hierarchy will not get the candidate data properly

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then it will be difficult for them to implement right training for them. Moreover, as a
professional, it is the responsibility of the interviewer to send all the data of the candidates to the
vice president as it is categorized under ethical practice.
The interviewer has to keep the information of the candidates secure as it is a legal right
of the candidate; on the other hand, the interviewer has to give the candidate details to the
hierarchy as it is the professional requirement (De Lange, Von Solms and Gerber 2017). This
situation leads the interviewer to face the ethical dilemma in the professional practice. According
to the legal requirement keeping the information of a person private is the moral duty of the
employees of an organization.
What can be done to remove the ethical issue?
Privacy Act 1988 is proposed by the Australian government in order to keep secure the
personal data of the candidate (oaic.gov.au 2017). Hence, the business organizations have to
maintain the principles of this Act those are situated in Australia. According to this Act, the
business organization should not disclose the information of the candidates without their
permission that is obtained during the interview. Hence, by following this Act the Web design
consultancy can improve their ICT related issues that often arise during the interview system
regarding the personal data of the candidates. On the other hand, to avoid the legal issues
practices about the protection of data is vital in each business sector. Hence, the interviewer
needs to follow the legal practices while acquiring the data of the candidates during the
interview.
What are the possible options?

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The possible options are to maintain the Data Protection Act and to keep the information
secure according to personal responsibility. Moreover, by giving limited information to the
hierarchy the interviewer can keep the information confidential.
Which option is best?
On the other hand, in order to be a professional, it is the duty of an employee to make the
transparency with the hierarchy regarding any official matter. According to my perspective
personal information of any candidate should be kept confidential by the interviewer through
giving limited information to the hierarchy as it will allow them to fulfill their professional and
legal responsibility.
Conclusion
Ethics usually plays a major role in our everyday lives, be it in the field of domestic
affairs or professional affairs. As far as the professional ethics are concerned, it is usually a code
of laws made and implemented by the Government that defines certain actions to be termed and
recognized as bad and illegal and hence, they are usually prohibited at any and every workplace.
I as an interviewer have often been guided and helped by these ethics to maintain my job roles
and responsibilities. It has taught me to treat all the interviewers equally and also listen to and try
to solve their doubts or any kind of issues that they might be facing in their company. According
to my sense of business ethics, I have felt it prudent to keep the information given to me by the
interviewees secret and confidential rather than giving it away to the Vice President of their
company as it is highly unethical.

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References
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local government. In IST-Africa Week Conference, 2016 (pp. 1-11). IEEE.
Freire, R., Phillips, C.J., Verrinder, J.M., Collins, T., Degeling, C., Fawcett, A., Fisher, A.D.,
Hazel, S., Hood, J., Johnson, J. and Lloyd, J.K., 2017. The importance of animal welfare science
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Kangasniemi, M., Pakkanen, P. and Korhonen, A., 2015. Professional ethics in nursing: an
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