Case Study: Ethical Dilemma in Computer Use and Employee Monitoring

This case study examines an ethical dilemma faced by a security administrator tasked with monitoring employee website access. The administrator must provide a report to his manager, flagging inappropriate content, but the employees were not informed about the company's website usage guidelines. The case explores the conflict between monitoring and employee privacy. The administrator is caught between following his manager's request and potentially penalizing employees unfairly. The analysis considers the relevant aspects of the ACS Code of Ethics, specifically the Primacy of the Public Interest, Honesty, and Professionalism. It suggests that the company should update its policies to address website usage and that the administrator should communicate the lack of existing guidelines to the manager. The case highlights the importance of clear policies, employee awareness, and ethical decision-making in the workplace.

Running head: CODE OF ETHICS
Case Study 5- Use of Company Computers
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Running head: CODE OF ETHICS
The ACS Code of Ethics is basically a part of the ACS Constitution. Being an ACS
member, it is important to follow some guidelines and one should always advance the honor,
dignity and maintain effectiveness of being a professional. In the following case study, a security
administrator of a company of 500 employees is asked by his manager to present a weekly
report on which web pages has been accessed by individual employees and should try to flag
those websites which contains inappropriate contents and which are questionable (Elliott 2016).
But he remembers that the employees have not been asked to sign in any agreement where
there is a guideline on which website they can visit and which not. But on the other hand, he is
also aware that if the report is presented then the employees would be penalized for their
misconduct in the office premises (Leicester 2016).
The ethical dilemma that the person is currently facing is that he needs to make a report
on who is accessing which websites and have to present it to his manager but the problem is
that the employees were under no agreement that they have to view this or that particular
website (Leicester 2016). With this he is also facing another dilemma that if he present that
report, the employees would be penalized for which everybody will blame him.
One thing he can do is to talk to his managers and tell them that the employees were not
under any agreement. If they really want to know something like this, they need to update their
policies about this particular issue and after this he can present a report as if the report is
presented earlier, the employees may question about the authenticity of the data and they can
counter themselves by saying that nothing was written on the policies when they were signing
them (Board 2014).
This misconduct can fall into three main ACS Code of Conducts like The Primacy of the
Public Interest, Honesty and Professionalism (acs.org.au 2017).

Running head: CODE OF ETHICS
Under Primacy of the Public Interest, the company should not try to interfere with the
intellectual property of others as that is totally personal and no one would like that anyone
sniffing into their personal life (acs.org.au 2017). Also with this, they should try to provide the
confidentiality and provide privacy to the users’ information and not look into their personal
matter of what they are browsing or searching over the internet.
Under Honesty, the employees should know the difference between professional life and
personal life. When working in an office, they should try to maintain the decency and should not
browse the websites which are explicitly offensive so they should keep their personal interest
out of office premises and maintain the dignity (acs.org.au 2017).
Under Professionalism, companies should take appropriate actions on those who break
the rules so that it may set an example on others so that others may not break the rules and
regulation like in this case, the employees who are accessing the website should be held guilty
and appropriate actions should be taken against them so that other employees will not access
the site again (acs.org.au 2017). Also, employees should co-operate with the company as
whatever steps they take, they are taking for the betterment of the company as well as the
employees.
Every employee in an organization should follow all the norms and policies and should
try to maintain decency in the office premises. Also the company personnel should revise their
policies timely in order to overcome the defects that are present within the company like this
company should have done with the accessibility of website for the employees. As there were
no guidelines, they got the freedom to access these websites.

Running head: CODE OF ETHICS
References
Leicester, N., 2016. Ethics in the IT Profession: Does a Code of Ethics have an Effect on
Professional Behaviour?.
Board, B.A.C., 2014. Professional and ethical compliance code for behavior analysts. Retrieved
April, 7, p.2016.
acs.org.au (2017). [online] Available at: https://www.acs.org.au/content/dam/acs/.../Code-of-
Professional-Conduct_v2.1.pdf [Accessed 24 Mar. 2017].
Elliott, C.M., 2016. A Framework for Ethical Decisions.