Managing Workplace Privacy Responsibility

Abstract

This chapter presents an ethical case for strong workplace privacy rights, which have been jeopardized by the proliferation of monitoring systems and surveillance architectures. After explicating the functionality of those technologies and tracing the history of workplace privacy concerns, we analyze key statutory frameworks and provide some grounding for the ethical imperative to protect workplace privacy rights. But privacy rights must be balanced with the corporation’s legitimate need for employee information. To achieve this balance, privacy-related issues must be diligently managed, and we recommend reliance on the Total Responsibility Management model. With the aid of that model, we identify and defend five operative principles for ensuring that monitoring technologies are deployed in a fair and responsible manner. In addition to underscoring the importance of privacy rights, our objective is to demonstrate that workplace privacy is an organizational issue that must be prudentially managed by corporations aspiring to be good corporate citizens.