Electronic Monitoring in the Workplace--Controversies and Solutions

John Weckert
Charles Sturt University, Australia

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Electronic monitoring in the workplace : controversies and solutions / John Weckert, editor. p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-59140-456-8 (h/c) -- ISBN 1-59140-457-6 (s/c) -- ISBN 1-59140-458-4 (eisbn)
1. Electronic monitoring in the workplace. 2. Privacy, Right of. 3. Supervision of employees . I. Weckert, John.

HF5549.5.E37E433 2004 658.3'02--dc22

2004016389

British Cataloguing in Publication Data A Cataloguing in Publication record for this book is available from the British Library.

All work contributed to this book is new, previously-unpublished material. The views expressed in this book are those of the authors, but not necessarily of the publisher.

About the Authors

John Weckert is professor of information technology in the School of Information Studies and Professorial Fellow at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics (CAPPE) at Charles Sturt University, and visiting fellow at the Australian National University. At CAPPE he is manager of the research programme Emerging Technologies: IT and Nanotechnology . His main research interests are currently in computer ethics and in the emerging field of the ethics of nanotechnology. He has published widely in computer and Internet ethics, and has recently been involved in consultancies with government departments on electronic corruption in the public sector and on the digital divide.

Carl Botan , currently at George Mason University (USA), was an associate dean for research and graduate programs in the School of Communication and Theater at Temple University, Philadelphia (USA). He is a noted scholar. He has taught at Purdue University and has established a reputation as a noted scholar in public relations and economic surveillance, having focused his research on the positive and negative effects that can result when organizations seek to exert influence in their communication environments. Botan has traveled extensively in Australia, Europe, and South America, lecturing on topics related to his research interests.

Christopher Brien is a lecturer in the School of Law at Victoria University of Technology. Prior to his current appointment, he has held academic appointments at the University of New South Wales, James Cook University, and Charles Sturt University. After graduating from Sydney University Law School, he was tipstaff to His Honour Chief Justice Cripps in the Land and Environment Court of New South Wales and tipstaff to His Honour Acting Justice Loveday in the Supreme Court of New South Wales. He is currently completing his PhD, and in 2004, Butterworths/LexisNexis will publish a book called Netlaw regarding the regulation of cyberspace , which he has written with his brother.

David Casacuberta is a philosophy of science professor in the Universitad Aut ²noma de Barcelona (Spain). His current line of research is the cognitive and social impact of new media, and he has published several books, book chapters, and papers about the subject, both in electronic and printed format. He works for Transit Projectes as project manager and scientific coordinator for the EU Project E-learning for E-inclusion ( www.el4ei.net ) under the e-learning program.

Natasha Cica is a fellow at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics and a lecturer at the University of Canberra, Australia. She has worked as a research specialist in the Department of the Parliamentary Library in Canberra as a media and polity adviser to a number of Federal parliamentarians, and at the School of Public Policy, University College London. Natasha has a PhD in law from Cambridge University, UK. She comments widely in academic and popular forums on issues related to ethics, culture, and justice.

Steve Clarke is a research fellow at the ARC Commonwealth Special Research Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics and a lecturer in philosophy in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Charles Sturt University. He is a broad- ranging philosopher who works mostly in philosophy of science and applied ethics. He has recent publications in the British Journal for the Philosophy of Science , the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy , and Philosophy of the Social Sciences . He is also co-editor, with T.D. Lyons, of Recent Themes in the Philosophy of Science: Scientific Realism and Commonsense (Kluwer, 2002).

Stephen Coleman is a research fellow at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, Charles Sturt University, Australia. His research focuses on practical ethical issues in everyday life, especially in the areas of computers, reproductive technology, and policing. His work has been published in a number of academic collections and peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Professional Ethics , Business and Professional Ethics Journal , Criminal Justice Ethics , and the Australian Journal of Professional and Applied Ethics .

Dervla A. Collins , BComm, MBS, studied a Bachelor of Commerce, specialising in the areas of marketing and business French in University College Galway, Ireland (1993-1997). From 1997 to 2003, Dervla has worked as a project manger for numerous large software localisation services providers. Dervla is currently a program manager for Iota Localisation Services, where she manages a portfolio of worldwide renowned software developers. In 1999 Dervla pursued, on a part time basis, an MBS at the Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business, Dublin, Ireland. Her area of specialty was management information systems. The topic of Dervla s dissertation, submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the masters degree of business studies was Irish IS/IT Professionals Ethical Attitude to Electronic Surveillance in the workplace .

Peter Danielson is the Mary and Maurice Young professor of applied ethics and director of the Centre for Applied Ethics at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. He is the author of Artificial Morality (Routledge, 1992) and editor of Modeling Rationality, Morality, and Evolution (Oxford, 1998). His research program uses game theoretical modeling and computer simulation to study ethics, especially the applied ethics of technology. Current research projects are modeling ethical mechanisms (funded by Social Science and Humanities Research Council, Canada) and democracy, ethics and genomics ( funded by Genome Canada).

Soraj Hongladarom is an associate professor of philosophy at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. He has published books and articles on such diverse issues as bioethics, computer ethics, and the roles that science and technology play in the culture of developing countries. His concern is mainly on how science and technology can be integrated into the life-world of the people in the so-called third world countries , and what kind of ethical considerations can be obtained from such relation. His work has appeared in The Information Society, AI & Society, Philosophy in the Contemporary World, and Social Epistemology, among other titles.

Joseph Migga Kizza holds degrees in science, mathematics and computer science from Makerere University in Uganda, California State University, University of Toledo in Ohio, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Nebraska. Since 1989 Dr. Kizza has been in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he teaches and carries out research in social computing, operating systems, computer architecture, and computer network security. He has organized a number of workshops and conferences on computer ethics and has published several books on computer ethics and network security and cyberethics. He was appointed a UNESCO expert in IT in 1994.

Shona Leitch has been associated with the School of Information Systems, Deakin University. She coordinates information technology programs for students in the Institute of Koorie Education at Deakin University.

Seumas Miller is professor of philosophy at Charles Sturt University and the Australian National University (joint position) and director of the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics (an Australian Research Council funded Special Research Centre). He is the author of numerous academic articles and a number of books, including Social Action (Cambridge University Press, 2001); Ethical Issues in Policing (with John Blackler) (Ashgate, 2004); Corruption and Anti-Corruption (with Peter Roberts and Edward Spence) (Prentice Hall, 2004).

Brian M. O Connell is an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Philosophy at Central Connecticut State University, where he teaches courses concerned with the ethical, legal, and social aspects of computing, and with the jurisprudence of new technologies. His current research focuses on five general areas: developmental aspects of professional ethics within computing, including ontogenic dynamics of practice-based values formation within interdisciplinary environments; the teaching of professional identity, critical thinking skills and the humanities within computer science; the ethical and wider philosophical aspects of artificial intelligence, particularly within the context of robotics ; the legal and ethical dimensions of agency within autonomous, safety-critical systems; and emerging ethical and legal issues in new interdisciplinary activities, such as forensic computing.

Mary Prior is a principal lecturer in the School of Computing and a Research Associate of the Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK. She has extensive experience in undergraduate course design, delivery, assessment, and management in the area of Computing and Information Systems in two higher education institutions in the UK. She is a member of the Institute for Learning and Teaching and the British Computer Society (BCS) and is a BCS examiner. She has worked for the Quality Assurance Agency as a subject specialist reviewer and for various UK universities as an external examiner . Her research includes an ongoing study of the ethical attitudes of Information Systems professionals for the Institute for the Management of Information Systems, and investigation of the ethical aspects of workplace surveillance. Publications include contributions to books, journals, and conferences on these and related issues.

Emma Rooksby is a fellow at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, Charles Sturt University. Her research is mainly in the fields of computer ethics and the ethics of management; she also has research interests in feminist ethics and in philosophy and literature. Recent publications include Email and Ethics: Style and Ethical Relations in Computer-Mediated Communication (Routledge, 2002) and Moral Philosophy in the Fiction of Isabelle de Charri re: The case of Three Women (forthcoming, Hypatia, 20 (2), summer 2005).

Jackline Ssanyu is a lecturer in the Institute of Computer Science at Makerere University in Uganda and a consultant with ICT Consultants Limited.

Bernd Carsten Stahl is a senior lecturer in the School of Computing and a research associate at the Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility of De Montfort University, Leicester, UK. His area of research consists of philosophical, more specifically of normative, questions arising from the use of information and communication technology. The emphasis in this area is on the notion of responsibility. He researches the application of such normative questions in economic organisations, but also educational and governmental institutions. His second area of interest consists of epistemological questions in information systems research. He is the editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Technology and Human Interaction .

William G. Staples is professor and chair of the Department of Sociology at the University of Kansas. He has interests in social control, surveillance, and historical sociology. His books include Castles of Our Conscience: Social Control and the American State, 1800-1895 (1991), Everyday Surveillance: Vigilance and Visibility in Postmodern Life (2000), and Power, Profits, and Patriarchy: the Social Organization of Work at a British Metal Trades Firm, 1791-1922 (with Clifford L. Staples) (2001).

Mihaela Vorvoreanu s research interests span the areas of new communication technologies and public relations. Her dissertation work proposes a framework of the public relations Web site experience. As the senior research assistant working under the guidance of Dr. Carl Botan, Vorvoreanu has coauthored technical reports and papers on the negative effects of electronic surveillance in the workplace. At the time this chapter was written, Vorvoreanu was a doctoral candidate at Purdue University. She is now an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Dayton.

Matthew Warren is the head of School and a professor in the School of Information Systems, Deakin University, Australia. Previously, he was in the School of Information Technology, Deakin University, and before that he was an information systems lecturer at the Plymouth Business School, UK. He completed a PhD in information security management at Plymouth University, UK, and, while doing so, worked on several large European Union research projects. Professor Warren has gained international recognition for his scholarly work in the areas of information security, risk analysis, electronic commerce and information warfare . He has authored/co- authored over 180 books, book chapters, journal papers, and conference papers. Professor Warren is a member of the Australian Standards Committee IT/12/4 Security Techniques, the chair of IFIP TC 11 Working Group 11.1 - Security Management, and he was a former director of the Australian Institute of Computer Ethics. Professor Warren has taught within Australia, Finland, Hong Kong, and the UK.

Sara Wilford is a research fellow at the Local Government Centre at Warwick University Business School. Prior to this she was science, technology and public policy fellow at Harvard University s Kennedy School within the Belfer Centre for Science and International Affairs. She was also a contributor to the United Nations Global e-Governance report 2003 which considered the issues of e-governance and privacy. She has close links to the Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility at De Montfort University where she recently completed her doctoral thesis entitled Information and Communication Technology Privacy Policies within Organisations: An analysis from the perspective of the individual. Sara s research interests lie in privacy, computing and ethics, public policy, and e-governance.

Brian L. Zirkle is a PhD student at the University of Kansas. His areas of interest are social control and work.

David Zweig recently completed his PhD in industrial/organizational psychology at the University of Waterloo and is currently an assistant professor of organizational behaviour and human resource management at the University of Toronto. Dr. Zweig s dissertation research on awareness monitoring systems was recently published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior and was awarded the best HR-related dissertation in 2002 by the International Alliance of Human Resource Researchers (IAHRR). His research examines the boundaries around organizational monitoring practices and investigates whether organizations can design monitoring systems that mitigate negative employee reactions by respecting people s boundaries.