Document Type
Seminar Paper
Date of Original Version
2004
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to answer the question of whether or not employers should have the ability to electronically monitor their employees in the workplace. It stresses both the monitoring of computers, and also telephone wiretapping. The topic is examined through a legal, behavioral, and ethical perspective, to gain a more complete idea of the extent of the concern with electronic monitoring. Court cases were used to explain the different facets of the legal struggle between the employer’s right to monitor and the employee’s right to privacy. Several theories, including panoptic theory, were used to explain the behavioral effects of employer surveillance. Finally, the ethical issues with regards to electronic monitoring were explained through the idea of social control, and the balance of the needs of the employer and the needs of the employee.