Workplace Surveillance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Workplace Surveillance - Essay Example To uphold to ethics therefore, many are the organizations who have adapted to the use of workplace surveillance. Though many justify the practice, the writer holds the view that workplace surveillance is not an appropriate way of achieving ethical uprightness and that it infringes on basic human rights of workers. Background Workplace surveillance has been practiced in most parts of America for quite some time now. The practice has indeed been replicated in many parts of the world. In Australia for instance, it is on record that workplace surveillance is backed by the Workplace Surveillance Act 2005 under the New South Wales Consolidated Acts (Australasian Legal Information Institute, 2012). In practice, workplace surveillance permits employers and managers to monitor the activities and operations of their employees, purposely by the use of technological tools. It is not surprising therefore that computer surveillance, under which there is internet surveillance and desktop surveillan ce happens to be the commonest forms of surveillance commonly in practice in most organizations. The Opposition The writer holds the view that the purported reason for undertaking workplace surveillance to regulate the working activities of workers in order to bring about adherence to workplace ethics is a misuse of the system. The opposition view would therefore say that it is appropriate to have workplace surveillance to ensure organizational ethics. The following sections presents a two sided debate whereby the strength and weaknesses of the opposition claims are outlined as against the warrants of the substantive claim. The strengths and weaknesses of opponents’ claim The major strengths in the opposition claims include the fact that no all people can be trusted to on their own put up good behavior and guide against such behavior as pilfering, rudeness towards customers and irresponsible use of working hours. For this reason, workplace surveillance would just be appropria te to put everyone under check. There could also be a merit of workplace surveillance whereby it puts everyone equal before the law and fights against partiality in the sense that once the system is used, each and every individual comes under the surveillance. This is especially so when sophisticated cameras and other technological tools are used (Logan, 2009). These merits not withstanding, the use of cameras and other equipment to watch the everyday steps of workers at the workplace clearly infringes on their privacy (Robinson, 2012). Yet again, the theory of behaviorism provides that the conscience of people to select good morals is better shaped if the people are nurtured to select such attitudes by themselves (Privacy Right Clearinghouse, 2012). This is indeed a major contradiction to the principle of workplace surveillance. The effect of the forceful nature of getting people to be ethical would therefore be that in a situation whereby the systems break down or for whatever lit tle opportunity people get, they would abuse the system and make multiple mistakes of all that they intended to do but did not have the chance to do because of surveillance. Present claim The point is therefore being reiterated again that workplace surveillance is an extreme way of checking for ethical practice at the workplace and thus it is inappropriate. If indeed the figurative saying that there are several ways of killing a cat is true, then it is important that work input and output be monitored but this should take a different dimension other than the use of surveillance technology. Warrants for claim and the opposition The warrant