Page 469 - Using MIS

DisCussion Questions

1. Using the categorical imperative (pages 20–21) and utili- Do you think such reading is legal? Using the categori-
tarian (pages 56–57) perspectives, assess the ethics of cal imperative and utilitarianism, assess the ethics of
each situation above. secretly reading employees’ email. How do you respond
2. Suppose someone from the IS department notifies you about your employee?
that one of your employees is spending 3 hours a day 5. As an employee, if you know that your company occa-
writing Twitter messages. How do you respond? sionally reads employees’ email, does that change your
3. For question 2, suppose you ask how the IS department behavior? If so, does that justify the company reading
knows about your employee, and you are told, “We se- your email? Do the ethics of this situation differ from
cretly monitor computer usage.” Do you object to such having someone read your personal postal mail that
monitoring? Why or why not? happens to be delivered to you at work? Why or why
not?
4. Suppose someone from the IS department notifies you 6. Write what you think is the best corporate policy for
that one of your employees is sending dozens of per- personal computer usage at work. Specifically address
sonal emails every day. When you ask how he or she Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and other personal social
knows the emails are personal, you are told that IS mea- networking sites. Justify your policy using either the cat-
sures account activity and when suspicious email usage egorical imperative or utilitarianism.
is suspected the IS department reads employees’ email.

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