Case Teaching Package
A case teaching package is available for this case. It includes strategies for case presentation, key concepts, solutions to the assignment questions in the case, and suggestions for the most effective ways to work this case into your course.

Length
This case is 4 pages in length and its case teaching package is 14 pages.

Abstract

Mikayla Pilchard, Vice President of Human Resources for Worklines, Inc. ("Worklines"), has been asked by Emma Kahle, Worklines' President, to make sure that Worklines' monitoring practices are in compliance with the law and are in line with other firms' practices. She has also been directed to draft an employee privacy policy relating to Worklines' monitoring practices that will apply to all levels of our firm.

Worklines is a medium-sized firm of approximately 150 employees at various levels, providing "helpline" services for other companies. In other words, companies that want to set up a telephone or email-based ethics helpline, benefits information line, human resources answer line, or other telephone or email response resource for their employees contract with Worklines to answer their employees' calls or emails. This is accomplished either through direct responses to the questions posed or with referrals to an appropriate in-house manager or outside resource.

Mikayla solicits the opinions of managers, Worklines' human resource specialists and other staff members, then investigates the law relating to monitoring and compares the responses of other firms. She finds that there is not much consistency among other firms and that the law has voids in this area. Students are asked to identify other information Mikayla should seek prior to creating the policy, and then to create the policy itself.

Linkages to Textbooks or Journal Articles/Fit Within a Course

As mentioned above, this case may be appropriate not only in a course specifically relating to business ethics, but also courses in business law, employment law, human resource management and general business decision-making. The case is most likely to fit within a course's discussion of application of analyses or, specifically, in dealing with the balance of power in the employment relationship. Finally, since technology is now finding a place in most human resource management classes, the case would be an appropriate foil to a general discussion of the benefits of new technology.

Given the breadth of the application of this case, it is appropriate in business and society, legal environment or business law courses where the discussion turns to issues of employment law. It is also appropriate in human resource management courses during discussion of performance appraisals, evaluation and reviews, testing, monitoring, employee motivation and strategic planning.

In connection with business ethics courses, this case will fit comfortably in discussions relating to the following sections of standards textbooks and casebooks:

• Beauchamp, Tom L., and Norman E. Bowie, 1997, Ethical Theory and Business, 5E (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall). May be used to apply Chapter 1, Ethical Theory and Business Practice, or in Chapter 5, Rights and Obligations of Employees and Employers.
• Boatright, John R., 1997, Ethics and the Conduct of Business, 2E (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall). May be used to apply Part 1, Theories of Ethics, or with Part II, Chapter 7, Privacy in the Workplace.
• Boatright, John R., 1995, Cases in Ethics and the Conduct of Business (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall). May be used to apply Chapter 2, The Employee and The Firm, or Chapter 3, Ethical Issues in Employee Relations.
• DeGeorge, Richard T., 1995, Business Ethics, 4E (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall). May be used to apply Chapter 13, Computer, Ethics and Business, or Chapter 15, Workers' Rights and Duties within A Firm.
• Donaldson, Thomas and Al Gini, 1996, Case Studies in Business Ethics, 4E (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall). May be used with Chapter 4, Employee/Employer Relations.
• Donaldson, Thomas and Patricia Werhane, 1996, Ethical Issues in Business: A Philosophical Approach, 5E (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall). May be used to apply Part 3, Employee Rights and Responsibilities, or Part 4, Corporations in the 21st Century.
• Halbert, Terry and Elaine Ingulli, 1997, Law & Ethics in the Business Environment, 2E (St. Paul, MN: West Publishing). May be used in conjunction with Chapter 3, The Right of Privacy.
• Hartman, Laura Pincus, 1998, Perspectives in Business Ethics (Burr Ridge, IL: Irwin/McGraw-Hill). May be used with Chapter 1, Traditional Theories, Chapter 2, Application of Traditional theories to Modern Business Decision Making, Chapter 8, Ethics and Human Resource Management, or Chapter 11, Ethics, Accounting and The Technology of Business.
• Jennings, Marianne Moody, 1996, Case Studies in Business Ethics, 2E (St. Paul, MN: West Publishing). May be used with Unit II, part b, Employee Screening, or part h, Employee Rights.
• Trevino, Linda K. and Katherine A. Nelson, 1995, Managing Business Ethics: Straight Talk about How To Do It Right (New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons). May be used with Section III, Ethics and the Manager, and Section IV, Ethics as Organizational Culture.
• Velasquez, Manuel G., 1992, Business Ethics: Concepts and Cases, 3E (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall). May be used with Chapter 8, The Individual in The Organization.

Study Questions

1. What additional information or input should Mikayla seek out before drafting the privacy policy for Worklines, relating to employee monitoring and privacy rights?
2. How should Mikayla's draft of the policy address the competing interests of Worklines and its managers, and those of its specialists and its staff? What would this draft look like?

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