Ethical Decision Making - Case Study Example

Obtaining the sample documents for purposes of checking for quality control may be justified as a means of enhancing performance, but it must be done transparently with full awareness of those affected by the exercise. Poor quality found in this case could not be used for disciplinary purposes because the manner in which it was obtained failed to guarantee the protection of the employees. It is only legally acquired information can be used to initiate disciplinary action (Kaupins & Park 82). Since the information is acquired outside working hours and without the consent of the people rightfully given access ownership of the hard drives, it is may not be considered legal.

However, it could and should be used for training purposes to avoid the repetition of poor quality work. Applying PAPA to this situation, the violation of privacy is seen to be evident because the manager did not use his position to ensure there are safeguards in place to protect the employees and the information on their computer accounts. According to the provisions of PAPA, the employees have a right to be protected from information gathering and intrusion by others (Pearlson and Sanders 18).

Further, they were not given the opportunity to exercise choice and select the level to which their information could be accessed. If the low quality work was attributed to data accuracy, it is the manager’s responsibility to establish controls that ensure accuracy. If that had been done earlier, the low quality work could not have gone on for months as the case study shows. That means the manager failed to ensure it was kept up-to-date. The information on the employees’ hard drives is the property of the clients and the organization.

Therefore, the manager must also follow the procedures in place because as much as he is in charge of office automation, he does not own or have exclusive