Charting the Structure of a Conflict: E-mail Privacy

The Writing of Business

Charting the Structure of a Conflict: E-mail Privacy

The Employer's Interest	The Employees' Interest
Claim: Employers should have access to employees' e-mail messages at work.	Claim: Employers should not have access to employees' e-mail messages at work.
Data: The employer owns the computers and the network equipment and is paying for the network service as well as for the employees' time.	Data: All employees have communications at work that are not directly task-related.
Principle/Assumption Giving Meaning and Value to the Data and Serving as a Warrant for the Claim: Employers are entitled to the intellectual property that is created by their employees while at work and while using their resources.	Principle/Assumption Giving Meaning and Value to the Data and Serving as a Warrant for the Claim: The right to privacy is a fundamental human right.
Backing for the Principle/Assumption and/or Challenge to an Opposing Principle/Assumption: Employees' rights to privacy must be limited by their responsibilities to the group, or organization will disintegrate to chaos.	Backing for the Principle/Assumption and/or Challenge to an Opposing Principle/Assumption: Employers' rights to the fruits of their employers' work on the job do not justify intruding on private employee communications while they are at work.
Reservation: . . . unless we are prepared, as a society, to say that people who invest their capital in business ventures are not entitled to the fruits of their investment.	Reservation: . . . unless we are prepared, as a society, to say that people must give up their right to privacy in order to have a paycheck.
Qualification: . . .unless the messages are of a purely private nature and employees have not been given notice that their e-mail is subject to monitoring.	Qualification: . . . unless the e-mail is directly work related and employees are given prior notice of the monitoring.

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The print version of the Instructor's Manual for The Writing of Business
was written by Robert P. Inkster and Judith M. Kilborn for Allyn and Bacon.
This web version of the manual was coded by Judith M. Kilborn.