Case Study: Automated Waste Disposal, Inc.

This is an interesting short case about using IT to monitor employees. In this case it’s a GPS system used to monitor the location of trucks and company cars. Ultimately, however, it plays out as a system to monitor drivers and salesmen. Management must walk a fine line as they build a process to implement such a system in an organization. As an extension to this discussion, the instructor might ask “would it be easier for management to implement a GPS system in an existing company (who previously didn’t have one) or in a new company (where all employees are just learning the processes and systems)?

Sample Answers to Discussion Questions:

1. The positive and negative aspects of Viento’s use of the GPS-based system to monitor his drivers and salesmen:

Positive aspects might include the ability of Viento to know where his trucks are at any given time. If someone has to go into an ‘unsafe’ area and/or is not where they are supposed to be at a given time, Viento can help them by knowing where they are. The case also mentions the money savings that accrued due to the reduction in overtime, presumably because the drivers knew they were not only ‘on the clock’ but being watched. The negative aspects might include the cultural impacts… his drivers feel big brother is watching, which may make them resent the system or at worst case, sabotage it. It might drive unintended consequences such as drivers speeding or taking unsafe risks because they know their management is watching and they have certain time restrictions and milestones to make.

2. Advice for Viento about the use of the system for supervising, evaluating and compensating his drivers and salesmen:

It’s one thing to use the system to monitor behavior and correct it. It’s another entirely to use it as part of the evaluation and compensation system. Viento must be very careful how he introduces that to the workers. IF they are unionized, he must make sure to have buy in from the union. But in any case, he should start by letting the drivers get used to the system without fear of it impacting their compensation. After they are used to it and have changed their behavior, he can slowly introduce a plan to use the information for evaluation and compensation. Should he not do it slowly, he can expect some employees to not only complain, but possibly sabotage the systems, break them (and claim it was an accident or something they know nothing about). Astute students will use the TAM model to structure their response to this question.

3. As more and more companies turn to IS to help them monitor their employees, what do you anticipate the impact will be on employee privacy? Can anything be done to ensure employee privacy?

This is an opinion question. The impact on employee privacy is clearly an issue when IT is introduced to monitor behavior and activities. We’ve seen lots of legal action regarding monitoring of e-mail, but usually the courts come down on the side that company email systems are the property of the company, and therefore monitoring the emails is not an invasion of individual privacy. On the other hand, monitoring individuals such as the drivers in this case study, can uncover some information that may be deemed private (like visiting their girl friends, their local bar, or other private activity). What the company does with that information is the key here. To ensure employee privacy, companies need very clear guidelines on what information they plan to collect, what they will do with that information, and what consequences result if the guidelines are not followed. These guidelines must be clearly communicated to both management and monitored employees, so that all is out in the open and the monitoring is not seen as a spying operation or subversive management activity.

* Source: Pearlson & Saunders (2006)