Employee Surveillance and Investigation at Ikea, France

Employee Surveillance and Investigation at Ikea, France

Expected Learning Outcomes

• The various surveillance and investigation practices at workplaces
• The ethical landmines in Ikea’s worker investigation in France
• Employee surveillance and monitoring; a boon or a bane

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Employee Surveillance & Investigation: The Concept

1. According to you, what qualifies as an ethical work culture? With the advent of the Information Age, and particularly the Internet Age, employee monitoring and spying has emerged as a widespread and fast growing phenomenon. Would you term employee surveillance as an ethical practice? Justify your stand.
2. Background checks form a part of the recruitment and selection process in many companies. According to you is background verification an objectionable act? Does it tantamount to employee spying?
3. What are the various forms of employee monitoring? Do you approve of employee surveillance and investigation as a practice? Is it fair to extend employee monitoring even beyond the workplace?
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Employee Surveillance and Investigation at Ikea, France

Synopsis

This case flyer focuses on the issue of employee surveillance and monitoring; and its ethical implications. It deliberates on the various forms of monitoring techniques employed by employers and whether such a close watch is acceptable beyond workplaces? The base article1 showcases the manner in which Ikea, the Swedish furniture group, had resorted to employee spying and investigations on numerous grounds. What are the various forms of monitoring employees? Which activities can an organization monitor and vice versa? For what reasons do organizations indulge in such monitoring and surveillance activities. In certain scenarios, monitoring equipment like closed circuit televisions provide crucial information pertaining to thefts or other nefarious activities at workplaces. Do the negatives of such forms of surveillance outweigh their benefits? Is employee monitoring a boon or a bane?

Expected Learning Outcomes

• • The various surveillance and investigation practices at workplaces
• • The ethical landmines in Ikea’s worker investigation in France
• • Employee surveillance and monitoring; a boon or a bane

Positioning and Setting

This case flyer can be used in the following course:

• a) Human Resource Management – Ethics and fair treatment at work
• b) Organizational Behavior – Creating an Ethical Organizational Culture – Is employee monitoring and surveillance an ethical workplace practice?

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Exhibits

Exhibit (TN)-I: Types of Employee Monitoring

Exhibit (TN)-II: Company’s Investigative Practice and its Impact on an Individual

Annexure

Annexure (TN)-I: Board Plan