In: Computer Science
Your supervisor manages the corporate office where you work as a systems analyst. Several weeks ago, after hearing rumors of employee dissatisfaction, he asked you to create a survey for all IT employees.After the responses were returned and tabulated, he was disappointed to learn that many employees assigned low ratings to morale and management policies.This morning he called you into his office and asked whether you could identify the departments that submitted the lowest ratings. No names were used on the individual survey forms. However, with a little analysis, you probably could identify the departments because several questions were department-related.Now you are not sure how to respond.The expectation was that the survey would be anonymous.
Even though no individuals would be identified, would it be ethical to reveal which departments sent in the low ratings?
Would your supervisor’s motives for wanting this information matter?
What would you say to your supervisor?
1. It will not be ethical to reveal the departments sent low rating. The survey was taken with a promise of keeping the identification of participants hidden. So all answers were anonymous. Hence breaking confidentiality will be unethical as per the ethical framework and guidelines the respondent confidentiality.
2. The motive of supervisor for wanting the information matter. There are some instances of using deductive disclosure for the good purpose of company. May be some corrective action management can take silently based on the feedback. But if the motive is evil and it may harm the prosperity of company, then you shouldn't revel the information at all.
3. I can ask my supervisor about the purpose of wanting this confidential information. I can ask to assess of urgency and need of knowing this. To keep both the party in their place properly, I can ask a written request from him and can revel it, if I found the purpose is really for the good of the company. The written request will be useful in future in case any fraud or wrong thing happened because of revealing the confidential info.