Ethical Dilemma HELP?
The impact of computers on the workplace has been a major source of debate about changes brought by computers in the working environment and the environmental and health and safety issues involved in the computerized office. I have an example and questions below
"Consider Alice, who is staff member in a computer science department in New Zealand. She applies for a job at a university in the UK and is invited to travel to the UK for a three-hour interview. Thus, Alice will have to fly some ten thousands miles each way in order to be present for three hours at the interview. Let us suppose that you are heading the interview committee in the UK, and are therefore Alice’s primary point of contact. Alice sends you an email asking whether it would be possible for her to be interviewed using videoconferencing facilities. She points out that this will not only save her a huge amount of flying time (at least 20 hours each way), but also will alleviate stress, and furthermore – as she mentions – avoiding long-haul journeys that are not absolutely necessary has a positive impact on the environment. In this respect she points out the significant amount of fuel that will be burnt in transporting her from New Zealand to the UK and on her return journey. She has access to high-quality videoconferencing facilities, and so does your, university in the UK.
You bring this situation to the attention of other members of the interview committee – your head of department, and the like – but find that nobody is particularly willing to make use of videoconferencing facilities.
This surprises you, especially as after all you are working in a computer science/IT department and therefore had supposed that staff would have been quite willing to embrace new technologies to avoid negative impact on the environment (in actual fact is surprising how much fuel consumed in supporting Alice’s round-the-world trip).
1. What are your views on this situation?
2. Do you feel that this highlights (even in a small way) the opportunity to reduce environmental damage by using technologies to support communication and therefore avoid unnecessary travel?
3. Do you believe that people should be willing to adapt to the use of such videoconferencing technologies – is this an ethical issue?
4. Given a willingness to adapt, is it possible that the interview process can be carried out in such a way as to overcome the possible deficiencies of the technology – so that the candidate is not disadvantage by not being physically present, and also provide the interview committee with the opportunity to gain a clear impression of Alice?
5. Do you feel that if members of a workforce are expected to adapt to the deployment of such technologies, then members of a management team should be willing to do likewise?
Comments
I think the interviewing company is stuck in the Dark Ages if they aren't about saving time and money - even if it does not impact on them. While it is the applicant's choice to apply to a company in another country, it seems to me an IT company should be more than willing to make use of technology that saves time. So what if this person flies to the UK, is there for the interview - and it gets cancelled for some reason and they can't immediately reschedule? Is she out all that time and money for nothing?
I really don't see an ethical dilemma here, but if I was applying and the company was not willing to use videoconferencing technology for the interview, I would be crossing them off the list without a second thought. If they are that unwilling to use the technology, and not at all concerned about the impact a long and expensive journey would have on a potential employee, they sure aren't going to give a rosy rotund rodent's rump about that person if they were hired. I think the environmental aspect of this is pretty inconsequential.
Managers often believe they have incredible gut instincts when hiring people which is irrational given the process does not usually support an objective evaluation of a candidates ability to succeed int he role. This 'gut' instinct relies heavily on feelings from the direct personal interaction.
There are two other forces at working your scenario. Higher education is very relationship based and so finding the most qualified often takes a back seat to finding the one where the relationship will be better. Doing the interview remotely impairs the hiring teams ability to judge this and forces it to be more objective which is often avoided in colleges.
Second, IT departments are frequently the worst when it comes to taking their own advice. So I frequently see IT departments reluctant to allow telecommuting and remote interviewing.
Interviewing in person is a huge deal to get a "vibe" from that person, PLUS Alice is not making a plane make a special trip just for her, the flight is already going with lots of other passengers, no more harm to the environment than is already being done