Though technology is changing at break-neck speed, we sometimes need to sit back and realize that while the way in which we communicate and operate in the workplace is different than in decades past, the same ethical principles apply.
Let us imagine the engineering department of a large company and the year is 1960. A disgruntled employee works in the department and he decides to get back at his boss. The employee finds the key to his supervisor’s filing cabinet. Over the course of several weeks he goes through his boss’ mail, confidential papers and all of the employee evaluations, salary information and 
comments regarding those he supervises. In fact, he goes one step further and anonymously sends the confidential papers and evaluations to several employees throughout the organization. He uses inter-office mail, copies addresses from the Rolodex and even sends out envelopes with confidential information by special delivery. He makes snide comments and attaches them to the information he distributes. There is both embarrassment and anger when the information is leaked. It hurts credibility, morale, breeches trust and disrupts the entire team.
In 2015, a disgruntled engineer for Tesla Motors accessed (hacked) his manager’s email account. He then shared employee evaluations with other members of the team and posted confidential information throughout the company. This action was the subject of a brief, but important item carried by Reuters on September 3, 2015 entitled: “Ex-Tesla engineer charged with felony computer intrusion.”
According to the article, the employee is under investigation by the FBI. He “tried to harm Tesla’s reputation and credibility on the web by making false and misleading comments,” based on the information he found in the files.
Though the fictitious example I gave for 1960 and the 2015 incident are 55 years apart, there are remarkable, ethical similarities.
Understanding new challenges
The classic model for an employee committing an unethical act in the workplace includes the opportunity to take advantage of a situation, the means (ability) to do so and a lack of organization control.
In the case of Tesla, the computer savvy engineer took advantage of a vulnerability in the computer network of the organization. He had the knowledge (the means) and ability to gain access to his boss’ files and the lack of ethics that encouraged him to spread confidential information.
The new challenge in the workplace isn’t that unethical behaviors have changed so much, as the fact that organizations are not identifying the behaviors for what they are. There is little difference between breaking into a file cabinet and physically spreading confidential files around an office and hacking into a network and electronically spreading confidential files. Of course, the dissemination of that information can take place over a wider, world-wide network in a matter of seconds but the principles are identical. Is your company prepared?
Teaching employees to be ethical
Human Resources departments often approach ethics instruction using old-school models in an attempt to stay current with modern technologies. Going back to our 1960 example, the vast majority of companies have all but eliminated inter-office mail, special delivery mail (except in certain cases) and the Rolodex? Forget about the Rolodex!
However, to not present material (especially to Millennials) about the unethical applications of the social media or the crimes resultant from computer hacks, the distribution of unauthorized images and attachments or the downloading of prohibited materials is irresponsible.
Far more important than the unethical acts themselves is to not teach the consequences of those acts.
“I didn’t know,” is not a viable excuse for committing an unethical act especially if the consequences of those actions have been made clear. In the case of a computer hack, the dissemination of confidential or improper images or documents, or cyber-bullying employees on the social media can be better curtailed or eliminated by delineating the consequences for those actions.
While a lot has changed over the years, the consequences for unethical behavior should be relatively unchanged providing employees understand what those behaviors encompass.
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