Case Study
CASE WRITTEN REPORT
Online Case – HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT APPLICATIONS by Nkomo, Fottler and McAfee
Case 90. Page 265.
“Surfing the Internet on Company Time”
Helen Barnett is a supervisor of 15 customer service representatives for National Insurance, a company specializing in home insurance. Helen was surprised on what she was seeing on the computer screen of one of her employees, James Erskine, a picture of an ongoing sexual act. Customer Service Representatives assist clients with claims, insurance quotes, and other queries. These representatives each have cubicles that are furnished with a computer, a desk, and a phone headset, but of course Helen Barnett, the supervisor has her own office. National Insurance is a company that efforts in making greater use of electronic technology in servicing its clients. One of the representatives named James Erskine had been employed with the company for the last six months and on his 90-day performance review, he got a satisfactory. However, Lorraine Smalls is a co-worker who sat on the cubicle close to Erskine was the one who discovered the pictures when she quickly tried to recover some data to respond to a customer when her computer malfunctioned. It was not unusual for representatives to use another staff member’s computer. Smalls immediately called Barnett and as she viewed the browser, it shows that the website was viewed more than a dozen times that morning. As a supervisor, she wanted to confront him about using company time in such an unproductive manner. When Erskine returned from lunch, he was confronted and he immediately reasoned that he visited the site during break time and felt that it was an invasion of his privacy/ Barnett told him that she would report to the Human Resource Manager but Erskine himself went to the Manager, Dale Gibbons and expressed how he was violated. The HR Manager then told him that every one should have access to the company’s computer for related purposes and on the other
Online Case – HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT APPLICATIONS by Nkomo, Fottler and McAfee
Case 90. Page 265.
“Surfing the Internet on Company Time”
Helen Barnett is a supervisor of 15 customer service representatives for National Insurance, a company specializing in home insurance. Helen was surprised on what she was seeing on the computer screen of one of her employees, James Erskine, a picture of an ongoing sexual act. Customer Service Representatives assist clients with claims, insurance quotes, and other queries. These representatives each have cubicles that are furnished with a computer, a desk, and a phone headset, but of course Helen Barnett, the supervisor has her own office. National Insurance is a company that efforts in making greater use of electronic technology in servicing its clients. One of the representatives named James Erskine had been employed with the company for the last six months and on his 90-day performance review, he got a satisfactory. However, Lorraine Smalls is a co-worker who sat on the cubicle close to Erskine was the one who discovered the pictures when she quickly tried to recover some data to respond to a customer when her computer malfunctioned. It was not unusual for representatives to use another staff member’s computer. Smalls immediately called Barnett and as she viewed the browser, it shows that the website was viewed more than a dozen times that morning. As a supervisor, she wanted to confront him about using company time in such an unproductive manner. When Erskine returned from lunch, he was confronted and he immediately reasoned that he visited the site during break time and felt that it was an invasion of his privacy/ Barnett told him that she would report to the Human Resource Manager but Erskine himself went to the Manager, Dale Gibbons and expressed how he was violated. The HR Manager then told him that every one should have access to the company’s computer for related purposes and on the other