The Case of the Omniscient Organization

The 1995 employee handbook of a hypothetical company, Dominion-Swann Industries (DS), includes such statements as: 1. DS wants to avoid hiring people whose predictive profile - medications, smoking, obesity, debt, high-risk sports, and family crises - suggest that there will be serious losses to the DS community's productivity in the future. 2. New machines, to be used in private bathroom stalls and activated by employee thumbprints, permit biweekly urine analysis and a variety of other tests. 3. Video and audio surveillance protects employees from intruders in hallways, parking lots, lounges, and work areas. While DS seeks to protect and maximize its vast investment in technology and employees, closer scrutiny by one expert reveals a basic failure of authority that will ultimately undermine DS' credibility. DS' policies are discriminatory, invasive, and counterproductive. Substituting control and fear for supervision and training is not the answer.