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Selected Readings in Business (Shulman)

Case Study: Chapter 7

Chapter 7 Canada: The Case for Information Technology Karen Hanley works as an applications programmer for E&G InsuranceCorporation in Toronto, Ontario. She is known as a computer whiz and is a valued and professional employee. Recently, Karen has been coming to work much earlier than usual and staying much later. DavidBurnside, her good friend and office mate, noticed Karen’s longer hours and was thinking of asking Karen why she wanted to work so hard. But David was also working longer hours because of the special projecthe was assigned to, and he got so busy that he forgot about Karen and her unusual work schedule. One night, David stayed late to finish a progress report for his project. When he tried to open hisdata file to work on the report, his computer had a system error that he could not correct; therefore, he decided to use Karen’s computer to finish up the report. In a rush, David turned on her computerand accidentally opened one of Karen’s files: he found himself looking at a series of invoices for a company called Hanley Associates. He was confused at first, but gradually everything became clear.One year ago Karen had started her own computer business and was keeping all her records on the business in E&G’s computer. Apparently, she was using E&G’s customer database and selling it to othercompanies that were in competition with E&G. As the truth dawned on David, he felt shocked. Karen, his close friend and respected colleague, was behaving like a computer criminal—and getting away withit! While David continued browsing through the file, he saw what a highly successful business Karen had. She was actually earning more than her salary at E&G. Now David began to wonder how many of thehours Karen spent at E&G were really devoted to her job. David was concerned. What should he do, if anything? He knew that E&G had strict system guidelines that stated the rules for computer...