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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Yes, (just strap this on) the boss trusts you
<BR>Haim Bior Haaretz <BR>Monday, February 24,
2003 <BR> </FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2> <BR>Tel Aviv
Organizations big and small are increasingly using polygraph tests to uncover
the sources of leaks to competitors or to the press. A decision by the incoming
Cellcom CEO, Yitzhak Peterburg, to send all senior management personnel for
polygraph, or lie detector, tests to reveal who leaked information from closed
meetings is nothing out of the ordinary.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Most organizational experts say that such a step is
an attempt to subordinate the ranks, a signal that says: "Here comes the new CEO
to straighten out the organization, in which everyone has been doing as he
pleases."</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Workers' committees, on the other hand, view it as
a sign of weakness and say that sending employees for polygraph tests does not
indicate the CEO's leadership capability, but rather his
insecurity.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The polygraph is often used as the last step in
building a case against a worker whose phone calls and faxes have been
monitored, sometimes by hidden cameras.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The work office was not the first place in which
the polygraph was used. When it was introduced during World War II, the U.S.
Army used it to verify the loyalty of officers suspected of passing information
to the enemy. Over the years, many other organizations - both governmental and
in the business world - began to use the polygraph to test the loyalty of their
employees.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Ishayahu Horowitz, a former policeman and now the
owner of the I. Horowitz Gazit Ozery Institute for Polygraph and Forensic
Science, says that some 25,000 to 30,000 polygraph tests are conducted in Israel
annually for employer-employee relations purposes by both government and private
organizations.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Horowitz said that the United States, Israel, Japan
and Canada used the polygraph more extensively than other countries, but that
Europe was catching up.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The expansion of the European Union has led to an
increase in multinational companies and with it an increase in mutual
suspiciousness regarding employer-employee loyalty, he explained.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>"Polygraph tests are not only for discovering which
worker is responsible for the disappearance of equipment, or which computer
programmer gave inside information to someone outside the company," Horowitz
continued. "Managers send workers for polygraph tests not only to discover
disloyal workers or thieves, but also to deter workers from doing anything that
might harm the company."</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Horowitz believes that the main reason for
increased polygraph use in recent years is the decline in work norms. People
felt more secure in their jobs 20 years ago, thanks to collective work
agreements, and didn't switch jobs every few years as they do today. Years ago,
people identified more with their places of employment and with their goals, so
managers were less suspicious of workers. No one, except perhaps for the
managers of security companies, sent their employees for polygraph
tests.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>These days, employees feel less loyalty toward
their workplaces because they have lost their faith in long-term job security.
Companies are transferred to new owners more often than in the past, many
companies have far more temporary workers than they did in the 1980s and many
people work for two or three companies at the same time - something that can
create a conflict of interests.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>"These developments have caused a feeling of
alienation between employees and their employers, combined with a lack of
commitment from the workers and increased suspicions by the employers, leading
to more orders for polygraph tests," Horowitz says.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>He explains that the tests have an accuracy rate of
90 to 95 percent, but are not admissible as evidence in court unless both sides
to a dispute agree. Some 75 percent of polygraph subjects are found to be
truthful.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Nahum Feinberg, an attorney and expert in labor
laws who usually represents employers, feels that they are justified in
conducting periodic polygraph tests on certain employees, such as those who
handle large sums in checks or cash, even when there are no suspicions against
them.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>"There are cases in which companies that trade with
Third World countries ask a sales person who has visited those countries to
collect payments to undergo polygraph tests in order to ensure that he has not
made any secret deals," Feinberg says. 18</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>