Your supervisor manages the corporate office where you work as a systems analyst. Several weeks ago, after hearing rumors of employee dissatisfaction, he asked you to create a survey for all IT employees. After the responses were returned and tabulated, he was disappointed to learn that many employees assigned low ratings to morale and management policies.

This morning he called you into his office and asked whether you could identify the departments that submitted the lowest ratings. No names were used on the individual survey forms. However, with a little analysis, you probably could identify the departments because several questions were department-related.

Now you are not sure how to respond. The expectation was that the survey would be anonymous. Even though no individuals would be identified, would it be ethical to reveal which departments sent in the low ratings? Would your supervisor’s motives for wanting this information matter?