Business

Family Business LS312 Ethics and the Legal Environment The person that is a stakeholder is Jane she was just hired right out of college, doing payroll for R & S Electronic Service Company. She was hired as the manager of the payroll department. She has to work alongside of Brad which is the owner of the business, Eddie who is the general manager and Greg who is the service technician of R & S Electronics. As anyone would be Jane want to make sure that her job is secure. This is a big concern of hers. This is Jane’s first job out of college, who knows if she has student loans to repay' And then, her own cost of living might be a concern for her. Upon meeting Brad, the owner of R&S, Jane believes that he wants his employee to be mentally happy at work and he commends employees for their work. Even though Brad is the owner, Eddie has the ability to fire and hire people. Jane also learns that Greg and Eddie are brothers and she now knows why Greg receives special favors over other employees. Jane on many occasions she has witness Eddie giving his brother Greg higher commissions work for the easiest work, then others (Arthur Andersen, 1992). Jane’s has other stakeholders in this study; she has her family and her will of keeping employment. She might have to help her family pay back the loans from college, being this was her first job from college. Other stakeholders in this case of interest would be Jane’s family and the importance of her keeping her job. It does not appear that Jane has any kids to take care of this would not be a factor of her keeping her job. There are others that also have a stake in this company. The other employees they want their paycheck each payday, they want to keep their jobs and want their privacy as well about their employment. The other stakeholders are the general public and shareholders they care about the company being profitable and bringing revenue to the community. What is being violated here is I believe to be the law of At-Will Employment. Why' Because Eddie is showing Greg favoritism and wants Jane to keep up with this deceitful lie, about the tickets she had seen Eddie give Greg. This At-Will law is not lawful because it violates a public policy exception. Is this supposed to be the way sociality wants people to act, especially in business' I really don’t think that this is considers a good practice in business. If an employer wants an employee to lie in order to keep ones job is not acceptable. In this case Eddie is not telling Jane to lie under oath, but still is threatening her with firing her is she says anything (eGuide, Chp. 3). At-Will Employment is a law that has been used in many situations when it comes to employers firing employees and when employees quit. There is no right or wrong when it comes to this law. There have been a lot of talks about it seems to not be right at times. However, this law backs up Eddie if he fires Jane, for not going along with him. The at will employment states “ either party can break the relationship with no liability, provided there was no express contract for a definite term governing the employment relationship and that the employer does not belong to a collective bargaining group.” However, does this situation between Eddie and Jane consist of something illegal or violate public interest. That will be the only means for this to not be acceptable. This principle violates the good faith and fair dealing exception (Labor-employment, April, 2012). There has always been a case where family hiring family, and where there are shown more favorable than the regular workers. Having family work with each other can sometimes be a problem with other employees, as we see from Eddie and Greg. There is no federal law against nepotism but it does lead to At-Will Employment violations and discrimination violations (Bacon & Wilson, 2/02/2011). “However, according to Beacon and Wilson if an employer creates workplace conditions that effectively force out an existing employee to make room to hire a relative, the employer may be liable, and therefore, must pay damages to the forced out employee” (Bacon & Wilson, 2/02/2011). Using the ethical theories in this case, Eddie’s motives do not seem pure, meaning the means do not justify the end result. Well if you look at the Kant’s imperative theory the act of this being ethical because this is widely accepted and not look down on. Most companies that have family members working together receive different treatment compared to the employees. The practice of giving family member a different salary has been different in the world of business for as long as people have been hiring their family members. Either way it goes Jane employment should not be threaten or she should not feel threaten in order to be employed (eGuide, Chp. 1). Using the utilitarianism theory the good doesn’t seem to outweigh the bad in this case. Paying Greg a higher commission is not benefiting anyone but Greg. There is no greater good for the greatest number of people. The utilitarianism theory is ethical when it benefits more than one person which in this case it is only to Greg’s advantage to be paid a high commission (eGuide, Chp 1). After having time to review how this situation would play in everyday life I believe that the Rawl’s justice theory is being used in this case. How it is being used while when Eddie pay his brother a better commission then other employees tells that this was not at all being fair, The Rawls address these types of social issues. “A theory of Justice means that a good society is one structured according to principals of justice” (John Rawls, 1971). I have to believe that Eddie is violating the right of other because this is not fair and it is not justified why Greg is being paid more. This is unfair and unjust to the other workers that are doing the same job Greg (eGuide, Chp. 1). This company should do before they lose a really good employee, from being deceitful within the company. Eddie should be honest with his employees and his self. This company should allow other employee the chance to get the high paying commission as well as his brother Greg. Greg should not be paid the high commission just because he is Eddie’s brother. Eddie and Brand should look over the laws to see if they are violating any labor laws or any other at will laws, by making threats that he was and would fire Jane because she know of the cheating the other employees of good paying tickets. If this company cannot stop with the biases way of paying Greg, then there should be some unbiased person to pay Greg to make sure that is it done fairly. Since they are family someone else that is unbiased should be paying Greg so it will be done fairly and just (eGuide, Chp. 3). Unfortunately this happens more often in many companies that hire family. The family is always treated differently. A lot of time family will take advantage of the situation and half do their work and get paid more or the same as someone that would be doing their work. Even thought favoritism of family will always be around. Nothing will change unless the laws change on how family is to be treated while working for family. Good luck with this thought because it would never happen. Thinking, how would the government regulate family owned business in that manner' This could cause a high turnover rate for the company which in the end could cause the business to lose money or go out of business. References Arthur, Anderson, M. M. Dr. (1992). Family Business, Retrieved from http://wpweb2.tepper.cmu.edu/ethics/AA/mgmt01-case.pdf eGuide, Ethics and the Legal Environment, Chapter 1 & 3 John Rawls, 1971, retrieved from, A theory of Justice, http://www.enotes.com/theory-justice http://labor-employment-law.lawyers.com/human-resources-law/Employment-Law-in-Your-State.html