Ethics_at_Work

Ethical Theory Society is faced with ethical dilemmas virtually every day. How societies handle these situations shapes our culture. But what is ethics' Is ethics an ability that grows in us from a child or do our parents teaches us ethics' Ethics is a topic which many people or groups of people tend to disregard. There can be many reasons supporting the decisions that business firms or individuals make. In many cases, money or monetary gain can influence people to do unethical things either in the workplace or in everyday life. Ethics can be defined as a group belief that distinguishes right from wrong. Today's society is governed through the implications of rules, legal restrictions that tell you whether something is considered, in the eyes of society, to be right or wrong. All of these rules were created to uphold and maintain a ridged idea of ethical and moral values. “Ethics” is roughly a synonym for “morality,” but it is often restricted to the rules and norms of specific kinds of conduct or the codes of conduct for specialized groups (Boatright, 2009). Ethics and Management Everybody has codes that which live their lives by. This is called their personal ethical code. Their code is what they judge everything they come into contact with. For example, if someone asked them to do something, they would make their decision based on their personal ethical code. The same can be said for a professional code of ethics. There are certain "codes" or rules that each career path must abide by. If someone does not abide by them then they are breaking the professional ethical code for that specific career. Most companies and organizations today have spent time to create and design a corporate code of ethics. Management creates the 3 code of ethics that gives direction to team members within the company and expresses the sincerity of the company to maintain a strong and healthy organization. The corporate code of ethics assures team members, partnerships and stakeholders within a company that the organization understands the importance of upholding a high observance of business ethics. Companies take a different point of view on business ethics and how far the company is willing to push limits on moral and ethical conduct. No matter how companies define business ethics, employees are ultimately responsible for their own actions. In order for a corporation to become successful their leaders must manage with ethics. This training should become part of all leaders’ core responsibilities. The world of business and its leaders must change in order to keep its talented employees and move into the future. A leader must implement change and learn to do this keeping ethics in mind. A good leader must have passion when taking on any new task. They should be good with their communication skills to attract people and move them. Most importantly they should have charisma; this quality is one that will attract people and lead them to believe in the ideas that the leader puts forth. Many leaders fail as a result of not emphasizing their ethics more. “A final reason for managers to make a bad ethical choice is “a belief that because the activity helps the company, the company will condone it and even protect the person who engages in it” (Duska, R; Duska, B. S. 2003). Selected Issues There are many issues that will and are in the workplace in the past and today. Throughout time, there have been many events that have taken place that cause the human race in general much concern. The ones that come to mind are: harassments, thefts, and cover-ups of 4 anything that happen in the workplace and the outside should not know meaning “what happens in the workplace stays in the workplace.” Sexual Harassment When you mention Bill Clinton, Monica Lewinsky, Anita Hill, or Clarence Thomas what comes to mind' Like many people, sexual harassment probably popped in your head. And because of these famous cases the number of sexual harassment complaints that the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Committee) has increased by more than 50%. Sexual harassment is currently a huge issue in businesses, if left unattended it could cost companies these thousands, if not millions of dollars in damages. So why did Anita Hill not come forward with her claim of sexual harassment earlier' In earlier years, women used to think in order to get along in the workplace they must go with the flow, whatever may happen in the office. Co-workers often looked negatively upon people who stuck up for themselves. Historically the behaviors of men in the workplace has been accepted without any questions. When women were sexually harassed they had nowhere or no one to turn to either. Thief Issues The impact of online identity theft on consumers and organizations is something that organization goes through. Identity fraud is the use of a person’s name, social security number or other personal identifying information. Once armed with this information the thief can open accounts and rack up huge debts for goods and services. These criminals also open up various accounts ranging from cell phones to bank accounts. “In many cases, abuse of expense accounts and other forms of theft are possible only because of the cooperation of individuals either inside 5 or outside the company” (Garrett, 1966, p.110). It is believed that once these accounts are established they will not pay the bill and also write bad checks on that account. One way in which criminals obtain identifying information is through spam e-mails and through companies that share your information with others. These e-mails are unsolicited promising benefits requiring certain identifying information. These criminals are not limited to obtaining false accounts, but also obtain fraudulent driver licenses. Until a solution is found, though, the focus of businesses will remain on developing and implementing privacy policies (Boatright, 2009). Ethics and Management Management “Satisfaction does not equal engagement. They’re related and trend together, but they’re different phenomena from different sources. Satisfaction is about sufficiency—enough pay, benefits, flexibility to work and live and no major problems or unfair treatment to sour one’s attitude toward the employer” (Dychtwald, Erickson, & Morison, 2006, p.208). The primary task of management in a corporation is setting the ethical standards for the way of doing business. Corporations have to maintain the same standards as an individual person and additionally corporations, as organizational units, have their own social responsibilities toward customers, employees and society. According to Shaw “The considerations a businessman has to bear in mind are structured by the role he occupies as employee, colleague, manager, or director. He has duties to his superiors, to his directors, to his shareholders, which certainly restrict his freedom of action, and which may seem to leave him with no alternative” (2003, p. 28). However, any business should keep its original purpose of functioning making profit. To be able to keep the 6 ethical standards management must follow the law. In today’s fast-paced business world many managers face tough decisions when walking the thin line between what is legal and what is socially unacceptable. It is becoming more and more important for organizations to consider many more factors, especially ethically, other than maximizing profits in order to be more competitive or even survive in today’s business arena. The Whistle-Blower Whistle-blowing is an attempt of an employee or former employee of a company to reveal what he or she believes to be a wrongdoing of someone or by the company or organization. Whistle-blowing tries to make others aware of practices that are considered illegal or immoral. If the wrongdoing is reported to someone in the company it is said to be “internal.” Internal whistle blowing tends to do less damage to the company. There is also “external” whistle blowing. This is where the wrongdoing is reported to the media and brought to the attention of the public. This type of whistle-blowing tends to affect the company in a negative way because of bad publicity. Other has contradicted this view: Employees, perhaps sensing that managers will not welcome complaints, often do not speak up. Media reports and prior research indicate that: (a) many, if not most, employees believe they have encountered some wrongdoing on the job in the previous year or most; (b) most employees who perceive that wrongdoing is occurring do not act on it, in many cases because they problems; and (c) these beliefs are often well-founded (e.g., Gogoi, 2007; Miceli and Near, 1992; Schulman, 2007). 7 Justification of whistle-blowing Whistle blowing is personal if the wrongdoing affects the whistle blower alone like sexual harassment, impersonal if the wrongdoing affects other people. Many people whistle-blow for two main reasons: morality and revenge. According to Miceli, Near, & Dworkin, “workplace rewards might be similarly implemented for whistle-blowers who provide information that helps reduce costs due to ongoing wrongdoing” (2009). Policies In the workplace there are many different aspects of the organization. Some of the aspects or culture of an organization are organizational diversity, dress and language, how communication flows, and organizational policies. According to Boatright “Although the First Amendment right of free speech cannot be used as a legal argument for holding that whistle-blowing is a protected activity in the private sector, it can still be maintained that there is a moral right to freedom of speech and that (morally) there ought to be a law extending this right to whistle-blowers” (2009). According to Miceli, Near, & Dworkin, “One way to stop wrongdoing in organizations is for external forces (e.g., government regulatory agencies or the free market) to exert influence over the organization to convince top management to terminate ongoing wrongdoing or avoid new wrongdoing” (2009). Conclusion Organizations have power through their ability to spend vast amounts of money. They have the ability to enhance or change situations that the common individual does not. As 8 organizations affect many people, they have obligations to their employees, consumers, community and the world. They have a responsibility to conduct business in a way that is not harmful and which positively benefits as many people as possible and themselves. Although this sounds simple, it is easier said than done, as there will always be a conflict of interest between various groups of people. Any decisions made by businesses need to be made with an informed awareness of the specific situation and then act according to some sort of system of principals which is Business Ethics. 9 References Boatright, J. R. (2009). Ethics and the conduct of business. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Duska, R., & Duska, B.S. (2003). Accounting ethics. United Kingdom: Blackwell Dychtwald, K., Erickson, T.J., & Morison, R. (2006). Workforce crisis. How to Beat the Coming shortage of skills and talent. (pp. 207-228). Boston: Harvard Business School. Garrett, T. (1966). Business ethics. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Miceli, M., Near. J., & Dworkin, T. (2009). A word to the wise: how manager and policy-makers can encourage employees to report wrongdoing. Journal of Business Ethics. doi: 10.1007/s10551-008-9853-6. Shaw, W. (2003). Ethics at work. Basic Reading in Business Ethics. Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press