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Behavioral and Ethics in the Workplace Many think that law and ethics is the same thing, those that believe this cannot be farther from the truth. Ethics deals with social, and interpersonal values, and the rules of conduct that follow from them; it attempts to answer the question of what is good for humans, or how people should live in relation to each other (Alder, p. 451). Violations of ethics rules occur nearly each day in the workplace and unfortunately, many times they go unnoticed because of the victim's ignorance or economic condition. We will explore some of the common areas of unethical behavior that occurs in the workplace, by both management, and staff members alike. Many businesses have long struggled with finding ways to reduce the number of unethical behaviors by their employees. A survey recently conducted found that 73% of employees have witnessed ethical misconduct at the workplace (Pomeroy, 2007). A common and costly form of ethical misconduct at work is time thief. This includes behavior such as arriving late and leaving early from work than scheduled, taking additional or extended breaks than is allowed to change, and on-the job day dreaming (Henle (2010). Unfortunately, it is a major problem for organizations in terms of financial cost. Time is money and many employees are taking it upon themselves to do as they choose. Many businesses entities have policies, procedures, and practices in place that addresses the issues with unethical behavior with employees to prevent issues in the future. Often in times, ethical violations occur against a person even before a company decides to hire them. A number of candidates hired for jobs that they are not qualified for, not enough knowledge or not enough experience, which is required. Whereas a majority of the other qualified, applicants are not selected for no apparent reason. At the Small Business Administration, there have been accusations of political favoritism and improper salary setting in the past (Review of Selected Personnel Practices, p. 1). Although most of these allegations are proved to be false, some are factual. Many businesses entities have guidelines for hiring practices that keep their managers in check during the selection process. Businesses need to be aware ethically how they choose their hiring because as applicants and employees, they have rights, and those rights must not be violated. Leaders such as managers and supervisors have an important role in the workplace. A study shows that a manager spends 42% of their time researching when conflicts occur. They supervise and manage the work environment safety for coworkers, but when conflict occurs between two employees; how do they handle, and resolve conflicts issues. According to Jameson; “Leaders must be reminded that conflict does not necessarily imply something is bad or wrong; it is often the impetus for adaptation and innovation” (p. 187). An employee who uses strength to threaten and intimidate the other is called a power contests and an employee who uses the policy from the manual to protect himself or herself is call rights contests. A manager is a mediator that reconciles the interest in resolving the conflict. Resolving conflicts is not an easy responsibility, prior to making any decision managers and supervisors must discuss the situation direct and pay close attention to both sides of the story and among the two employees one wins and the other loses. According to EEOC (2010) “Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, prohibits discrimination in hiring, promotion, discharge, pay, fringe benefits, job training, classification, referral, and other aspects of employment, on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin” (Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Para. 2). Data, which is kept track of by different agencies to understand statistically the climbing rate of discrimination that goes on in the workforce. The Office of Federal Operations produces an Annual Report of the Federal Workforce. Of that report, it includes information on the Federal Equal Employment Opportunity complaints, among other data, and activities. According to Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (2010), “Data is collected from each agency the Annual Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Statistical Report of Discrimination Complaints (EEOC Form 462).”. (462 Data Collection Resources, Para. 1). The importance of employees and applicants to file complaints is best for such agencies, so that they can collect as much data as possible. Therefore, all employees and applicants should be aware of the timelines that they have, in which to file an official complaint. The anti-discrimination laws allow a window of opportunity to file a charge of discrimination. In general, an employee, or applicant need to file a charge within a minimum of 180 days from the day that the actual discrimination took, place. Without factual well-documented complaints, no one can understand the severity of the issue at hand. The Department of Fair Employment and Housing (2010) website documented that the state of California had 18,785 discrimination cases filed by employees in 2008. Of the 18,785 cases included age, disability, equal pay, genetic information, national origin, pregnancy, race, religion, retaliation, sex, and sexual harassment. Of the list, the five most common discrimination cases are Disability, retaliation, race, and color, sexual harassment, and age discrimination (Department of Fair Employment and Housing, 2010). Of the list, Disability had 3,863 cases filed, retaliation had 5,697, race and color had 4,208, and sexual harassment had 3,863, and last was age, which had 3,655 cases that were filed by employees. Dealing with behavior and ethics in the workplace is a complicated subject to analyze. Businesses constantly have to make sure that they are being ethical in the way they conduct their hiring process, and are mindful of the pressures that come along with the job, and careful when concerning conflict management, and how it is they resolve issues to make sure they are not being discriminative. It is an unfortunate fact that violations of ethics rules occur every day, and many people are not conscience of the rules or consequences against their misconduct that follow from their responsibilities. We have explored the most common areas of where unethical behavior occurs in the workplace, which includes management, and staff members alike. References Alder, G., & Gilbert, J.. (2006). Achieving ethics and fairness in hiring: going beyond the law. Journal of Business Ethics, 68(4), 449-464. doi:10.1007/s10551-006-9039-z. Camps, J., & Majocchi, A. (2010). Learning atmosphere and ethical behavior, does it make sense'. Journal of Business Ethics, 94(1), 129-147. doi:10.1007/s10551-009-0253-3. Dana, D. (2000). Conflict resolution: mediation tools for everyday worklife, 1e. The McGraw-Hill Companies. Department of fair employment and housing. (2010). 2008 Case Analysis Manual. Retrieved from http://www.dfeh.ca.gov EEOC. (2010). EEOC - Employment Discrimination, Diversity, Harassment, Gender and Labor Issues. Retrieved from http://www.eeoc.com. Henle, C., Reeve, C., & Pitts, V. (2010). Stealing time at work: attitudes, social pressure, and perceived control as predictors of time theft. Journal of Business Ethics, 94(1), 53-67. doi:10.1007/s10551-009-0249-z. Jameson, J. (2001). Employee perceptions of the availability and use of interest-based, right-based, and power-based conflict management strategies. Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 19(2), 163-196. United States General Accounting Office (1999, April). Small business administration: review of selected personnel practices: GGD-99-68. GAO Reports, p1. Retrieved from Business Source Complete database.