1. Chapter 8:
Applied Business Ethic in the Work Place

2. Applied Business Ethics In the Workplace
Rational Workplace
Change
Nature
Employees’ obligations
External forces
Basic Issues
turbulence
Firms’ duties
Today’s challenges
Employees’ rights

3. The Nature and Meaning of Work
Sustained effort done to produce something of value for others
1850- Industrial Revolution- work is a drudgery
1920s- “scientific management” work is productivity and utility
1970s- work is self-fulfilment
1990s- work is related to inner needs beyond religious duty and material success

4. Basic Issues in the Workplace
Civil liberties in the workplace
Personnel policies and procedures: hiring; promotions; discipline and discharge; Wages
Unions

5. Policies and Procedures in the Workplace
policies, standards and decision regarding personnel matters must be directly job-related, based on transparent criteria and applied equally
incomplete or non-specific job description can injure job-applicants by denying them the information crucial for occupational decision making
aspects which are non-job related and thus should not enter personnel decisions: sex, age, race, national origin, religion, lifestyle, ill-considered educational requirements
During interviews: interviewers should focus on the humanity of the candidate and avoid allowing their personal biases to color their evaluations
in terms of promotions:management should promote on the basis of qualifications and personnel’s long term contributions to the company. Unfair treatment to other employees might result from promoting based on seniority, inbreeding and nepotism

6. Discipline and Discharge
Due process and just cause must operate if treatment is to be fair.
Due process- there should be procedures for workers to appeal discipline and discharge.
Employers should provide sufficient warning, severance pay and displacement counseling

7. Union Ideals
Protect workers from abuses of power at the hands of employers
existence of equal or mutual dependence between the employer and the employees- basis for collective bargaining- negotiations between the reps of organized workers and their employers over wages, hours, rules, work condition and participation in decisions affecting the workplace.

8. Union Tactics
direct strikes- must based on just cause (job-related matters); proper authorization; last resort
sympathetic strikes- involve the discontinuance of work in support of other workers with a grievance.
Primary boycotts- refusing to support companies being struck- seem morally comparable to direct strikes.
Secondary boycotts - refusing to support companies handling products of struck companies- are morally analogous to sympathetic strikes

9. External Forces Changing the Workplace
C17-S1
External Forces Changing the Workplace
The Workplace
FUTURE
PAST
Demographic Shifts
Technological Change
Structural Change
Government Intervention
Competitive Pressures

10. Turbulence in the Workplace
Corporate downsizing- workforce restructuring
Wage inequality- (started from 1970s)- may due to competitive global labor markets, shift away from manufacturing, computerization of work, declining influence of the unions
Revised employment contract- rise of contingency or contract workers, temporary virtual teams etc.

11. Controversy in Today’s Workplace
Nature of privacy
the use of polygraph and personality tests, employee monitoring and drug testing
working conditions
job satisfaction and enhancement of quality of work life

12. Controversy in Today’s Workplace
A firm is legitimately interested in whatever significantly influences job performance, but there’s no precise definition of “significant influence”. Organizations may be invading privacy when they coerce employees to involve in civic activities, to participate in wellness programs or in so-called intensive group experiences
Information-gathering on employees can be highly personal and subject to abuse. Hence, there should be informed consent (deliberation and free choice) from the employees
deliberation requires that employees be provided all significant facts concerning the information-gathering procedure and understand their consequence
free choice means that the decision to participate must be voluntary and uncoerced

13. Controversy in Today’s Workplace
Polygraph tests, personality tests, drug tests, and the monitoring of employees on the job can intrude into employee privacy. The exact character of these devices, the rationale for using them to gather information in specific circumstances, and the moral costs of doing so must always be carefully evaluated
Health and safety is a moral concern in the workplace:
scope of occupational hazards, including shift work and stress
the number of employees harmed by work-related injuries and diseases
management style greatly affects the work environment. Managers who operate with rigid assumptions about human nature or who devote themselves to infighting and political maneuvering damage employees’ interests

14. Controversy in Today’s Workplace
Day-care services and reasonable parental-leave policies also affect working conditions.
The underlying moral issues :
women have a right to compete on an equal terrain with men
the development of the women’s potential capacity is a moral ideal
Redesigning the work process can enhance job satisfaction; increase the quality of work life, the well-being of workers and even productivity

15. The Employees’ Obligations to the Firm Are to Avoid:
conflicts of interests
bribes and extortion
theft
trade secrets- concern non public information
insider trading

16. Conflicts of Interest arises when
employees have a personal interest in a transaction substantial enough that it does, or might reasonably be expected to lead them to act against the interests of the organization
when employees have financial investments in suppliers, customers, or distributors with whom the organization does business

17. The Question of Self-interest
Prudential considerations based on self-interest can conflict with moral considerations, which weigh the interest of others.
Employees must avoid the temptation to exaggerate prudential concerns, hence rationalizing away any individual moral responsibility to third parties.

18. Bribe:
payment in some form for an act that runs counter to the work contract or the nature of the work one has been hired to perform. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act prohibits corporations from engaging in bribery overseas.
involves injury to individuals, competitors, or political institutions and damage to the free-market system
considerations in determining the moral acceptability of gift giving and receiving:
the value of gift
the purpose of gift
the circumstances under which it is given
the position and sensitivity to influence to influence of the person receiving the gift
accepted business practice
the company policy
the law

19. Abuse of Official Position
Insider trading- use of significant facts that have not yet been made public and will likely affect stock prices. It seems unfair and can injure other investors
Proprietary data- an organization’s classified or secret information. The proprietary-data issues pose a conflict between two legitimate rights: the right of employers to keep certain information secret and the right of individuals to work where they choose

20. The Firm’s Duties to Employees:
Fair wages
healthy and safe working conditions
create working condition that can path to job satisfaction

21. Employees’ Rights The right to privacy
freedom of conscience- the freedom to act when personal moral beliefs is violated
whistleblowing- disclose wrongdoings of the corporation/employers
the right to participate in management decision making which directly affect employees
the right to organize/unionize

22. Whistle blowing
Employee informing the public about the illegal or immoral behavior of an employer or organization
is morally justified if
it is done from the appropriate moral motive
the whistle blower has exhausted internal channels before going public
the whistle blower has compelling evidence
the whistle blower has carefully analyzed the dangers
the whistle blowing has some chance of success

23. Job Discrimination definition
the statistical and attitudinal evidence of discrimination
the historical and legal context of affirmative action
the moral arguments for and against affirmative action
the doctrine of comparable worth and the controversy over it
the problem of sexual harassment in employment

24. Discrimination in Employment:
Involves adverse decisions against employees or job applicants based on their membership in a group that is viewed as inferior or deserving of unequal treatment.
Can be intentional or unintentional, institutional or individual
Evidence of deep-seated attitudes and institutional practices and policies, point that most discrimination in the workplace are based on race and sex

25. Comparable Worth
The doctrine of comparable worth holds that women and men should be paid on the same scale for doing different jobs of equal skills, effort and responsibility

26. How to Promote Diversity in a Corporation
C18-S8
How to Promote Diversity in a Corporation
Encourage social identity groups
Collect data to measure achievements
Adapt policies
Set up reward systems
Top management commitment
Recruitment outreach
Affirmative action hiring
Training
Mentoring