BMGT380 Business Ethics Fall 2024-2025 PDF

School of Business Department of Management & International Management BMGT380 – Business Ethics Fall 2024 – 2025 Chapter 6: What Employers Owe Employe...

School of Business Department of Management & International Management BMGT380 – Business Ethics Fall 2024 – 2025 Chapter 6: What Employers Owe Employees Objective 6.1: The Workplace Environment and Working Conditions Ethical Decision-Making and Leadership in the Workplace A contemporary corporation always owes an ethical, and in some cases legal, duty to employees to be a responsible employer. In a business context, the definition of this responsibility includes providing a safe workplace, compensating workers fairly, and treating them with a sense of dignity and equality while respecting at least a minimum of their privacy. Managers should be ethical leaders who serve as role models and mentors for all employees. A manager’s job, perhaps the most important one, is to give people a reason to come back to work tomorrow. Good managers model ethical behavior. If a corporation expects its employees to act ethically, that behavior must start at the top, where managers hold themselves to a high standard of conduct and can rightly say, “Follow my lead, do as I do.” Leaders model ethical behavior by:  Not violating the law or company policy. A manager who abuses company property by taking home office supplies or using the company’s computers for personal business but then disciplines any employee who does the same is not modeling ethical behavior. Likewise, a manager who consistently leaves early but expects all other employees to stay until the last minute is not demonstrating fairness.  Showing high level of transparency. This duty begins during the hiring process, when the company communicates to potential employees exactly what is expected of them. Once hired, employees should receive training on the company rules and expectations. In other words, a company owes it to its employees to keep them in the loop about significant matters that affect them and their job, whether good or bad, formal or informal. A more complete understanding of all relevant information usually results in a better working relationship. Transparency can be especially important to workers in circumstances that involve major changes, such as layoffs, reductions in the workforce, plant closings, and other consequential events. These kinds of events typically have a psychological and financial impact on the entire workforce. However, some businesses fail to show leadership at the most crucial times. An ethical company will give workers advance notice, a severance package, and assistance with the employment search, without being forced to do so by law. Proactive rather than reactive behavior is the ethical and just thing to do. 1|Page A Workplace Free of Harassment Employers have an ethical and a legal duty to provide a workplace free of harassment of all types. This includes harassment based on sex, race, religion, national origin, and any other protected status, including disability. Employees should not be expected to work in an atmosphere where they feel harassed, prejudiced against, or disadvantaged. It is unlawful to sexually harass a person because of that person’s sex, either through explicit offers in exchange for sexual favors (known as quid pro quo) or through actions at a broader more systemic level that create a “hostile working environment.” Sexual harassment includes unwelcome touching, requests for sexual favors, any other verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature, offensive remarks based on a person’s sex, and off-color jokes. The harasser can be the victim’s supervisor (which creates company liability the first time it happens) or a peer coworker (which usually creates liability after the second time it happens, assuming the company had notice of the first occurrence). It can even be someone who is not an employee, such as a client or customer. A Satisfied Workforce Although the workplace should be free of harassment and intimidation of every sort, and management should provide a setting where all employees are treated with dignity and respect, ideally, employers should go much further. Workers are happier when they like where they work and when they do not have to worry about childcare, health insurance, or being able to leave early on occasion to attend a child’s school play, for example. Workers may become happier when the emplpoyer provides them with additional nonmonetary benefits such as a park-like campus, an on-the-premises gym or recreational center, flextime schedules, on-site day care and dry cleaning, a gourmet coffee house or café, and more time off. Work-at-home programs may actually cost the company very little, for example, whereas health insurance benefits may cost significantly more. In many industrialized countries, the government provides (i.e., subsidizes) benefits such as health insurance and retirement plans, so a company does not have to weigh the pros and cons of what to offer in this area. Happy employees are more productive and more focused, which enhances their performance and leads to better customer treatment, fewer sick days, fewer on-the-job accidents, and less stress and burnout. They are more focused on their work, more creative, and better team players, and they are more likely to help others and demonstrate more leadership qualities. The best managers communicate regularly with their workforce; as a result, they are more likely to know (and be able inform top management about) the types of perks most desired and most likely to attract and keep good workers. Objective 6.4: Privacy in the Workplace Employers are justifiably concerned about threats to and in the workplace, such as theft of property, breaches of data security, identity theft, viewing of pornography, inappropriate and/or offensive behavior, violence, drug use, and others. They seek to minimize these risks, and that often requires monitoring employees at work. Employers might also be concerned about the productivity loss resulting from employees using office technology for personal matters while on the job. Magnifying ethical and legal questions in the area of privacy is the availability of new technology that lets employers track all employee Internet, e-mail, social media, and telephone use. 2|Page Legal and Ethical Aspects of Electronic Monitoring Monitored workstations, cameras, microphones, and other electronic monitoring devices permit employers to oversee virtually every aspect of employees’ at-work behavior. Technology also allows employers to monitor every aspect of computer use by employees. Although the employer seems to be prohibited from monitoring its employees’ oral, wire, and electronic communications, this contains two big exceptions:  One is the business purpose exception. This allows employers—on the basis of legitimate business purposes—to monitor electronic and oral communications.  The other widely used exception is the consent exception, which allows employers to monitor employee communications provided employees have given their consent. In general, it is legal for a company to monitor the use of its own property, including but not limited to computers, laptops, and cell phones. An employer-provided computer system is the property of the employer, and when the employer provides employees with a laptop they can take home, it likely violates no laws when it monitors everything employees do with that computer. Generally, the same is not true of equipment owned by the employee, such as a personal cell phone. However, an important distinction is based on the issue of consent. The consent provision in the ECPA is not limited to business communications only; therefore, a company might be able to assert the right to monitor personal electronic communications if it can show employee consent. What Constitutes a Reasonable Monitoring Policy? Many employees generally are not be familiar with the specific details of the law. They may feel offended by monitoring, especially of their own equipment. Companies must also consider the effect on workplace morale if everyone feels spied upon, and the risk that some high-performing employees may decide to look elsewhere for career opportunities. Employers should develop a clear, specific, and reasonable monitoring policy. The policy should limit monitoring to that which is directly work related. Perhaps most importantly, in the interest of fairness, the monitoring policy must be communicated to the employees. Drug Testing in the Workplace Key issues that arise about a drug testing or monitoring program begin with whether an employer wants or needs to do it. Testing of job applicants is the most common form of drug testing. Challenging a drug test is difficult because tests are considered highly accurate. An applicant or employee can refuse to take the test, but that often means not being hired or losing the job, assuming the worker is an employee at will. The concept of employment at will affirms that either the employee or the employer may dissolve an employment arrangement at will (i.e., without cause and at any time unless an employment contract is in effect that stipulates differently). 3|Page End of Chapter CASE ANALYSIS Read the case below, then answer the questions that follow. Global Travel Airlines is an airlines company operating in the aviation domain since 2008. The Company's primary business activity is to provide scheduled air transportation for passengers with affordable prices. Global Travel Airlines company has recently announced a job opening and dealt with it as shown below. Information about the job: - Job Title: Accounting Manager - Main Job Duties: Manage and oversee the daily operations of the accounting department, and enforce proper accounting methods and principles. The airlines company took the following approach toward this job opening: The human resource manager Sami interviewed the applicant Nada, a 28-year-old female having an extensive experience in the accounting field. When the interview was concluded, Sami immediately informed Nada that she will not get the job although she acquires the necessary qualifications because “young women do not have the necessary interpersonal skills needed for managerial positions”. Then, while trying to grab her hand, he said: “we can discuss this issue and enjoy our time in my own house or bungalow”. Questions: 1. Was Nada subject to “quid pro quo” or “hostile work environment” form of sexual harrassment? Justify your answer. 2. Pick up evidence from the case showing that Nada was subject to sexual harrassment of: (a) a physical nature; and (b) a verbal nature. __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ 4|Page