scott777ab wrote: In class recently we discussed ethics, and this was the assignment.
Despite the bad press that occasionally captures media attention, most businesses put ethics at or near the top of their list of important organizational values. Businesses expect ethical behavior from their employees. Do you have any personal experiences with someone or a group of people not following those ethics? How do you think unethical behavior impacts employers? Explain.
So I was wondering what your opinions are on this?
#1 Do you have any personal experiences with someone or a group not following those ethics?
#2 How do you think unethical behavior impacts employers?
My Questions about Ethics in business:
#3 How should a business go about determining what the business wants to consider ethical?
#4 Should a business consider the ethics of employees in making a policy about ethics?
#5 When hiring an employee should a business thoroughly explain what they consider proper ethical actions or just hand out an employee handbook that details the ethical requirements for that business? Please give a reason why to which ever action you choose.
#6 Should ethics be determined on what one person believes is right/good or wrong/evil, or should the determination be made by an ethics team? Please give a reason why to which ever action you choose.
Well it depends on the kind of ethics you're talking about. When employees follow laws and basic ethics, for example refraining from spitting in the food or groping the receptionist, then the company does well. Customers are happy, workers feel safe with each other, and lawsuits are not filed.
As an employer you want to treat your employees well and ethically. In our family business we place a very, very high priority on keeping our employees safe. We tell them all the time, take a break if it's too hot outside. Cool down and take care of yourself. Because 1) we like them as people and 2) if
our employees are sick or hurt then that hampers production.
In the US there are OSHA laws and codes of conduct most employees and employers are expected to follow. Mostly it's common sense, the golden rule. Where it gets tricky is when a religious or other moral company opens up. They may require different rules for their employees to follow which can be okay because nobody is forced to work there, but tricky as well.
As for hiring, we explain the job and what we expect from our potential employees but we don't go into great ethical detail. There are posters and information in the breakroom if they're so inclined to read them, but mostly we give people the benifit of the doubt.
We've had theft, people not show up for work, people trashing our equiptment, and personality clashes, but mostly people are decent to each other. And if, in the instance of theft, someone breaks a big moral code then we have to let them go. Missing a day without calling, well, we give them another chance. We like to work with people and when they know what you expect (because you reexplain it) then they usually measure up.
As for deciding the ethics, well we each have our own moral code (so we all decide for ourselves to some extent). But in companies it varies. Some large companies do employ an ethics commity while others go by the bosses ethical code or the governments.
Good luck with your paper and I hope you get some good answers.
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