The Legal and Ethical Environment of Business - Report Example

The Legal and Ethical Environment of Business Ethical Violations Ethics may mean different things to different people (Butts & Rich,2005).And; the extent of ethical violations is hard to determine (Munson, 2002). Here, it would be pretty difficult to establish a criminal negligence in the scenario. The main reason for that it would be very challenging to establish that the employee was aware of the fact that the staircase was in the obsolete condition and was going to fall at any point of time; simultaneously, it was going to hurt the supervisor. Consequently, the chances of proving the legal action or inaction against the employee seem remote. However, the employee did make ethical violations in the case. If he or she knew that the staircase had lost its normal life and could fall at any point, it was the responsibility of the employee to report to the relevant authorities to take appropriate action for the maintenance of the staircase; just not informing the relevant authorities on the basis of some grievances, cannot justify the inaction of the employee. As one wrong cannot be offset with another wrong, in the similar fashion, the employee’s inaction cannot be justified under any circumstances. Owner’s Actions in the Scenario The ramifications of the employee’s inaction seem pretty severe. First, the owner needs to establish that the employee was aware of the rotten staircase. And, he or she deliberately did not report anyone about it just because he was mal-treated at the office. After the establishment of that, the owner would not be interested to see the continuation of employment of the employee. First, he would consider whether employee has conducted a gross ethical violation with an intention to benefit from the situation at the cost of others and especially of the supervisor; and, the employee is ethically unsound rather depict a picture of self-fish person, who could go to any extent in order to gain his personal objectives. Under such circumstances, the employee could be sacked from the job. However, before going to take any disciplinary action against the employee, the other side of story must also be contemplated. The owner should consider about the issues being faced by the employee. For the last ten years, he has not been given any promotion or pay rise and works day and night to stay caught up. Even, this cannot be justified as far as the ethical norms are concerned. In fact, these are causes which prompted the employee to nurture unfavorable feelings towards the supervisor. And, the owner should have seen this form of injustice being dispensed within the organization. In addition to that, the owner must also hear the perspective of the maintenance department. Primarily, it was their responsibility to regularly check the condition of staircases used in the office and make necessary changes as required. In this regard, the misconduct could be established against the manager of the maintenance department. And, subsequently, legal action can be taken against them. Disciplinary Action against the Employee Basically, the ethics include responsibility, integrity, empathy, loyalty, honesty, confidentiality and respect (Rask, 2008). Work ethics are normally not documented or told to the employees. At this point of time, there hardly exist any regulatory or legal requirements to provide training or conduct workshops over the issues existed in the work ethics. By and large, they are considered to be generally understood and applied without in any documentary shape. Similarly, it was expected of the employee not to remain silent on the rotten condition of the staircase; and, the employee should have informed or reported to the relevant staff member working in the maintenance department. However, disciplinary actions are mostly taken when an employee misconducts or violates the terms of conditions written in the offer letter or in the appointment letter. Even if the employee did remain silent on the issue, it would be quite difficult to establish his negligence in the case until or unless the employee himself or herself acknowledge about the silence over the rotten condition of the staircase. If he acknowledges it, then, the chances of taking disciplinary action against the employee become more. And, the owner could exercise number of options. First, the owner could consider sacking the employee’s job. Second, the employee may not be given the promotion, for which he has been eyeing over the chair of the supervisor, along with the denial of any pay rise. These disciplinary actions may be carried out by the owner with the intention of making the employee realize the importance of the work ethics. If the owner decides to sack the employment, this may not go down well as the employee had some legitimate grievances against the demeanor of the supervisor. Justification for the Employee’s Inaction Greenspan’s words reinforce that two wrongs do not make one right (Naftel and Spiwak, 2000). The employee cannot justify the inaction under any circumstances. First, the adopted way to achieve the organizational position and rewards was inappropriate and unacceptable; there would be hardly anyone agreeing with the adopted method to obtain the pay rise or promotions. Second, the employee should have contacted with the senior management of the organizations; should have met with them and put his entire case in front of them and wait for their decision about the issues. Third, we normally do not see such types of situations in which the employees are over-utilized or over worked; consequently, there would be a possibility in which the employee may not be appropriately fulfilling the expected targets provided by the supervisor. And, this could have impacted over his performance appraisal; and, the constant below expected performance may have left no chance for the supervisor but to allow the employee to keep working within the same capacity. The employee may have been expecting more than the performance made in the organization. Even if the employee was not having such situation and was expectedly performing well and reaching all the targets given by his supervisor, this inaction cannot be justified and used to occupy the chair of the supervisor. The adopted method was an unequivocal manifestation of ethical violations. As a result, the employee cannot claim that he or she deserves such benefits and position within the organization at the cost of the supervisor’s position. References Butts, J.B., & Rich, K. (2005).Nursing Ethics: Across the Curriculum and into Practice. London: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Munson, C.E. (2002). Handbook of Clinical Social Work Supervision. New York, NY: Haworth Press. Naftel, M., & Spiwak, L.J. (2000). The Telecoms Trade War: the United States, the European Union and the World Trade Organization. Oregon: Hart Publishing. Rask, R.L. (2008). Work Ethics and the Generation Gap: which Ethical Track Are You On? Indiana, IN: Author House. Read More