Ethics at Work Organizations find themselves in an ethical dilemma when performing the necessary background checks for employee evaluation and monitoring. We have heard cases where employees present fake documents as proof of education and experience or have committed fraud in past employments. Therefore, employee monitoring has become a necessity in employment procedures. However, it also sparks a lot of controversy because of the moral and ethical issues therein. Technology has raised two main issues; cyber loafing, privacy issues, and monitoring of employees’ social media activities.
Some employers go to an extent of monitoring employees’ mail to monitor their activities and which amounts to breach of privacy. There are incidences where employers and recruiters visit employees’ and applicants’ social media pages to monitor activities. The ethic and moral question has been if it fair for someone to be judged or dismissed on the basis of a post in his or her own private social media pages. However, it is also true that the postings on social walls tell a lot about a person’s character and attitude.
There is increased production deviance, especially among highly de-motivated employees due to cyberloafing. It is the act of using employer’s internet during work for personal errands. Privacy issues arise when employers monitor employees’ emails by reading and intercepting private Electronic and Voice Mail. In my opinion, the most interesting aspect of the lesson is when we acted on a number of ethical dilemma cases. The concept of bribery is particularly interesting for this discussion because it can assume different meanings in different societies.
According to (Argandoña, 2005), bribery can be described as the art of giving a person payment to induce him or her do something illegal or wrong, and which in an ordinary case the person being bribed will not do. In Chinese culture, it is normal to give gifts ‘guanxi’ in business contest as a way of promoting business relations and showing a friendly attitude (Li & Persons, 2011). In countries where corruption is prevalent, giving gifts in business context may be necessary in order to secure business deals.
Giving gifts is acceptable in business context; however, it should not be used to induce or influence decisions such as awarding contracts or tenders. In accounting and finance set up, auditors and accountants find themselves in an ethical dilemma between covering up and whistle-blowing. A whistleblower is a person that exposes fraud, misconduct, illegal activity and alleged dishonesty in an organization. Whistleblowing process takes time because one has to evaluate the ethical issues in the case (Ametrano, 2014); the norm, values and principles; alternative courses of action, the best course of action and the consequences.
A common case of unethical behavior is abuse of office that is mostly evidenced in government circles as well as by C.E.Os and C.F.Os that control large organizations running lots of funds. Leaders in these organizations are driven by personal interest to make financial gains in the business in excess of their earnings as well as create an impression that the company is performing well to cover their tracks (Managed Hearts and Wallets, 2014). Leaders in these positions collude with auditors and accountants to influence their decisions.
Ethics, Leadership and Culture There is a direct relationship between corporate culture and ethical culture. An organization without a well-pronounced corporate culture will have a problem laying down ethical and moral culture structures. An organization can influence ethical behavior among employees in many ways. For instance, leaders must walk their talk and a company must abide by its own code of ethics. In many organizations, codes of ethics are used to foster a positive image with the outside world such as suppliers, customers and other stakeholders.
However, these guidelines are not practiced internally (Hill & Rapp, 2014).
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