Ethics ad Stakeholder Management - Case Study Example

? The nature of moral problems in management Managers are borne of delegating all organizational duties to subordinates in an attempt to meet objectives. This is quite a hefty task as coercing and ensuring responsibility among workers calls for a wise approach. Managers may at times find it hard to accommodate specific practices that injure the company’s welfare and will overreact. The degree at which a specific manager reacts to a situation will cause either a positive or a negative charge to the organization’s operations (Loughlin, 2002). At this point, the outcome of his reactions will clearly show in the way activities will be undertaken. Such reactions may also cause conflicts in the company, thus, are unethical. There is a code of conduct in every business, and whenever a contradicting behavior poses, the practice is termed unethical and against morals. Managers often fall prey to ethical and moral issues in their day-to-day operations. This arises from the fact that they have the mandate to hire and fire workers on concrete grounds (DeSensi & Rosenberg, 2003). A manager’s decision to sack a worker, no matter how pressing the issue may be, will not go well with the rest. His decision may be alarming to a point that the whole organization resurface to an arena of conflicts. Workers will oppose the step of laying-off a fellow worker without appropriate consultations (Loughlin, 2002). Crisis may arise out of empathy to the fired worker and operations may come to a standstill entirely. Employees may view the committed foul in relation to the general the general human law and conclude that no atrocity has been committed whatsoever (Lumpkin, et al 2012). Some managers go against morals by seeking to quench their sexual thirsts on employees. Therefore, managers should endure on practices that will cover the organization’s welfare and not egocentric issues. The sole purpose for every business is delivering value profitably. Whenever a given manager tries to halt the fact then ethical claims will arise. For instance, he may fail to tell employees on the on the adverse health effects relative to the jobs they carry out and this will serve as unethical practice. Managers should create awareness on issues that point to the health of workers since, failure to do so, may result to conflicts whenever the issue raises concern among all stakeholders (Loughlin, 2002). A talented manager must ascertain workers on changes in the working environment appropriately prior to implementation. It is ethical for a worker to understand his work carefully if the company is to grow accordingly. Leaning back and assuming that workers are ignorant enough to notice a problem in their daily chores will always short-live and the consequences may drain the company to a stale state (Weiss, 2009). Morality entails values and etiquettes that people do readily accept as legitimate practices. Morals co-relate closely to personal issues; thus, the two variables constitute to ethical issues. Managers find themselves in serious problems when trying to establish the best practice in an organization. Considering the activities, he may feel that the only way to acquire objectives may be working for long hours (Gilliland et al, 2008). He will end up forcing employees to deliver more past the agreed time, which will not auger well with the employees. A manager should adhere to the general rules of the organization, and whenever he feels it worth to work for extra hours, it will be proper to address the issue directly to employees and establish key reason to working for extra hours. A manager should delegate duties and responsibilities in a way that all workers will realize the purpose of a duty and not the position of manager (Carroll, 2009). Naturally, people judge behaviors from available societal norms on what is right and what is wrong; however, this poses a slight difference on how a businessperson will state ethics. On the business platform, ethics relates directly to profit maximization. A business that performs profitably in its target market is associated with healthy practices, which attract the consumer to make a purchase. Managers are the company’s ambassadors of success; their day-to-day practices in the organization should be tailor-made for acquisition of the general objectives. All factors of production should relate effectively in order to propel exploitation of potential to the best capacity, that a company will have maximized its output and profit. A business that reflects a corrupt image to the consumer depending on its approach attracts little or no customers. Concerns will be to the management practices that have caused such reactions from the consumer (Gilliland et al, 2008). Peace should always prevail within an organization’s internal environment. This cohabitation prevails when managers show ethical human concerns, relatively to business. Therefore, managers must stand firm to carry the burden of controlling and coercing different people for the organizational welfare (Carroll, 2009). A manager should view subordinates as the heart of the organization and ensure that they are content with all organization’s decisions. The power to make critical decisions should rest on the whole organization and not solely to the manager. The essence is that, decisions made by all parties in the organization are more reliable, relevant, and ethical as compared to when made by a single manager. Managers tend go against morals much at recruitment processes whereby they become gender sensitive, make wrong judgments and restrict a group of applicants from accessing the job (Gilliland et al, 2008). At all times, managers become vulnerable to negative aspects that if not well addressed, the situation will create tension in the company. As an organization comprises of different cultures, these groups, erupt and consequently any decision made on an issue to solve conflicts, will draw different views among the employees. Those befell by the axe during resolution will perceive it as a form of bias. Therefore, it becomes hard to establish judgments of fair, proper, and right practices accordingly (Carroll, 2009). Management will tend to stricken rules on misconducts within the organization and this be perceived as improper. Therefore, the consequences involved are shuttering as the offenders lose their jobs. In many instances, the judgment imposed may at times be paining thus drawing the attention of all employees. The separation persists when management feels that employees are inferior to be involved in such decisions. While the managers rely on the basis that sacking specific persons will be for the good of the company, employees and the society will tend to approach the matter differently, arguing that the decisions do not involve the whole organization (Gilliland et al, 2008). The management finds it rather difficult to establish the facts of ethics. This is because, as businesses term ethics as those facts that propel profit maximization, human views differ accordingly as their views to ethics maintain stands on beliefs and norms. The hiring process is particularly crucial, in every organization as all interviewees present their documents seeking the stated position. If the selection process avoids the best for those favored by the managers, then process will have gone against the ethics and morals (Marquis, & Huston, 2009). Employees find themselves in difficult situations whenever they join new working environments. This particularly may affect the new workers who are not familiar with the rules and regulations of their current employers (Loughlin, 2002). Since every organization has its rules and regulations, the management should outline them clearly before accusing an employee of misconduct. It will be unethical to assume that an employee will learn from others, and will be responsible for any malpractice that may ruin the organization’s framework. When all rules and regulations point all behaviors to the economic point of view, employees will find it hard to ascertain what is morally right, as profit maximization is irrelevant to moral practices. Noted that, the former is a business concept, and the latter explains on human philosophies (Gilliland, et al 2007). Managers will strive to maximize output in an attempt to ensure that the business thrives. During such times, they tend to contradict ethical rights of the employees in their endeavors to maximize profits. However, this is against the will of employees who will observe the process of pressure as one that undermines their human rights (Loughlin, 2002). Although whilst in business, there comes a time when the main objective is survival through profit maximization, the process of achieving the objective may pose unethical concerns among employees and the publics. This practice of getting out of what is morally right to achieve the company’s goal is anomie (Hosmer, 2008). Unethical practices may rule any organization at a time when all key players behave in the same way. It may happen that managers show misconduct in the organization preferably due to their positions. They will feel that their employees will not behave in the same way for they lack the capacity. Contrary, employees will adapt to their managers’ behaviors, as the policy is that most people will learn from their seniors (Vilcox & Mohan, 2007). At the long run, the whole organization will show similar misbehaviors ranging from the top managers to the frontline supervisors. At this point, the publics and other stakeholders will view the company as practicing unethical issues and will turn a blind high on its products. The outcome is that the organization will be unable to meet its target goals, thus, quitting the market (Loughlin, 2002). All people in the society and business should always practice morally upright behaviors. Some people tend to commit morally wrong practices and shift the claims to those that have no capacity to stand and claim for their rights (Gilliland et al, 2007). For instance, many managers exhibit misconducts and hold their subordinates responsible for their deeds. Therefore, it is not right to inflict a claim over an innocent employee no matter how inferior his position might be as it is an unethical practice (Vilcox & Mohan, 2007). To this extend, conclusions are that ethics and moral problems solving process is a vital objective in every organization. To harmonize business and ethical practices, managers should concentrate on human relations rather profitability. Unethical practices raise questions among the stakeholders and the community at large. For example, any chemical processing factory must abide to regulations that will see its practices be environmentally friendly. If it deviates from essential practices, it will be acting against the will of ethics and will result to tarnishing its image entirely. The management at times fails to implement safe working conditions in the environment fearing that costs will accelerate and ruin the business’ profitability (Vilcox & Mohan, 2007). However, this is true, but then it will reap benefits though at the expense of others who are ignorant to the prevailing practices (Loughlin, 2002). References Carroll, A. B. (2009). Business & society: Ethics & stakeholder management. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning. DeSensi, J. T., & Rosenberg, D. (2003). Ethics and morality in sport management. Morgantown, WV: Fitness Information Technology. Gilliland, S., Skarlicki, D., & Steiner, D. (2008). Justice, morality, and social responsibility. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Pub. Gilliland, S., Steiner, D., & Skarlicki, D. (2007). Managing social and ethical issues in organizations. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Pub. Hosmer, L. R. T. (2008). The ethics of management. Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin. Loughlin, M. (2002). Ethics, management and mythology: Rational decision making for health service professionals. Abingdon, Oxon, U.K: Radcliffe Medical Press. Lumpkin, A., Stoll, S. K., & Beller, J. M. (2012). Practical ethics in sport management. Jefferson, N.C: McFarland & Co. Marquis, B. L., & Huston, C. J. (2009). Leadership roles and management functions in nursing: Theory and application. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Vilcox, M. W., & Mohan, T. O. (2007). Contemporary issues in business ethics. New York: Nova Science Publishers. Weiss, J. W. (2009). Business ethics: A stakeholders and issues management approach. Australia: South-Western Cengage Learning. Read More