Employee Loyalty - Arbitration Paper - Essay Example

Arbitration in Employee Rights Case Study: Allen Lopez vs ExtremeNet Mamie Borchert Kaplan Chad Brockman HU245-05: EthicsArbitration in Employee Rights Case Study: Allen Lopez vs ExtremeNetShould Allen Lopez be allowed to keep his job with ExtremeNet? Allen Lopez has proved himself to be a conscientious employee, concerned about discrimination based on age and gender against other lower level employees. This quality in an employee needs to be cherished and encouraged by the management, since the members of most organizations are concerned only with their own rights and privileges, and few would care to fight for the rights of others.

Moreover, business ethics ensures that all employees have several rights including “the right to freedom from discrimination” (Crane & Matten, 2007, p.270). Therefore, Lopez took affirmative action to argue against the executives’ discrimination against the subordinates. Only on failing to get results, he began attacking the management through his new Website, to bring the public’s attention to injustices at ExtremeNet. Based on Allen Lopez’s selfless and continued concern for his subordinates, the ruling is that Lopez should be allowed to continue working for ExtremeNet.

Should Allen Lopez be forced to remove his Website? According to moral absolutism, some actions are morally wrong to perform, “even when performing them would bring good results” (Timmons, 2002, p.80). Similarly, Kantian deontology states that a good person’s tendency to follow moral rules will prevent them from breaking the rules even for the sake of ensuring good outcomes (Darr, 2005). Thus, it is against professional ethics for an employee to cause the ridiculing of his company, his seniors or his colleagues, with subsequent decline in the company’s profitable functioning.

Further, Allen Lopez could have chosen to raise awareness about discrimination among the lower level employees who were laid off, and organized collective action against the management’s approach, to avoid publicity. The ethical concept of “loyal and faithful service” (Mead & Sagar, 2006, p.141) to one’s organization was violated by Lopez. Therefore, Allen Lopez should be asked to apologize at his satirical Website to the executives of ExtremeNet, for ridiculing them and the company, and subsequently remove the satirical Website from the worldwide web.

How can ExtremeNet’s executives best respect Lopez’s rights and moral dignity? Utilitarian teleology states that it is wrong to steal, to lie, etc. However, it allows “exceptions in the odd cases where the rules interfere with happiness rather than promote it” (Garofalo & Geuras, 1999, p.61). Similarly, according to moral relativism, right and wrong depend on the moral code of a culture (Timmons, 2002). The executives at ExtremeNet should raise the levels of the company’s ethical culture, so that they can expect the same ethical behavior from their employees (Quatro & Sims, 2008).

Respecting Lopez’s rights and moral dignity, the executives should introduce a culture of equality and justice in the organization. Further, they should make amends to their lower level employees. Ethical conduct is essential between employees and employers, with mutual respect for each other’s rights and dignity (Mead et al, 2006). To conclude, the main rulings of the arbitrator are that Allen Lopez should continue in the same company; he should be compelled to remove his Website; and ExtremeNet should respect Lopez’s rights and moral dignity by complying with his aspiration for a discrimination-free work culture, and by making amends to the lower level staff.

ReferencesCrane, A. & Matten, D. (2007). Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization. Edition 2. New York: Oxford University j Press. Garofalo, C. & Geuras, D. (1999). Ethics in the public service: The moral mind at work. Georgetown: Georgetown University Press. Mead, L., Allan, W. & Bampton, K. (2006). Fundamentals of ethics, corporate governance and business law. Edition 2. New York: Butterworth-Heinemann. Mead, L. & Sagar, D. (2006). Fundamentals of ethics, corporate governance and business law Paper C05.

New York: Butterworth-Heinemann. Quatro, S.A. & Sims, R.R. (2008). Executive ethics: Ethical dilemmas and challenges for the C-suite. The United States of America: Information Age Publishing. Timmons, M. (2002). Moral theory: An introduction. The United States of America: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.