Ethical Issues & Management

Introduction

The responsibilities of a manager go far beyond supervision. In fact, managers are forced to make important decisions every day that affect the company, their employees, and possibly the public depending on the circumstance. Managers take part in hiring, performance, evaluation, discipline, and termination. They are also involved in any circumstance that pertains to harassment and diversity, and they must make a conscious effort to set a good example for their employees.

The following paper will focus primarily on discipline; describe the moral and ethical issues faced by managers dealing with discipline; include how the issue affects other individuals; explain how relationships between social issues and ethically responsible management practices apply to discipline; provide a workplace example of an ethical dilemma involving discipline; and discuss any laws governing the manager who provided the discipline in such an ethical dilemma. Discipline Describe the moral and ethical issues faced by managers dealing with your selected topic. Include how the issue affects other individuals.

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In the case of discipline, managers must know how to appropriately discipline their employees. Managers must ensure equality amongst employees in regard to discipline so as to obey the U. S. Sentencing Guidelines, which "specify that all employees in an organization must receive consistent discipline for similar infractions" (Trevino & Nelson, 2007, p. 159). Managers must also ensure equality amongst employees in regard to discipline because it is the ethical thing to do. For instance, consider that a certain man has been working for a company for 20 years and he gets aught misusing corporate resources. In this scenario, a manager might be tempted to give him a warning or even write him up for his actions because of his loyalty to the company. Now consider that a certain man has been working for the same company for two years and he also gets caught misusing corporate resources. Yet, in this scenario the manager terminates him for his actions. The U.S. Sentencing Guidelines seek to ensure that both employees are given the same measure of discipline, which is also the ethical thing to do on the manager's behalf.

Furthermore, "hiring, performance evaluation, discipline, and terminations can be ethical issues because they all involve honesty, fairness, and the dignity of the individual" (Trevino & Nelson, 2007, p. 162, 163). If values such as honesty, dignity, and fairness are acknowledged in circumstances involving discipline, then managers and their companies should have no real concern for negative, public exposure. There are effective ways that managers can go about disciplining employees for their actions. These ways should involve disciplining employees in a constructive and professional manner.

Discipline should generally be done in private, allow input from the employee, and it should be consistent with the way past employees have been treated for similar actions or behaviors (Trevino & Nelson, 2007). Discipline affects other individuals such as the affected employee's family members, co-workers, and the general public. When an employee is disciplined in the appropriate manner, a message is sent to the rest of the company's employees. This message communicates that certain measures will be taken to address and rid the company of inappropriate behaviors and actions.

As a result, employees will know to be more conscious of their behaviors and actions to ensure that they are not disciplined for the same reasons. If discipline has been taken to the extreme and an employee has been terminated from a company, the family of that employee will be greatly affected. What if that employee is not eligible for unemployment? This could trigger a huge financial burden for the entire family. Finally, the public is very much affected when an employee endures termination as their disciplinary measure.

As a result of a termination an employment opportunity opens up for the public to apply for. This could mean that the man or woman who has been searching for a job to provide for their family will be employed and now able to fulfill the needs of his or her family. The economy is affected in various ways as people are terminated from their employed positions (Trevino & Nelson, 2007). Explain how the relationship between social issues and ethically responsible management practices apply to your topic.

Social issues and how they relate to ethically responsible management practices need to be considered when disciplinary action is involved between management and employees. Managers need to research why an employee is exuding behaviors such as tardiness, harassment, misuse of corporate resources, and discrimination. For example, a newly hired employee named Judy has been consistently late for her first month of employment. Her manager should address her behavior privately, and ask her why she is often late for work.

The case could be that Judy is a single mom of three children who attend a private school on the other side of the city where no bus route has been established. In this case, her manager should find out if flexible work hours can become more available to all employees on the team and go from there. Another social issue could be that Joe, a long-time employee, is going through a divorce, which is costing him a fortune. As a result, Joe cannot afford his car payments and is now without reliable transportation to and from work. Joe's financial status is communicating poverty.

Over time, Joe is not only tardy to work because of his transportation issues, but his clothes are looking ragged and he is in no position to meet with clients. Joe's work performance is now failing because of his financial situation. In this case, disciplinary action needs to be carefully considered and documented when dealing with Joe's poor work performance. It is important to document the disciplinary action taken so that the same discipline can be directed at a future situation to ensure equality (Trevino & Nelson, 2007). Provide a workplace example of an ethical dilemma involving your topic.

Did any laws govern the manager's actions? A workplace dilemma involving discipline could involve an employee who is being harassed because of her sexual preference, and as a result she is harassing people in retaliation by directing hateful comments toward fellow co-workers. In this scenario, several people’s behaviors need to be addressed: the employees initially harassing the woman because of her sexual preference, and the woman being harassed who is retaliating. Laws do govern the manager’s actions, especially if the manager ignores the issue at hand.

Managers are now being held responsible for their employees’ actions if inappropriate behaviors are not dealt with and knowingly ignored. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which is linked with the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission is in place to ensure discrimination is eliminated from the work place and dealt with appropriately (Trevino & Nelson, 2007). Conclusion. In summary, employees are held accountable to their managers and managers to their employees. Managers are held accountable to their employees because it is their responsibility to make ethical decisions and abide by laws that govern their decision-making.

Managers must strive to practice honesty, dignity, and fairness in their workplace as pertains to disciplining employees. They should also discipline employees the ethical way by holding a private meeting, being constructive, professional, allowing the employee’s input, and in consistency with past disciplinary action. Social issues that pertain to the work place involve family issues, personal issues, diversity, and much more (Trevino & Nelson, 2007).

References:

• Trevino, L. , & Nelson, K. (2007). Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do it right (4th ed. ). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

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