Ethical Issues in Management Essay
This essay will explain the ethical issues that managers must abide by when hiring new employees. Many issues must be reviewed and contemplated before a final decision is made.
Managers should not discriminate against race, religion, sex, disabilities, marital status, or sexual orientation. There have been several companies that have had legal charges brought against them because of their hiring practices. It is important that ethical issues be enforced in the workplace. Managers should be trained in ethics so that any ethical issues that may arise during the hiring process can be stopped from escalating and becoming an issue later.The article will go into detail on what to do and what not to do when hiring. The main characteristics of a profitable and long lasting company are ethics and social responsibility. There are many companies that have stood the task of time, all being built on a strong ethical background. There have also been some companies that have shown some less than outstanding ethics and social responsibility, examples include Enron, ImClone, and Wal-Mart.
Unethical behavior can be found in all aspects of a business, which may include insider trading, employee relations and unethical accounting practices.One issue that is surrounded by ethics and morals is employee hiring. When a company acquires new employees they need to make sure that they are facilitating the ethical behavior which should be outlined in their values and mission statements.
Acquisition of new employees can be a delicate subject. When hiring new employees firms must be sure that they are not discriminating by age, sex, ethnicity or any other attribute. They need to also be sure to inform new hires of the company’s policies and procedures.
The company’s ethical message should be communicated multiple ways.The message can be communicated via brochures, websites, or newsletters and magazines. When communicating the ethical message either in the employee manual or other communication modes, the message should be communicated clearly without legalese. The only people who like legalese are lawyers, so your message must be understood by all your employees and explained clearly. “A company’s approach to ethics and legal compliance has an enormous impact on their employees’ attitudes and behaviors. ” (Gibson, David G. , Toffler, Barbara L. , Trevino, Linda K.
, and Weaver, Gary R. If an employee is caught embezzling money and the company does not discipline them or turns the other way, the company’s behavior is considered unethical. What would help the company would be for the managers and supervisors to be consistent with their policies and their actions. If the managers change the policies or their actions every time or if they treat an employee differently than another with the same situation, then one employee will feel that the other is receiving special treatment. Before a manager hires a new employee, he/she must make sure that they are professional.
The manager should follow a code of ethics that supports and promotes human rights, equity, dignity, confidentiality, and respect. (Hussein, Magdy 2009) Potential employees are nervous to begin with when they are being interviewed. The interviewee wants to feel comfortable; they do not want to feel that they are being discriminated against. It is up to the manager to make sure that the interviewing process goes smoothly. There are some managers however; that look for reasons not to hire someone. The manager may feel like the potential employee is not the right sex, color, or nationality.The manager may feel that their friend or family member needs a job, so they will turn everyone down and make sure they hire who they want.
This is unethical. While the manager’s friend or family member may need a job, they may not have the qualifications to work at the company. According to Michael Weiss, the best way to fill a company with ethical employees is to be an ethical boss.
The company should want to ensure that their managers are honest, career minded individuals. If the company cannot trust the manager that they employ, how will they be able to trust the employees that the manager hired?If a manger were to face an ethical dilemma, the manager should stop and think about whether the dilemma was legal, balanced, or right. For example, a manager is interviewing a potential employee, they look over the resume and the interviewee has all or the required skills to fill the position.
The manager likes what they see. They ask the potential employee if they would consent to a background check and a drug test. They agree and the manager sets up the test. An hour later, the manager is interviewing another potential candidate; this person meets some of the required skills.The manager decides to set up a background check and a drug test in case the first candidate fails. When the test results came back on the first candidate, it shows that he passed the drug test, but the background check came back showing that the person was charged with embezzlement. The results come back in on the second potential candidate and he passed with flying colors on both ends. The manager really likes the first candidate.
They have all of the required skills for the job, and during the interview, seemed like they had learned their lesson and would fit the position nicely. The manager is faced with an ethical dilemma.Which one does he hire? The best choice would be the second candidate because, while they do not have all of the skills required to work, this person can be trained to do the job.
The first candidate, while having all of the relevant skills, has already proven that he would embezzle if given the chance. Sure, they may have learned their lesson, but the company is taking a bigger risk by hiring someone who has a criminal record. If a company does not set an example of following ethical standards all the way from the top, it would be difficult to convince the other employees that they, too, should be ethical in their business relationships. A well-defined ethics policy, along with an outline of related standards of conduct, will provide the framework for ethical and moral behavior within any company.BibliographyGibson, David G. , Toffler, Barbara L.
, Trevino, Linda K. , and Weaver, Gary R. (1999). Managing Ethics and Legal compliance: . What Works and What Hurts. 41, Issue 2, 1-23. Hussein, Magdy (2009). Hiring and firing with ethics.
Human Resource Management International Digest. 17, 37-40. Weiss, Michael (2000). Ethical bosses more likely to have ethical workers. Phoenix Business Journal.
