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Ethics

Ethics in the Workplace

By Kaylee LundgrenPublished 5 years ago 9 min read
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In my field of study there are many ethical dilemmas that could happen. One of the biggest dilemmas I may encounter over my time of business is finding the best product but trying to keep the price down. There are many products I will need in my field of career. Being able to keep the price of product down will save me and the customers money. When looking into these products I may be tempted to look towards other countries to help make the products and keep the price down. When we do this, there is a chance that these businesses overseas are not treating the employees right, not giving them a fair pay rate, or giving them a horrible work condition, they work in.

When I look towards other countries to help with my products, I want to gather all the facts that I can on the business. These facts are going to range from their pay rate clear down to how the employees are treated. I want to make sure that the facts I am gathering are accurate. If I could I would travel to this business speak to the employer themselves and gather more data on the company. While there I would try and talk to the employees themselves and make sure that they are getting paid a fair amount for their work, that their work environment is a healthy and safe workplace for them, and that they are being treated well and like humans.

The ethical issue with using another company to make products is that most of those companies are not treating their employs well. Some companies overseas will pay the employees of theirs very little for the long, hard hours of work they did. Some companies do not provide their employs a healthy, save place to be working in. Some places are dangerous for employees to be working in. Other companies are not treating their employees right. They may force these employees to work longer hours than needed or choose between things neither of which are a great choice, or even hit their employees.

With this ethical issue, those who are affected most by it are the employees of the company overseas. These employees are the ones who are directly affect. They are being treated unfair, working hard for long hours with very little pay or getting sick or even dying in the work environment they were given to work in. These employees suffer more than we notice. This leads to very sad consequences for these employees. Some may be very sick all the time, some may die, some may never see their kids. Their obligation is to provide for themselves and their children.

I am someone who cares deeply for other people. I would want this to reflect off into my business but also to others. If I was using a company overseas, I want these employers and employees to see this as well and know that I care about how employees and employers are being treated, I want to make sure they are getting paid a fair amount, and that their work environment is healthy and safe.

I would want to find a creative way to deal with this dilemma. I would want to try and find the best way I could to make sure that these things are being done the way we would expect and hope for them to be handled. I would want to find the best way to make sure these employees are getting what they deserve for treatment, work environment, and pay. If my gut tells me something is wrong with the situation then I will trust my gut and find what the issue is with the situation.

Our company is here to provide credit consultations and resolutions for our clients. We want to give our clients a better chance at life even if that means just giving them recommendations for a better credit rating and a better understanding of their credit and what factors into it their scores. This is something that we want our clients to feel confident in and have that understanding to better their lives. We want to make a difference within the community and the state as well. Within the sales floor we have started to notice that many of our supervisors are creating an unhealthy ethical culture within the company. We want our company to have an ethical culture overall.

We have some supervisors who are not following certain things that they should be doing. Some supervisors are telling our clients and employees that they can do things that they cannot do. Supervisors are explaining to employees that they can access secured files of our other employees or even those employees’ client’s information. We also have some supervisors who are not following through with something they are supposed to be doing and putting the blame on to someone else for these things not being completed.

We want our supervisors to be people who all employees can look up to and have faith that they will follow through with things that are needing to be done. We want these supervisors to step up to the plate when they knowingly have done something wrong or not followed through with what was needed from them. Our supervisors need to be people who are transparent and straight forward with employees and clients as well. “Ethical supervisors accept responsibility for the quality and quantity of work produced and do not scapegoat workers in order to make themselves or the company look better to customers or investors.” (Smith, 2018)

Within our company we have many ways that we explain to everyone what is okay and what is not okay. We have meetings about this on a quietly bases. We do this to try and make sure that everyone has a clear understand of what is expected from everyone including leaders. We want to make sure that everyone is aware of the expectations of the company and of each of you. We want everyone to understand what is allowed within the work force and what is not okay within the work force. We will be continuing to have these meetings about the expectations.

We will be continuing to have meetings over all that is expected from everyone within the company. From here on out we will be doing random meetings as well to see how employees feel about what supervisors are doing that may or may not be ethical. We are going to be sitting down with each of the supervisors and having them read over the ethics section of our handbook and the supervisors handbook. We will make sure that all supervisors are aware of what is okay and what is not okay. We will be doing sit downs with supervisors to make sure that they fully understand what is expected from them. We will also be randomly sitting on the floor to hear or see what supervisors are doing while we are not on the floor. This will allow us to have a full understanding of exactly what is going on the floor. This is not being put into effect as a punishment but as a way for us to make sure that we are creating the best workplace that we possibly can. As we continue in the future months these meetings will be in full effect.

When it comes to motivating or disciplining employees for ethical or unethical behavior there are many ways that this can be done. When I think about rewarding employees for their ethical behavior, I think about things that a good majority of us would enjoy. I would recommend rewarding employees with gift certificates to a restaurant or a movie theater, or even giving them prize boxes that include movies, popcorn, and other things. This can be a way to motivate your employees to have ethical behavior. These rewards are not always cheap and giving employees the option to win this for ethical behavior can motivate them to do so.

I would not want my employees to be doing anything unethical within the workplace. When it comes to disciplining employees for unethical behavior at work, I would choose to do write ups. These write ups would vary from a warning clear up to a final or even termination. I would use these write ups for anything unethical that employees are doing or have done within the workplace. I would make sure that the write ups describe what the employee has done that is unethical and what they can do to change that behavior, so it doesn’t reoccur again. These write ups can help employees understand what they are doing that is unethical and give the advice on how to change that behavior. Giving the write ups can always let the employees understand that the behavior is not something that the company deals with and that if it continues that they could face termination. Giving employees a write up can even give you a reason into why they were doing this unethical behavior and help you to find the best way to get the behavior to stop.

I think that just letting the employee know what the unethical behavior is that they were doing is not the best way to discipline the employee. Some companies will have a meeting with the employee about that behavior as well. I do not agree that this is the best way to go about the situation. When we just let the employees know what they did that the companies do not allow, this does not show them the reason why it is wrong or give them ways to change the behavior. These meetings can be considered just a slap on the wrist for the employees. Doing this does not give the employee a cause and effect situation with the discipline. They may not understand that there can be long term effects if the behavior continues. Another way to discipline that I do not agree with is when in front of other employees. This can embarrass the employee more than they may already be. When an employee is doing something, unethical this should be left between HR and supervisors and kept in private. This should not be talked about in front of other employees. “Public shaming can cause a toxic work environment, and it’s rarely an appropriate approach to dealing with issues in the workplace.” (Kumarasamy, 2018)

Every person is different in ways that they learn and even the ways that they are motivate. Some people may be motivated because of their children while others are motivated because of a dream car that they want. While in a workplace these motivations vary from person to person. When we are looking into rewarding or disciplining employees, we need to keep in mind that they all learn or get motivation in different ways. We should use the way that they learn or get motivated to help encourage them to do better or to help them understand the unethical behavior that they have done. We want to make sure that every employee can understand what was done that the company does not put up with and make sure that we are giving different ways to motivate or reward our employees. Giving different ways to discipline or motivate employees can help the workplace become a place with an ethical culture and employees who are motivated to be at work and be ethical. When employees start there are test you can have them answer that are just person questions. Based from what their answers are this can give you a look into what may be the best way to teach them or help them learn about the unethical things or even give you some ideas that can help with motivation.

References

Smith, J. (2018, July 30). What Is Considered to Be an Ethical Supervisor?

Kumarasamy, P. (2018, August 5). Home Workplace Issues

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