Ethical Considerations: Prejudicial Employment Practices - Case Study Example

Part ii) Professional mission ment “To achieve excellence in leadership in the dynamic modern world” Part iii) Definition of key terms in decision making Decision making is primarily concerned with approving the course of action to be taken in pursuit of certain goals to be achieved and is mainly practised at the top management level within large organisations (Kleynhans et al 2007). In order to gain a clear understanding of the concept of decision making, it is imperative to define the following key terms, 1) ethics, 2) leadership, 3) service and 4) character ass they are interrelated and often influence the process of decision making in an organisation. 1) Ethics are regarded as moral principles that often guide people in organisations in particular to make a distinction between something that is good or wrong in the process of doing their duties. According to Carrel et al (1995), organisations should always consider ethics and values since they are primarily concerned with upholding the principles of honesty and truthfulness in the company’s endeavour to satisfy the needs of the customers. Ethics are very important because strategic operations in an organisation that are premised on lies are bound to fail as they would be doubtful in the eyes of the potential customers. 2) Leadership can be defined as the ability by an individual to influence the other people in an organisation to follow a course of action that is specifically designed to achieve the goals of the organisation. Leadership is primarily involved in the attainment of the vision of the organisation. Leadership in an organisation is very important since it focuses on the attainment of organisational goals. 3) A service can be defined as an offering that is intangible but able to satisfy the needs of the consumers. A service is exchanged for something valuable such as money or any other kind of payment. This definition is very important in the understanding of decision making since it affects the quality of services offered by an organisation as well as the general service delivery 4) Character can be defined as the personal attributes that form and shape the behaviour of an individual person. Whilst character is something that is in born, it can as well be noted that it can as well be influenced by external forces. This definition is very important in the knowledge of decision making as it is enlightening about how an individual person can conduct himself. Part iv) Ethical issues facing organisations This section is mainly going to focus on two aspects of ethical considerations namely prejudicial employment practices as well as privacy. a) Prejudicial employment practices posit to the effect that organisations should not discriminate the other employees on the basis of race, gender, age, physical ability as well as religion among others (Carrel et al 1995). The most important issues addressed include the need for integrity, respect for each other as well as striving to create a good reputation so as to ensure that the stakeholders have trust in the organisation. It can be noted that ethics are mainly concerned with determining if something is good or bad for the organisation. Ethically, organisations have a moral obligation to fulfil to the society hence issues such as discrimination on the basis of race are not advocated. By any standard, prejudicial employment practices are detrimental to the image of the company as whole. As a result of globalisation, it can be noted that there is free migration of labour and organisations can invest in any part of the globe of their choice. In the same vein, it is also recommended that the policies to be implemented ought to be accommodative to a diverse range of cultures. Globalization entails that organisations can operate in different parts of the globe and it must always be noted that there are diverse cultures with different values. It is imperative for any organisation to take into consideration the value system of the local people in different host countries since these would form the labour pool. Failure to realize that would negatively impact on the operations of the organisation since the policies may not be compatible with the value system of the employees which can be difficult to implement. The other most important factor is respect for each other so as to avoid conflicts at the work place. Prejudicial employment practices often lead to instability in the organisation which can negatively affect its operations. It becomes difficult for the leaders in the organisation to control the workers where there are conflicts emanating from prejudicial employment practices as highlighted above. On the other hand, the basis question that should be asked by the members of a particular organisation is the following: Is it right to discriminate? This ought to be the guiding principle b) Privacy is primarily concerned with the handling of confidential information and is very important as far as reputation of the organisation is concerned (Josephson 1997). There is need to ensure that privacy is respected which is very important in the code of ethics for any organisation. Privacy is a multi faceted dimension which includes the handling of confidential information belonging to the organisation as well as the customers and it also involves the operations of the workers in an organisation. Privacy policies of many organisations as dictated by their codes of ethics posit to the effect that confidential information about the organisation should not be divulged to third parties under whatever circumstance. It is also state that information about customers particularly in a banking industry must always be treated with the strictest confidence it deserves. Failure to observe these ethical considerations would put the image of the organisation into disrepute as there would be no trust among the customers. Trust born out of mutual understanding is very important for the organisation to be successful in its operations. Respect for individual privacy is a basic tenet of ethical conduct in an organisation. Every individual person has the right to pursue personal life where his privacy is not violated or invaded. In an organisation, different employees have different views about their personal life and these should not be violated for whatever reason. Some aspects of our lives are private and confidential such as religion or sexual orientation where nobody is expected to be discriminated on the basis of such information. Failure to respect personal privacy is tantamount to violation of a basic human right which is unethical. Part v) PISCO According to Edward (1985), the PISCO model is comprised of steps that seek to identify a problem, input to the cause of the problem, solution, choice as well as operational goal of the choice made. Problem In this case, the major problem facing Shelby is that she is in a dilemma to make ethical decisions. First National Federal Bank had implemented many institutional changes with increasing emphasis on ethics. In the given case study, the two ethical dilemmas facing Shelby involve the following: Is it ethical to let Whitton pay for their trip on their way to evaluate his property as proposed collateral for a bank loan instead of the bank? Is it also ethical to request donations from the customers for the annual picnic fundraiser? It is apparent that Shelby is against calling any of her customers for donations and she does not want to go on the trip unless the bank paid but is also in a dilemma of not risking her job she got after a long struggle. It is clear that the problem is about striking a fine balance between what is considered good or bad in the operations of a big institution such as the First National Federal Bank. Input One morning Ben appeared in Shelby’s office with a loan application from Doug Whitton, a rancher in the northwestern part of the state. He told Shelby that they needed to take a trip to evaluate the proposed collateral for the loan. An on-site evaluation of collateral is a required procedure for loan processing at First National Federal. Ben also added that Whitton was paying for their way up to the place for the evaluation which confuses Selby since the bank is supposed to foot all the expenses. Since the customer had offered to pay, this was going to cut costs for them. On the other hand, Ben added that First National Federal’s annual fundraiser picnic was coming up and that they were planning to have the usual prize drawing. He told Shelby to just get on the phone to all the customers with loans she handles and see the prizes they were willing to donate for the year’s drawings. Selby is also confused if this is not wrong for them to pressure customers into donating prizes of which Ben angrily replied saying that these prizes as well as the money were not theirs but meant for charity. Solution Three solutions that can be given to Selby to lessen the problem include the following: raise the issue of Whitton paying for the trip to the management, should be neutral and not call the customers for donations and she should do what she thinks is right. A SWOT analysis is going to be used to analyse each of the factor mentioned above. Basically, the acronym SWOT stands for strengths and weaknesses of an organisation’s internal position and threats and opportunities that exist in the external environment. SWOT analysis is a technique that the managers use to get an overview of the strategic position of an organisation. SWOT analysis is based on the assumption that an effective strategy derives from a good fit between an organisation’s resource capabilities and its external situation (Thompson & Strickland 2001 as cited in Rossouw & Kruger 2003:17). In this case, a good fit will mean that the weaknesses of an organisation and the threats of the environment are minimised while the organisation makes the best of the strengths within it and the opportunities in the environment. Taking a neutral decision is strong in that there is no enmity created between Selby and here immediate boss who is requesting her to do something against her wishes. The only unlikely weakness is that the organisation can loose lucrative business out of shoddy dealings. The major threat is that the image of the organisation can be disrupted if it is discovered that they make business out of hook and crook. The opportunity is that the organisation is likely to gain more money. The strength of reporting the case is that it can be rectified in the future while the weakness is that it is likely to jeopardise her employment since she would be victimised by her superiors at work. The opportunity is that it will create mutual trust with the customers through ethical conduct. The threat that exists with reporting the case is that there would be high chances of creating a situation which will put the bank into disrepute. She can do what she thinks is good and the strength is that she will create a peaceful working environment. One weakness is that it may result in deliberately undermining authority by refusing to take orders. The opportunity is that there would be less conflict among the stakeholders. The threat is that business may be lost in the future. Choice The best choice is that she must remain neutral where she will not call the customers. This choice will leave her with peace of mind where she would not have done anything unethical or where she would be threatened or victimized by undermining authority. In this case, she does not contribute to any harmful practice to the operations of the organisation in as far as its reputation is concerned. Operation In implementing the chosen solution above, there is need for consensus on the way of operation as the first step. Having outlined the agreed way of operation, then, there is also need to outline the guidelines for the code of conduct in the operations of the organisation. Having drawn this as the second step, then there is need to implement the expected guidelines in the day to day operations of the organisation. The fourth step is monitoring to see if there is compliance with the expected standard of operation in the organisation. Summary It can be noted that decision making is influenced by various ethical considerations in the running of an organisation. Basically, ethics are concerned with drawing a fine balance between what is morally good and bad in business operation. As noted in the case, Shelby is in a dilemma of deciding between doing something that is good and bad and as noted, she ought to remain neutral so as to avoid acting against her feelings. However, the concept of ethics is tightly contested since there is a tendency by the leaders to pursue business which may be in violation of the expected standards of operation. References Carrell, R. et al (1995), Human Resources Management: Global Strategies for managing a diverse workforce, 5th Edition, Prentice Hall, USA. deBono, Edward (1985). Six thinking hats. New York; Little, Brown and Company Josephson M. (1997). Making Ethical Decisions. 4th Edition. CA. Josephson Institute of Ethics. Kleynhans R. et al (2007), Human Resource Management: fresh perspectives, Prentice Hall, S.A. Rossouw, D. & Kruger S. (2003). Strategic Management. CT. New Africa Books. Read More