JAIIB PPB Unit 47 - Ethical Dimensions: Employees

Employees frequently need to make numerous moral decisions in the workplace. Though numerous of these workplace choices have to be made depending on moral duties, some ethically tolerable choices may require bravery and need to be performed beyond the usually accepted norms.

While discussing workplace ethics, six predominant subjects are of primary importance. These are

• Obligations to the firm
• Abuse of one’s position
• Bribery and kickbacks
• The obligations to third parties
• Whistleblowing
• Employee’s self-interest

Obligations to the Firm

Employees are appointed for the company’s tasks. The employees may obligate themselves to do the work of the specific company for financial gains. The employers frequently have many conditions to employment which the employee has to follow. These may include dress codes and respectful behavior.

Loyalty to the Company

Maximum people have a standpoint that employees must have some moral duties to stay loyal to their organizations. It is true that employees are obligated to do the tasks offered to them, but is it satisfactory to have an obligation to work for the company in a manner that is beyond the assigned jobs?

Many employers may think so, but is not stated wherever. The employees are not bound or obligated to have any kind of loyalty to the employers. But on a moral ground, loyalty to the company is often considered to be a good thing and it is plausible that the loyalty is rewarded through pay-raises, promotions, and good recommendations etc.

Conflicts of Interest

Employees can have a battle of interest with the company. Some of these fights of interest are trivial and include general workplace conditions or situations. Though, some other fights may be serious and can let the employees to show disloyalty.

Usually, employees must avoid important battles of interest by not involving themselves in disloyal activities. Though, it is difficult enough to decide when a conflict is significant and it may not always clear what employees should do besides resisting the temptation to be disloyal.

Abuse of Official Position

By means of the official position for private or personal gains is often measured as an abuse of power. Such abuse can result from unfaithfulness.

Insider Trading

Insider trading happens when a member has admission to company information that’s typically unavailable to the public and can have an impact on the stock prices. For instance, certain employees may come to know that their company is going to be broke before general public and they can sell all their stock. People who tend to buy the stocks will be betrayed. It is also a kind of insider trading to encourage near ones to sell their stock having such “insider information.”

Proprietary Data

Companies can frequently have “trade secrets” which they don’t want to share with other organizations, and a small number of employees may divulge such information to the benefit of competing organizations which is unethical.

Three main arguments why trade secrets should be protected by the law are

• These are intellectual property.
• Trade secrets theft is wrong.
• Stealing trade secrets is a violation of the confidentiality terms.
• Sharing trade confidences and following privacy information is a difficult moral issue. People have the right to seek and advance employment and it is not easy to separate proprietary information from a worker’s own skills and technical knowledge.

Bribes and Kickbacks

Corruption is aimed to letting somebody to act against their duties. Bribes can be very thoughtful when it can injure people. Kickbacks are also a form of bribery that involves a person to uses his/her position to benefit a party or someone.

Bribing foreign officers for favors could harm people. Though, examples of bribing are many and they comprise both large and small organizations.

Gifts and Entertainment

Gifts and entertainment may be used to prize and inspire certain behavior from workers. This can outcome in a conflict of interest. Entertainment isn’t as likely to be ethically wrong if allowed to be used according to ethical standards.

The resulting considerations may be considered while judging the ethics of gifting

• The Price of the Gift Gifts of huge prices are more likely a bribe.
• The Purpose of the Gift Gift can be used to encourage, for advertising, or as a bribe.
• The Circumstances A gift given at a special occasion is different than a gift on non-special occasions, and a gift given openly is more ethical.
• The Position of the Person Receiving the Gift A person in a position to reciprocate is more likely to be taking a bribe.
• The Accepted Practices Gifts as “tips” for a waiter or waitress is norm, but to a CEO; it is clearly unethical.
• The Company’s Policy Some companies may have stricter rules about gifts than others.
• The Law Gifts against the law are usually unacceptable.

Obligations to Third Parties

A person is ethically grateful to let others know about unsafe and misleading business practice. Though, employees should match and judge the significance of their job duties and personal interests with the importance of the interests of others. It can be ethically preferable to let the third parties know about wicked and illegal business practices, even when it is not a moral obligation to do so.

Whistleblowing

Whistleblowing is the act of going public with meaningfully immoral or illegal acts of an organization one is part of. Nevertheless, someone is not a whistle blower for discussing the awkward or rude behavior with public, and a whistle blower doesn’t need to involve in sabotage or violence.

The reasoning given to judge a whistle-blowing activity may include the following

• The reason must be ethical. The worker must act in contradiction of the organization that committed a significant immoral or illegal act.
• The whistleblower should look for less harmful ways to resolve the issue first. Employees should tell the management and executives of wrong-doing before making the information public.
• The whistleblower should have enough evidence. It is unethical to accuse a company when there’s a possibility of company being innocent.
• The company’s fault must be specific and significant. The wrong-doing must have specific and significant reasons.

Self-Interest

Are the people obligated to save the interests of others by making misconducts known to the management or by alerting the public by making significant immoral acts committed by companies publicly?

It is always preferable to think rationally and impartially regarding morality. It is important to think about our life and ask the following questions

• Are we following authorities blindly?
• Are we suffering from a moral tunnel vision?
• Are we mindlessly doing what is asked from us, without considering the impact on outside parties?
• Are we considering about our possible roles as accomplices in the immoral activities?
• Are we having a proper view of our interests against those of others?
• Is there any substantial evidence for acting against the norms?

Ethics frequently wants us to reflect the interests of everyone who can be affected by our decisions and also about the situations we are in. We can have serious social and personal duties and depends on all these important and unique factors.