Article review
Sexual harassment is one of unethical practices that have been ignored for a long time. Management has however realized that this behavior is affecting the performance of activities in the work place in various ways. The article ‘organizational justice, sexual harassment’ by N. Cole has analyzed the ethical issue in detail. According to the article, workplace romance is an issue that has existed for a long period in history (Cole, 2009). However, this activity has always been done secretively. Recent studies have shown that work place romances are no longer secretive. They are done in public working environment going to an extent of distrusting the other employees.
Studies have shown that the management has ignored taking action whenever work place romances are discovered. The management has though that interference would be unfair. Failure to intervene whenever work place romances are discovered is actually unfair according to the article. This is considering the fact that the other employees are affected by these acts (Cole, 2009).
The work place romances can be even worse when the individuals involved work in the same department. This is because they meet every time and hence waste a lot of time in their activities. Supervision of duties becomes difficult which leads to poor performance of duties. This is because it becomes difficult to give orders to a person whom you have a romantic relationship with.
The studies carried out by Cole revealed that there is no single benefit that an organization receives from the workplace romances. What most of the respondents said was only the negative side of the issue. Specifically, the employees argued that the relationships interfere with the performance of duties in addition to destructing the work environment.
The article concludes that it is fair that the management intervenes whenever workplace romances are realized. To properly deal with workplace romances, there should be a clearly outlined policy that is aimed at controlling the unethical issue. The policy should specify what is acceptable and what is not acceptable about the issue in the work place. It should also specify how the people involved in the unethical issue should be dealt with.
The article concludes by emphasizing that workplace romances is an issue that should not be ignored by the management considering that it affects the productivity of the employees. The author argues that most organizations have no policy aimed at control of unethical behavior. There is therefore a need to put in place the policy to act as a guide to the employees so that even though the romances take place, they do not affect the other workers.
Our service site aims at ensuring a high level of professionalism at the work place so that everybody in the work place can be comfortable to work with each other. Anything that hinders performance of duties by employees is highly discouraged. Our service site aims at reducing complains among the workers so that activities can be done without any hindrances.
The ethical issue in this article however does not support the objectives set for our working environment. Workplace romances make it difficult to work effectively. This is because it causes destruction of the other employees. The complains from other employees increase due to the unethical issue which is one of the things that our service site is against. The productivity of the employees involved reduces because of the time they waste when together. This also is not in accordance with our themes in the service site. The unethical behavior portrays unprofessionalism in our organization. The unethical behavior specifically is against our themes in the service site. Therefore, there is a need to put in place measures to ensure that this behavior is never witnessed in our site.
The theme of the articles used in class is closely related to this topic. This topic addresses a new social work issue.
According to the readings, the working environment has changed creating a need for management to attend these new areas. The relationship here is that workplace romance is a new social issue that needs to be addressed. The readings also emphasizes that the there is a need to offer guidance in new areas o management. The article concurs with this in that it emphasizes the need to develop a new code of conduct relating to workplace romance so that management becomes easy.
The article implies that organizations should take workplace romance as unacceptable behavior that the management should work to eliminate. This issue should never be ignored any further since it can be seen that it has many negative impacts to an organization.
The article also implies that a written code of conduct governing workplace romance is an important thing if this behavior is to be controlled. This is because it gives a guidance on how the issue should be dealt with when detected; this document also serves to avoid conflicts with the employees found practicing the behavior in the work place.
Article 2
The article ‘making sense of workplace deception’ is aimed at showing how deception in the workplace can be dangerous. It also shows the effects of deception and their causes. According to the article, some workers deceive just because it is their character to deceive others. They are used to this behavior and hence do it for fun. Others deceive so that they may appear to be right. Some employees argue that deception is just a means to survive in the work environment (Erin, 2011). The author also argues that some employees deceive to obtain favors in place of others. For example, an employee may claim to have performed a certain task so as to receive rewards on behalf of another employee.
The author argues that deception is dangerous in that it breaks the communication process in the organization. This makes it difficult to co ordinate activities hence performance of duties may be affected. Hatred created due to deception can make it difficult to work together. Trust between employees is destroyed hence it becomes difficult to work as a team. Deception also demoralizes the employees in that it causes the wrong people to receive rewards on behalf of the others.
The author concludes by arguing that an organization should play a major role in eliminating deception in the work place. The management should be a good example of being honest so that the employees can follow. Better channels of communication should be adopted so that any kind of deception can be detected. The people associated with deception should be punished for their acts (Erin, 2011).
Deception is a behavior that can adversely affect the activities in an organization. In the service site, deception can make it difficult to achieve the theme of team work in performance of duties. Our service site emphasizes that the employees should work together to increase the total output. Teamwork also makes work easy at the service site. However, deception breaks communication systems in the work place making it difficult to have team work.
Maximizing the productivity of employees becomes difficult when there is deception. Those who are deceived feel demoralized and this may adversely affect their productivity. These employees feel that even though they work hard, their rewards will finally end to the wrong people due to deception. They are therefore tempted to relax.
Accountability, which is one of our service site aims, cannot be achieved with deception. People will perform certain acts and fail to accept that they are the ones. Therefore, responsibility among the employees becomes a problem. Deception therefore makes it difficult to achieve many of our themes in the service site.
Our readings o social work for social justice shows how problems such as deception in the workplace can create problems in the work place. According to the catholic social teachings, people should always mind about the welfare of the others. The article addresses deception that interferes with the welfare of the other people. The article can therefore be said to promote the social welfare of the employees as emphasized by the catholic teachings.
The article on deception implies a lot of things to the management. It informs them how dangerous the unethical behavior can be if not checked. Incidences of deception in the work place can damage the reputation of an organization such that the customers can lose trust completely in the organization.
The article informs the management that an organization can fail to realize its dreams if deception is the order of the day in their organization. The management should therefore take the necessary measures to prevent deception. Some of the measures that the management can take include having clear channels of communication so that it becomes possible to detect lies that can affect the employees adversely. Competition between the employees should be reduced so that the motivation to cheat can reduce. The management should also prescribe the consequences of deception. This will ensure that the employees are aware of the consequences of practicing the unethical behavior. They will therefore avoid it at all costs.
This article reveals that even though competition in the working environment is advantageous, it may induce deception for the sake of personal benefits of the employees. The solution in this case is to have control over the competition witnessed among the employees. Avoiding deception will create a professional environment that will encourage fair competition.
References.
Cole N (2009) How employees feel about work place romances. Retrieved from; http://www.ioatwork.com/category/sexual-harassment/
Erin M. (2011) Making sense of workplace deception. Retrieved from; http://www.natcom.org/CommCurrentsArticle.aspx?id=1022
