Introduction
Texaco, an oil company of American origin was founded in Beaumont, Texas. The flagship product of the company is its fuel, known as “Texaco with Techron”. The company also owns another brand of motor oil, Havoline. It is common knowledge that businesses employ labor from the surroundings they are working in although sometimes they expatriate based on the skill they required and its availability. The relationship between the employer and the employee is a very important relationship. Its course is a determinant for many things in a business.
Statement of the problem
Texaco has been implicated in various cases of harassment. In Burma, where the company had its operations, the company collaborated with the Burmanese military dictatorship. This was a repressive regime that harassed those against it with brutality. The company had an offshore project extracting natural gas in the country. The company required to construct a pipeline that cuts through the rain forest in order to transport the natural gas to another location for processing. As such, the Burmese military instituted “free-fire zones” through certain parts of the forest. Their soldiers were cleared to shoot any civilians in these zones. This included members and indigenous tribe that occupied the forest. Texaco is also in blatant violation of an oil embargo instituted by the United Nations to pressurize the military dictatorship in Haiti.
Texaco has also been implicated in cases of employee exploitation. Once, the company made a settlement of one hundred and seventy six million dollars for racial discrimination of its black employees and minorities. The company has also been implicated in employee harassment, in a court case, one of its employees complained of harassment through demotions, undue scrutiny and unreasonable work demands. This was amplified by the company’s denial for use of the handicap parking spot even after she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Even after being awarded a handicap parking sport by the state, the company continued to disallow her to use to permit on its property. A company with corporate consciousness will not subject any of its employees to any form of harassment because it values the employee as a shareholder.
A moral analysis of the issue
Deontologists look at actions in accordance to the moral rules governing such rules (Brooks & Dunn, 2010). From a deontological perspective, one should do unto others that which he would wish to be done by. Putting the Texaco harassment issues into perspective, it is inconceivable that the management in the company would wish for the treatment that the female employee was put through. It is highly unlikely that the management would favor harassment of any form. More precisely, the company made a quick settlement of one hundred and seventy six million dollars in the racial discrimination case in order to avoid further harassment by the government. This is evidence that the management of the company dislikes harassment.
It does not help the company when the issue is viewed from a virtue ethics perspective. From a virtue ethics perspective, helping an individual is a show of benevolence and charity (Brooks & Dunn, 2010). The female employee at Texaco was in dire need of help. She had been recently diagnosed with breast cancer and was in and out of treatment regimes. It was not virtuous for the company to burden her with more worries. From a virtue ethics perspective, the company ought to have accorded her any help they could. Certainly, denying her a handicap parking spot was undeniably cruel and unnecessary.
Policy recommendations
Corporate responsibility is required of Texaco in its operations. But more importantly, the company required an anti-harassment policy. Such a policy will set out the modalities to avoid and deal with employee harassment, of any form at the work place. Such a policy will also stipulate the punitive and compensatory measure that will be instituted on the offender and the offended respectively. Such measures are required to be punishment enough in order to discourage such unwanted behavior at the workplace. In addition to this, the company needs to embrace the concept of anti-harassment in its corporate strategy and mission and vision statements.
Conclusion
Employees put in a lot of man hours at the work place in order to achieve the objectives set out for them. They require an enabling environment in order to execute their mandate. Harassment at the workplace, especially by the powerful employer not only demotivates he employee but also affects productivity and performance negatively. The intricate balance between employee motivation and performance is a determinant of the productivity of the company. Companies should embrace anti-harassment policies; create enabling environments for their workforce. The benefits of this are diverse, but most importantly, employee performance will increase leading to increased productivity.
References
Brooks, L. J., & Dunn, P. (2010). Business & professional ethics for directors, executives, & accountants. Mason, OH, South Western Cengage Learning.
