Introductory Statement
Executive and managers of all levels are responsible for implementing and coping with so many issues within organizations. Certainly, all types of concerns and tasks are equally significant, however, in recent years, ethical principles and manners happened to take a first place within a corporate culture. In light of this tendency, the author exemplifies and addresses three hypothetical scenarios accounting for discipline, diversity and personal relationships with a purpose of illustrating how contemporary managers are supposed to handle them.
Discipline in the Workplace
Discipline and organizational values are expected to go hand in hand with the aim of proving that the company follows its ethical standards and principles demanded from the employees. Complying with such issues as a timely performance and reporting to a person assigned to coordinate your work remains important, despite your boss being much younger than you are. Let’s consider a hypothetical scenario where two of the four employees, much older than their senior manager is, refuse to report to him and go directly to a higher management.
In fact, the issue of age cannot be regarded as the only one aspect precipitating such a behavior – there could have been another problem resulting in a refusal to report to a particular senior colleague. In the instances involving incidents of discipline violations, experts advise first to put away all the storm of emotions and impulsions to yell profanities at an employee. Constructive meeting with a discipline-perpetrator focusing on possible negative consequences of his undesirable actions, but not on his personality, would be much more productive (Managing Business Ethics, n.d.). Sensitivity in handling the employees’ disobedience proves to be far crucial, especially where the employees constitute a valuable and appraised workforce.
The second piece of advice is that a discipline meeting should be held in a private atmosphere. It is not reasonable to reprimand and admonish subordinates in the presence of other colleagues – this is more likely to create a strained relationship rather than contribute to any improvement. Further, disobedient workers ought to be given an opportunity to tell “their side of the story” (Managing Business Ethics, n.d.). Perhaps these older employees may explain a reason for acting this way. By the way, it is also necessary to have a meeting with a higher management to whom these two employees regularly report instead of reporting to their supervisor.
Probably, a higher management does not have anything against the conduct of the employees due to their long-term loyalty and benefit brought to the firm. However, in this case, a system of ethical standards and directions devised in the company will not be followed consistently by all workers as it was designed from the very beginning. Thereafter, a primary task of their supervisor should be a clarification of this issue with higher managers to let them know of future ethical and discipline challenges triggered by a different treatment of some employees, even taking into consideration their term of employment, performance, and other advantages.
Diversity in Business Relationships
Unfortunately, discipline issues may not be the only one challenge for managers. Additional pitfalls should be expected to occur where teams of business partners consist of employees belonging to vastly different cultures and religions. The aforementioned matter becomes especially sensitive where Eastern cultural traditions and Muslim principles are on the one side, and Western culture is on the other side, are involved. The main character of the second incident called Julie turns out to be one of the senior executives of the Western bank having been cooperating with a large transnational corporation whose headquarters are located in Saudi Arabia (Managing Business Ethics, n.d.).
When the Arabian business team has found out about a gender of the employee coordinating the project, they expressed a refusal to interact with Julie. In such occurrences, managers are supposed to be honest with an employee who got into the entrapment by explaining to him what may not be accepted in his personality by the opposite team of counterparts. Along with this, a supervisor of the compromised employee ought to tell him that he is completely aware of the employee’s high potential and competence in the field and how they could facilitate the project and their clients if Julie worked as a head of the bank’s team.
It would be, of course, professional and consistently on the part of Julie’s boss to get the Arabian team familiarized with Julie’s expertise, experience, and accomplishments in the area at issue and how the project could be boosted with her as a lead. Moreover, in recent years, the Arabian business world has become more susceptible towards Western female business leaders. In light of this trend, the Muslim team may turn out to be more amenable to persuasion of treating Julie as an “honorary man” (Marsh, 2015).
Ethical Entrapments Emerging from Personal and Family Relationships
In contrast to discipline and diversity aspects happening in the workplace, personal relationships between employees and dating with a senior manager may be even much worse. Thus, fancy that one of the worker’s colleagues, let’s call her Jessica, is treating internal stakeholders, including clients, unacceptably rough and unmannerly. Owing to this fact, customers do not prefer interacting with Jessica and ask to connect them with another worker. Subsequently, the scope of duties and workload of this first employee have substantially increased, but he is hesitating whether to apply to a senior manager with this problem because he is dating Jessica (Managing Business Ethics, n.d.).
The matter described above is truly confusing since the first employee must be thinking of a meaningless outcome after having a meeting with a senior manager dating Jessica. Undoubtedly, Jessica’s rude manners must be familiar to a senior manager due to their close relationships. However, at least two obvious implications should be discussed at this stage. First, the employee directly suffering from Jessica’s discourteous treatment of internal stakeholders is recommended to set for herself own standards and principles of what she may be expected and asked to do and accept, otherwise this employee is taking a huge risk of getting subsequently into unethical and tricky stories where she will not be able to refuse doing something due to a long-term abandonment and complexity of the situation unfolded.
Thereafter, a first proper action would be to meet, nevertheless, with this senior manager controlling the suffering employee and Jessica – everybody in the company must have noticed Jessica’s rude manners, but a formal reporting is crucially needed to draw the management’s attention and let them know that this is a problem to be resolved. Even if a higher management does not approach the consequences of Jessica’s behavior and not consider her dating with a senior manager unacceptable, the suffering employee ought to give thought to credibility and ethical statements followed in the company. Probably, this is not a right enterprise to work at.
Concluding Statement
The aforementioned scenarios have, at least, demonstrated that managers should assertively and unconditionally set discipline standards and moral principles and apply them equally to all employees unless they are prepared to put up with flaws of some workers. In addition, honesty and an active engagement and readiness to negotiate the protection for a diversified workforce are also essential.
References
Managing Business Ethics (6th ed.). (n.d.).
Marsh, D. (2015). Doing business in the Middle East (2nd ed.). London, GB: Robinson.
