Question 1
Remunerating the employees is of paramount importance for the company because it is a major force behind the diminishing morale. Even though, the company is experiencing decline returns, it is imperative for a company to address the issue of freezing of its employees’ benefits. More often than not, lack or little benefits to employees have been cited as a major factor contributing to employee low morale in many organizations (Lambert, Hogan, & Barton, 2002). Secondly, it is prudent for a company to start ensuring that there is competent leadership in the organization. Competent leadership listens to employees’ grievances and act to solve the same.
The third measure is to promote a good management-employees communication. Communication is vital because it enhances a smooth flow of information and hence everyone within the organization grasp the impediment faced by the organization and then justifies some measures such as freezing of the workers raises. Provision of the mandatory welfare services come forth as another way to improve morale. Although it is a bit costly, it plays a crucial role of creating the feeling ownership among the employees. Finally, it is advisable for the company to introduce job training for its employees. Precisely, job training helps employees to advance their careers and understand their work better and hence job satisfaction.
Question 2
Before Jenifer makes any decision, she should consider professional ethics as well the laws and policy that govern the terms of her employment. In professional ethics, Jenifer should consider the appropriate standards and expectations as stipulated in the professional code of ethics (Dodig-Crnkovic, 2006). In case her decision conflict with the ethical tenets then she should utilize then an ethical procedure to resolve the conflict. In terms of laws and policy, Jenifer should consider the possibility of any legal obligations. Further, she should examine the likelihood of any conflicts between the legal obligation and profession ethics, and keep in mind that legal obligation is always superior to professional ethics. According to the individual ethical decision-making style, Jenifer decision should be guided by the current situation. This approach is pragmatists one, in which an individual address present situations and not particularly with the others. In this scenario, Jenifer should consider the best decision that fulfills her interest at most. In my opinion, I could have opted for a job at Local Finance because salary is assured unlike the one at Glorious Finance.
Question 3
In this scenario, I will consider not to pay the $ 200 weekly fees to the government officials. The reason for the decision is that the fees seem like a bribe for seeking favor from the officials, which I feel is unethical and unprofessional too. It is reasonable to review the business ethics theories in this case before one makes the accurate decision. The business ethics theories to be considered here include utilitarian, justice, right, virtue, and common good approaches (Thiroux, 2009). In explaining to the board about the basis of my decision, I will utilize the common good approach. My justification for this is that a common approach is the most implemented in many business organizations because it promotes their general missions.
Question 4
Moral rights are those rights that are based on ethics, religion, and philosophy whereas legal rights are the rights instituted by the government to govern behavior of the citizens (Fischman, 2008). There are various steps that the company and the new managers ought to have followed. For one, they should have informed the subordinates the information about the program and its purpose. Additionally, they should have sought their opinion on the same, and judge whether it was a wise move as per the expectations of the all parties.
Four main counterarguments to the rights of the due process involve the following. For one, the due process is depicted as limiting the freedom of individuals to determine their work conditions. Both the parties engaged in a contract should be allowed to decide freely on the best market conditions for themselves. Secondly, due process is also perceived as unfair. It is mention that it only fair if workers have the freedom to quit a job for any reason, then it is only just if employers to dismiss for any reason. The third counterargument is that the due process is equivalent to illegitimate limitation on the property rights of business ownership. Ultimately, due process creates interference with the effective functioning of the business and hence inefficiency. A strong ethical case can be made by identifying the rights of the due process in the workplace because due do not guarantee protection from unfair sacking by the managerial authority.
References
Dodig-Crnkovic, G. (2006, October). Professional ethics in computing and intelligent systems. In Proceedings of the Ninth Scandinavian Conference on Artificial Intelligence (pp. 25-27).
Fischman Afori, O. (2008). Employees' Moral Rights: The Israeli Solution to an Ongoing Dilemma. European Intellectual Property Review, 30, 521.
Lambert, E. G., Hogan, N. L., & Barton, S. M. (2002). Satisfied correctional staff a review of the literature on the correlates of correctional staff job satisfaction. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 29(2), 115-143.
Thiroux, J. P. (2009). Ethics: Theory and practice.
