Managing Ethics and Diversity

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Managing Ethics and Diversity
MAN 3025 Management of Organizations
Chapter 3
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Chapter 3 Checklist

• Nature of Ethics
• Stakeholders and Ethics
• Rules for Ethical Decision Making
• Sources of Organizational Ethics
• Diversity of the Workforce
• Effective Management of Diversity
• Sexual Harassment

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Nature of Ethics

• Ethical Dilemmas
• Two or more values in conflict
• Lesser of two evils
• Right thing to do for the benefit of society at
  the expense of self-interest
• One of two mutually exclusive courses of action
  results in a disadvantage to one of the involved
  parties
• Ethics Inner-guiding moral principles, values,
  and beliefs used to analyze or interpret a
  situation and then decide the appropriate course
  of action

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Nature of Ethics

• Societal values dictate ethics
• Core
• Transitional
• Situational
• Ethics and change
• Time
• Circumstances
• Ethics promulgate laws

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Stakeholders and Ethics

• Stakeholders are those whom the corporation
  benefits or burdens by its actions and those who
  benefit or burden the firm with their actions.
• Primary stakeholders
• Secondary stakeholders
• Debate about how to identify who or what is a
  stakeholder.
• Stakeholder model is an ethical theory of
  management in which the welfare of each
  stakeholder must be considered as an end.

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Stakeholders and Ethics

• Stakeholders supply an organization with its
  productive resources and thus have a stake in
  the organization
• Primary Stakeholders
• Stockholders
• Managers
• Employees
• Suppliers and distributors
• Customers
• Community, society, and nation/state

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Stakeholders and Ethics

• Secondary Stakeholders
• Unions
• Creditors
• Competitors
• Political groups
• Environment
• Future generations
• Media
• Beneficiary groups (Religious and charity)
• Media
• Educational Institutions

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Rules for Ethical Decision Making

• Utilitarian Rule
• Origin Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill.
• Basic premise The greatest good for the greatest
  number.
• Criticism
• In practice it has led to self-interested
  reasoning.
• Because decisions are to be made for the greatest
  good of all, utilitarian thinking has led to
  decisions that permit the abridgement of
  individual or minority group rights.

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Rules for Ethical Decision Making

• Moral Rights Rule
• Origin Amalgam of Buddhism Judeo-Christian-Isla
  mic tenets Herbert Spencer, etc.
• Basic premise Maintain and protect the
  fundamental or inalienable right and privileges
  of people affected by a decision
• Criticism
• Lacks a tie breaker for situations in which two
  rights conflict
• Peoples ethical values differ, and they may
  mistakenly assume that their preferences are
  universal.

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Rules for Ethical Decision Making

• Justice Rule
• Origin John Rawls
• Basic premise Decision should distribute
  benefits and harms among people in a fair,
  equitable, or impartial manner.
• Criticism
• Requires individual injustices to accomplish a
  greater good. Equitable manner may not exist.
• Premises can lead to encroachment on majority
  group rights
• Benefits and harms may be subjective terms

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Rules for Ethical Decision Making

• Practical Rule
• Origin Conventionalist Ethic (Carr) and
  Disclosure Rule (Baxter)
• Basic premise Manager has no reluctance about
  communicating an ethical decision outside the
  company because the typical person in society
  would find it acceptable.
• Criticism
• Does not always give clear guidance for ethical
  dilemmas in which strong arguments exist for
  several alternatives.
• An action that sounds acceptable if disclosed may
  not, upon reflection, be the most ethical.

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Sources of Organizational Ethics
Cultural Experience
Religion
Ethical Values
Philosophy
Law
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Sources of Organizational Ethics

• Code of Ethics
• Societal Ethics
• Professional Ethics
• Individual Ethics
• Ethics Ombudsman

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Diversity of the Workforce
Sources of Diversity in the Workplace
Federally Protected
Not Federally Protected

• Age
• Gender
• Race
• Ethnicity
• Religion
• Capabilities/Disabilities

• Socio-Economic Background
• Sexual Orientation
• Education
• Experience
• Physical Appearance
• Other

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Diversity of the Workforce

• 1963 Equal Pay Act
• 1964 Title VII of Civil Rights Act
• 1967 Age Discrimination in Employment Act
• 1978 Pregnancy Discrimination Act
• 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act
• 1991 Civil Rights Act Amendment
• 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act

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Effective Management of Diversity

• Challenges of Diversity in the Workplace
• Priorities and Values
• Preferences
• Perspectives
• Perceptions
• Practices

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Effective Management of Diversity

• Crucial Roles in Diversity Management
• Interpersonal
• State organizational support of diversity
• Serve as role model
• Encourage cross-cultural exchanges
• Informational
• Monitor fair treatment of diverse employees
• Inform employees of zero tolerance policies
• Support community-based diversity initiatives
• Decisional
• Commit resources to eliminate discrimination
• Work with supporting organizations and groups

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Sexual Harassment

• EEOC Guidelines on Sexual Harassment
• Unwelcomed sexual advances, requests for
  sexual favors, and other verbal or physical
  conduct of a sexual nature constitute sexual
  harassment when
• submission to such conduct is made either
  explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of
  an individuals employment,
• submission to or rejection of such conduct by an
  individual is used as the basis for employment
  decisions affecting such individual, or
• Such conduct has the purpose or effect of
  unreasonably interfering with an individuals
  work performance or creating an intimidating,
  hostile, or offensive working environment.
• (29 CFR 1604.11(a))

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Sexual Harassment

• Meritor Savings Bank v Vinson (1986)
• Quid Pro Quo
• Sexual harassment requiring sexual favors in
  exchange for positive job treatment.
• Hostile Environment
• Harassment produced by workplace conduct and/or
  setting that is considered to make an abusive
  working environment.

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Sexual Harassment

• Harris v Forklift Systems (1993)
• Oncale v Sundowner Offshore Services (1998)
• Faragher v Boca Raton (1998)
• Burlington Industries v Ellerth (1998)

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Sexual Harassment

• Steps to eradicate Sexual Harassment
• Develop and clearly communicate sexual harassment
  policy endorsed by top management
• Use a fair complaint procedure to investigate
  charges of sexual harassment
• If it has been determined that sexual harassment
  has taken place, take corrective actions as soon
  as possible.
• Provide ongoing sexual harassment education and
  training to all organizational members, including
  managers.