Contemporary Issues in Business Ethics, Research Paper Example

Stated Hypothesis

If ethical standards are not enforced by the organization executives through proper training and certification, then this will result in unfavorable internal issues—determined by the variable of how well employees know the code of ethics based on assessments— that would compromise business operations by causing unnecessary delays in the work schedule.

Current Situation

The organization must make a few business decisions on its code of ethics. The ethics codes and regulations that apply to the organization are for the betterment of the organization and serve the best interests of the organizations reputation along with all other entities that are affiliated with it. These affiliates include stockholders and stake holders. The ethics code that the organization must establish ensures that all workers have the opportunity to work in a professional environment free from inappropriate conduct. This helps to promote professional behavior among workers to produce a comfortable working environment. (DesJardins 2014)

Problem Statement

The current situation for the company lacks the enforcement of ethical codes. Ethical behavior is not being conducted in the work environment and sexual harassment is becoming a problem. The symptoms of this situation in the organization consist of co-workers being rude not only to one another but to the clients as well. Another symptom involves women in the work place filing complaints about being sexually harassed by co-workers and even their superiors. The likely problems causing these symptoms are a lack of leadership. Superiors are not doing an effective job of making sure that the code of ethics is being abided by. (Ferrell 2014)

Research Question/Objective

So, what business decision can be made to better ensure that the code of ethics is fully enforced? A research objective to answer this question would be to evaluate how well all workers know the ethics code of the organization. Are workers fully aware of the contents that comprise the organization’s code of ethics? (Zikmund 2013)

Either the workers know the code of ethics and are not following it due to lack of enforcement, or the workers do not fully understand the code of ethics. In any case, the issue is greatly due to a lack of leadership. The leaders of the organization must both make workers aware of the code of ethics as well as enforce it. (Zikmund 2013)

The issue pertains to sexual harassment or sexual misconduct. There unfortunately have been complaints of sexual misconduct amongst the workers. It has particularly been targeted towards the female workers. Some cases of sexual misconduct go unnoticed within the organization because they are cases of superiors sexually harassing their subordinates; whom are too afraid to report it in fear of losing their jobs. These cases of sexual harassment are not only a breach of the ethics codes for the organization, but it also conflicts with federal and state labor laws. This is where a decision must be made to help stop such ethical misconduct.(McLaughlin 2012)

Hypothesis

A survey should first be conducted to assess how well the workers know about the code of ethics. The business decision that must be made is the decision of revamping the ethics enforcement policy for the company. This must be done by launching an ethics campaign for the organization. All current as well as incoming workers shall undergo the organizations newly implemented ethics training program. By having all workers undergo this program, it will not only ensure that all workers have been given the fair opportunity to be aware of it, but it will also help to reinforce its’ policy. After everybody has completed training, then another survey must be conducted to test how well the training helped. This will give organization executives solid data of how well the ethics campaign worked and if their business decision was effective enough.  (Ferrell 2014)

References

DesJardins, J. R., & McCall, J. J. (2014). Contemporary issues in business ethics. Cengage Learning.

Ferrell, O. C., & Fraedrich, J. (2014). Business ethics: Ethical decision making & cases. Cengage learning.

McLaughlin, H., Uggen, C., & Blackstone, A. (2012). Sexual harassment, workplace authority, and the paradox of power. American sociological review,77(4), 625-647.

Zikmund, W. G., Babin, B. J., Carr, J. C., & Griffin, M. (2013). Business research methods (9th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western.