Business Ethics Chapters 8,9,10

Gap in Employment Histroy

men have a harder chance going back to work than women, people won't accept taking care of kid's as a valid reason and will often times look over the male's application

Testing and Monitoring

monitoring them on the job and subjecting them to various tests, in particular, polygraph tests, personality tests, and drug tests

Screening

narrowing down the applicants. make sure you get those who are acceptable for the job and meet the standards and qualifications and then narrow it down to those who would take the job if offered

Interviewing

no rudeness, coarseness, hostility, and condescension.

monitoring employees on the job

many major employers monitor the performance of their employees through the computers and telephones they use. look at the number of key strokes.

Test reliability

refers to whether test results are replicable subjects scores will remain relatively consistent

Test validity

refers to whether test scores correlate with performance in some other activity

Two historical factors

1. Rise of professional management and personnel engineering promoted workplace authoritarianism in the twentieth century. 2. law has traditionally given the employer a free hand in hiring and firing employees

three concepts of whether drug testing is ethical or not (cranford article)

1. drug testing is not harmful or intrusive. 2. drug testing is both efficient and specific- looking for specific drugs, a drug test can be designed to show results for specific drugs. 3. drug testing can be conducted in a way which guarantees a high degree of percision

moral concerns of Polygraph tests

1. the information the organization seeks should be clearly and significantly related to the job. 2. must be compelling enough to justify violating the individuals privacy and psychic freedom. 3. concern of the information gathered, who has access to it, and how it will be disposed of

the importance of privacy

1. we want to control intimate information about ourselves so its not freely available. 2. don't want our private selves to be on display. keep thoughts, feelings and behavior hidden. 3. making our own choices free of employer clothing.

The electronic communications privavcy act

1986 restricts the government or unauthorized parties from eaves dropping on email, fa transmissions, and cell phone conversations. allows eceptions to company's when a consent form is signed. the monitoring of employees often gathers personal information without informed consenst

Wrongful discrimination

Bona Fide Occupational Qualifications, American with Disabilities Act, language, physical appearance, lifestyle, educational requirements, gap in employment history

Hiring

employers strive to hire people who will enable the organization to product the products and procedures that are based on criteria that are job related, clear, and accessible, and applied equally

Personality Tests

Companies often want to determine whether prospective employees are emotionally mature, get along well with others, have a good work ethic, and more generally whether they would fit in with the organization

Drug Testing

Drug testing first became a live issue for some sports fans when steriods were found in players systems

living wagges

The amount of money a full-time employee needs to afford the necessities of life, support a family, and live above the poverty line

Firing

For-cause dismissal the result of employee theft, gross insubordination, release of proprietary information

Winslow Taylor

Identified as the founder of scientific management, "in the past, the man has been first. in the future, the system must be first"

job screening

ensures a pool of competent candidates and guarentees that everyone has been dealt fairly

two basic principles of discipline and discharge

Just Cause and Due Process

Current trends

Montana became the first state to enact legislation saying you cannot be fired without good cause. recent legal developments regarding employment are not consistent.

Privacy

Privacy is widely acknowledged to be a fundamental right, yet corporate behavior and policies often threaten privacy, especially in the case of employees

Seniority

Refers to longevity on a job or with a firm. would you promote more qualified or seniority

Due Process

Refers to the fairness of the procedures an organization uses to impose sanctions on employees

insiders and misappropriation

SEC have developed a new tactic, arguing that people who trade on confidential information but who are not, strictly speaking, company insiders are guilty of insider trading if they have misapporpriated senstive information

Promotions

Seniority, inbreeding, nepotism

Conflicting perspectives on insider trading

Some business theorists dispute the need to outlaw insider trading. the work place can only work if it is perceived as being honest and offering equal investment opportunity. insider trading makes this impossible.

Methods of drug testing

Urine, Blooding testing, and hair

Unethical Hiring

Used to have color coded applications based off of gender and ethnicity.

Bowie, Beauchamp, Boatwright research

a drug using employee will miss 4x16 more missed shifts than average. 3-5 shifts are average to miss within a year

Bowi, Beauchamp, Boatwright

ahh have done a lot of research/writing for the drug testing in the workplace.

Issue of Free Speech

an absence of civil liberties in the workplace. people being fired for wearing a specific sports team or writing a novel.

Privacy

any information that your employer asks to get has to be work related. privacy is the right to be left alone.

Testing

are generally designed to measure the applicants verbal, quantitative and logical skills

Bona Fide Occupational Qualifications

are job specifications to which the civil rights law does not apply

conflict of interest

are morally worrisome even if the employee doesn't act to the detriment of the employer

conflict of interest

arises when employees at any level have specail or private interest that are substantial enough to interfere with their job duties

illegal interview questions

asking if they have kids, male of female, marital status, residency, race, age, ancestry

personality test

can reveal highly personal information and intrude into areas of our lives and thoughts that we normally would consider private.

American with Disabilities Act ADA

employers must be careful not to screen out disabled applicants who have the capacity to carry out the job

situational interviewing

claim that accurately than resume analysis, personality assessments, or pen and paper tests

involvement in civic activities

companies have pressured employees to donate charitable causes or civic activities off the job so it looks good on the company's end. some companies award employees points for approved volunteer work. some have unwritten rules regarding civic activities. Can infringe on the right to privacy and employees can feel pressured or forced

Companies that look beyond the bottom line

companies that respect employee rights and ensure a fair workplace tend to outperform other companies

Bottom line of drugs in workplace

costs money and its not in the best interest of the corporation

employment contract

creates a various obligations to ones employer. In addition, employees often feel loyalty to the organization. conflicts of interest arise when employees have a persoanl interest in a transaction substantial enough that it might be expected to affect their judgement or lead them to act against the interest of the organization

job specification

describes the qualifications an employee needs, such as pertinent skills, backgrounds, education, or work experiences

position elimination

designates the permanent elimination of a job as a result of workforce reduction, plant closing, or departmental consolidation

Drug testing

drug testing first became a live issues for some sports fans when steroids were found in players systems. 67% of companies test current employees or applicants

Employment at will

either side is free to terminate it at any time without advance notice or reason

privacy

employees are suing their former companies for releasing detrimental information. many companies have stopped sharing any information other than the dates of employees employment

Legitimate and Illegitimate influence

employers are naturally and legitimately interested in anything that significantly influence employee work performance.

Discipline and Discharge

establish guidelines for employee conduct based on performance factors such as punctuality, dependability, efficiency, cooperativeness, and adherence to the dress code. if these rules are broken there can be discipline and discharge

Organizations attempt to influence behavior

fired for getting a divorce. fired for dating someone working with a competitor. Pressuring to vote for specific politicians.

dress and grooming

fired for wearing inappropriate clothing, certain hair colors, curvy figure

off-the-job conduct

fired for working as a gay stripper at his off hours, Ford and Hershey hired private investigators to find out if their employees were mowing their lawns and their activity outside of work, many organizations step beyond legitimate boundaries and interfere with what should properly be personal decisions by their employees.

Four types of discharge

firing, termination, layoff, position elimination

Civil liberties should be carried over to the workplace

freedom of speech, association, press, religion, unwanted intrusion, right to privacy

Release of personal information

if data banks and personnel information is released it violates peoples rights to privacy. most firms try not to hold that much information on file to prevent anyone having unwarranted access but it still happens to a wide range of employees

Testing for stability, aptitude and ability

if you say your bilingual they'll test to see if you are. If you know a computer software they'll test your knowledge on that.

Informed consent

implies deliberation and free choice, workers must understand what they are agreeing to. workers must voluntarily agree to the privacy invading procedure

Drug testing

informed consent becomes a priority . 67% of companies test current employees or applicants

three issues of drug testing in the workplace

informed consent- drug testing has to be done with consent. Drug testing isn't always pertinent to the position- Pilots should be tested, crayon boxer will not. Interest of the firm- bottom line is they do it for their own self interest, employees that use drugs will, can and have cost the company money.

Polygraph tests

infringe on privacy of beliefs and accusation and the presumption of innocence

insider trading

insider trading is the buying or selling of stocks on the basis of nonpublic information that is likely to affect their price

conflicts of interest

interests collide with business: you want to come to work at noon they expect you to be there at 8am. you want to dress different but have to follow the dress code

job description

lists all pertinent details about the content of the job, including its duties, responsibilities, working conditions, and physical requirements

Physical Appearance

local ordinances prohibit discrimination against those who are short or overweight

Ethical issues in the hiring process

looking at age. never put age on resume they may not want you if you are too young or too old

company loyalty

loyalty is a two-way street, company must earn loyality

Neptoism

practice of showing favoritism to relatives and close friends. these decisions can hurt company morale, breed resentment and jealousy, and create problems with regard to future placement, scheduling or dismissal of the person

different types of drug testing

pre-employment. after employment like random testing cause for testing like theft, fraud

work contract

primary source of an organizatiosn right to expect employees to act on its behalf in a way that is unprejudiced by their personal interests

the civil rights act of 1964

prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, religion, national origin, sex, or age

the wagner act of 1935

prohibited firing workers because of union membership or union activities

employee polygraph protecting act

prohibits most employers from using lie detectors in the hiring process. permits the test if there is ongoing investigations of economic loss or injury but it has a number of rules and regulations.

Polyggraph tests

rely on at least three assumptions that can be questions. 1. the test can record whether someone was disturbed by the test but cannot pin point why they were disturbed. 2. accurate about 90% of the time but it cannot reveal with certainty whether the person is lying or not 3. may be able to control the reactions and it also produces a great number of false positives even when people are telling the truth

Just Cause

requires that reason for discipline or discharge deal directly with job performance. requires and actual issue with job performance. ex. late, rude to customers, late reports

termination

results from an employee's poor performance. failure to fulfill expectations

SEC

securities and exchange commision- policing the stock market

Michael Cranford article

sets the stage to argue that drug testing is not a violation of a workers privacy.

Threats to privacy that arise on the job itself

some bosses snoop through files even when they are marked private. some even eavesdrop on cell phones calls and emails as well as internet use. GPS tracking in company vehicles.

wellness programs

some companies are trying to get their overweight employees to slim down and wellness programs help change to a healthier lifestyle. some are making employees pay more for their health care benefits if they are considered unhealthy. can be charged if you refuse to take a health survey 100$ a month. Trying to fi mental health issues as well

Lifestyle

some companies won't hire people if they engage in risk behaviors like motorcycles, motor racing, mountain climbing

Language

some jobs may need a bilingual ability in order to be successful

personality testss

some questions are intrusive with no valid reason to ask the question. did you ever play with dolls in your life? or would you ever consider going to LA for a year to become a performer?

David Ewing

the constitutional rights that you have grown accustom to in family, school, church life, etc, all need to be left out of the office

Obligations to the firm

the employment contract governs the employer-employee relationship and provides framework for understanding the respective obligations of employer to employee

Inbreeding

the practice of promotion exclusively from within the firm. knowing they will be good for the position. Someone who already works for the company. doesn't matter how long they've been there but someone within the company. Hiring people from outside causes learning curves.

Loyalty to the company

the traditional law of agency places under a legal obligation to act loyally and in good faith and to carry out all lawful instructions- someone was fired for letting a friend use their employee discount. some writers deny that there is any obligation to a company because they expect to see a reward. so they can only be loyal to friends family and country

Screening

to attract qualified applicants who have a good chance of succeeding at the job and to weed out applicants or potential applicants who are unlikely to work out

Educational requirements

too much or too little education

lie detectors

unethical in business. cannot be used against you

abuse of official position

using ones official position for persoanl gain is likely to violate ones obligations to the organization. misusing expensive accounts, billing the company for unnecessary travel, using subordinates for work outside the firm, exploiting a position of trust within an organization, enhancingg ones own finnacial leverage and holdings

Layoff

usually refers to the temporary unemployment experienced by hourly employees and implies that they are subject to recall

seven factors of wages

what is the law? what is the prevailing wage in the industry? what is the community wage level? what is the nature of the job itself? is the job secure? what are the employer's financial capabilities? what are other employees inside the organization earning for comparable work?

polygraph tests

when an individual is disturbed by a questions, certain detectable physiological changes occur, heart beat, blood pressure, respiration increase

financial investment

when employees have financial investments in supplies, customers, or distributers with whome their organization does business, conflicts of interest can arise. Company policy usually determines the permissible limits of such financial interests

companies expect more than just loyalty

work overtime when the company needs it. to accept a transfer if necessary for the good of the organizaiton

Employment today

working people have protection against some form of unjust termination. people are still fired without cause