Assignment Instructions

Module 8 Assignment (M5-8)

You will soon find yourself fulfilling roles in organizations where the ability to think ethically about issues will make you much more valuable to employers. In this activity you will refer to the materials in your text and lectures to respond to the questions.

Length/Formatting Instructions

Module 4 Writing Assignment – Grading Rubric

Your work will be evaluated on the following criteria:

ANSWER

Business Ethics

Part A: Pollution Control

Acid rain is a form of rainfall or precipitation composed of a combination of Sulphur and nitrogen oxides that cause environmental harm and deterioration, chiefly in forests, aquatic life, and human health hazards. Acid rain causes extensive tree and leaves damage and nutrient depletion that make trees susceptible to disease and environmental stresses. In aquatic life, acid rain reduced the ability of water bodies to support marine life, hence increased mortality, reduced growth levels, failed reproductions, and susceptibility to deformities. Plants and crops are equally affected as acid rain changes chemical properties of soil hence slowed down microbiological processes, stunted growths, and reduced soil nutrients, which utterly affect agricultural produces. Finally, acid rain contributes to the deterioration of infrastructure, such as corroding metal structures. Sources of acid rain include natural and human-made activities.

Industries and companies that do not conform to environmental protection laws tend to integrate extreme and unregulated processes and activities that maximize pollution. In turn, providing them an unfair or unjust advantage over industries and companies in the same industry (Anderson & Leal, 2015). Free competitive markets have limited governmental interferences, with many businesses selling similar product types. Competitive business environments create atmospheres of survival for the fittest that may result in companies disregarding safety and environmental conservation to increase their bottom line at the expense of people and the planet.

Addressing such menaces and providing future generation’s better business operation environments can be understood using the utilitarianism. According to the utilitarian approach, decisions and actions in environmental conservation should be directed to achieving the greatest good for the highest number of people, even future generations. This means that whether actions are good or bad but result in better consequences for many people, they are justified and ethical (Wawrzyniak, 2019). To some extent, this environmental ethics approach is beneficial as extreme measures such as stringent government regulations and laws on markets can be taken in the environmental conservation of natural resources to provide sustainability. However, self-interest oriented actions can also be taken thinking the consequences will benefit future generations. Instead, it will serve and benefit an ‘intended’ group of people providing an unfair advantage over others in a market (Wawrzyniak, 2019).

Part B: Markets and Consumer Protection

Government interference in safety and consumer products is a plausible, good, and bad idea. However, from a consumer perspective, it is a recommendable idea. It is plausible and good because the presence of government interference means placing stringent laws and regulations on safety and consumer products produced. This increases the quality of products; ensuring businesses abide by high safety and health requirements. Consumers are thus protected from exploitation and possible harm by companies. It is a bad idea as tremendous government regulations squash innovation, create monopolies that maximize consumer costs, and creates governmental bureaucracies that stifle or interrupt market growth.

Whether governments interfere in business operations or not, businesses should embrace due care and non-harm moral responsibility principles. According to due care view, manufacturers or enterprises are obligated to protect consumers against any risk or harm by-products produced even though they disclaim the responsibility (Carroll & Buchholtz, 2012). This aligns with the non-harm principle in that businesses can do whatever they want, such as denying risk responsibility as long as their actions, services, or products do not harm other people (consumers). These principles can be implemented and achieved in the designing, production, quality control, and packaging/labeling processes.

In some cases, businesses can mislead or deceive their customers and purchasing behaviors through advertising. Three elements necessary for deception, according to FTC, include practices, representation, or omissions that mislead customers, individual purposely-misleading customers, and materials affecting the customer’s conduct, purchase behavior, and decision-making process (FTC, 2016). Through advertising, customers are encouraged by messages communicated and believe information disseminated concerning products, influencing their beliefs and purchase decisions, whether the message is true or false. False advertising including elements such as the failure or omission of essential product attributes, unreasonable claims, and facts susceptible to misinterpretation have adverse effects on consumer beliefs when they purchase the product and discover they do not satisfy their wants and desires.

Part C: Discrimination

Discrimination in an organization is the unjust or prejudiced treatment of people based on their race, age, sex, and even physical attributes in organizational processes such as recruitment, hiring, promotion, benefits, and business opportunities acquisition. Forms of discrimination include gender, age, racial, and disability discrimination. Gender discrimination involves unfairly treating an employee for their sex, being a woman or man, sexual orientation, and gender expression. In age discrimination, older people are mostly unfavored over younger employees as they are mostly preferred. Racial discrimination occurs when an employer discriminates against an employee based on their color, nationality, and ethnicity when considering promotions or hiring. Disability discrimination occurs when employees with disabilities, such as visual, hearing, and physical impairments, are denied employment opportunities, among other benefits in an organization.

Employee discrimination is illegal and unethical, with adverse effects on the employees and the company. Among employees, discrimination instigates disengagement, reduced performance and productivity, and distortion of self-schema. These effects affect a company’s bottom line, reputation, and image. Employee discrimination should be reduced, prevented, and addressed effectively through equal opportunity and benefits offers, conforming to governmental labor and employee relation laws and regulations, as well as the Codes of Ethics. Employers must understand employees are protected from any form of discrimination, and through the affirmative action plan and process, can be subjected to legal actions for noncompliance.

Sexual harassment involves unwanted conduct of sexual nature such as physical, verbal, and nonverbal actions on men and women. In the workplace, sexual harassment can be established when one does not give consent, meaning it is unwanted and offensive; the conduct creates an intimidating or hostile and humiliating working milieu; and if a victim’s decision of acceptance or refusal influence their employment term (Barreiro, 2018).

Part D: Organizations

In an organization, conflict of interest occurs when a stakeholder chooses personal gains or exploits their corporate position over corporate responsibilities to satisfy individual needs. This means personal interest conflict with professional interests owed to an employer resulting in possible chaos, legal ramification, and job loss.

Privacy is an integral factor in an individual’s life, as it enhances personal development, self-expression, and strengthens their thought processes. In the workplace, the situation is similar. Employee privacy protection is essential as it creates a productive and suitable working environment characterized by increased workplace data protection and information security, increased concentration, and providence of personal space. Employee productivity is linked with key factors of visibility, informal interaction, and accessibility, which are associated with privacy (Chaboki, Wahab, & Ansari, 2013).

Moral problems associated with caring too much in and about an organization include having close-minded thinking, facilitating unethical actions or decisions, problems in balancing need conflicts of self, and those we care about, as well as stepping on boundaries. Caring too much can compromise one’s corporate responsibility with susceptibility to performing unethical actions to hide any malpractices taking place in an organization. Caring too much makes one consumed with employees and other’s needs, where they find it hard to balance with their own needs and to fulfill their corporate responsibility and duties.

References

Anderson, T. L., & Leal, D. R. (2015). Frontiers of Free Market Environmentalism. In Free Market Environmentalism for the Next Generation (pp. 151-163). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Barreiro, S. (2018). Your Rights in the Workplace: An Employee’s Guide to Fair Treatment. New York: NOLO.

Carroll, A. B., & Buchholtz, A. K. (2012). Business and Society: Ethics, Sustainability, and Stakeholder Management. New York: Cengage Learning.

Chaboki, H. M., Wahab, A. F., & Ansari, M. (2013). The Impacts of Visibility and privacy in the workplace on Organizational productivity as conducted through Informal Interactions. Journal of Business and Management, Vol 7(5), pp; 82-88.

FTC. (2016). Enforcement Policy Statement on Deceptively Formatted Advertisements. Retrieved from Federal Trade Commission: https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/public_statements/896923/151222deceptiveenforcement.pdf

Wawrzyniak, J. (2019). The Utilitarian Stigma of Environmental Protection. Conatua, Vol 3(1), pp; 89-110.