Business Ethical Scandals PDF

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This paper describes business ethics considering the case of Google. ...

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Running head: BUSINESS ETHICAL SCANDALS

Business Ethical Scandals Name Southern New Hampshire University

Southern New Hampshire University

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Business Ethical Scandals Business ethics play a crucial role in the running and the success of a business. It entails moral principles that guide individuals' actions in a business and the direction the company takes (Crane et al., 2019). Achieving business ethics means recognizing what is 'wrong' and 'right' and then making the 'right' choice. Nonetheless, various organizations across the globe, in one way or another, violates business ethics, which leads to significant repercussions such as the closure of a company. News media and other Media often report business ethic scandals from top organizations in the market. A good example is an article published by The Guardian regarding the Google business ethics scandal of sexual harassment. This paper is going to analyze the Google business ethical scandal, as reported by The Guardian. Business ethics is broad and comprises various codes of conduct that a company's employee is supposed to abide by and not violate. Nevertheless, employees now and then tend to violate these codes of conduct, which leads to scandals. Many organizations are strict on sexual harassment among employees, although the behavior tops the chart when it comes to business ethics violations for most organizations (Crane et al., 2019). Recently, Google has been caught up with a business ethics scandal of sexual harassment. Most organizations do not tolerate employees that are involved in any form of misconduct and could lead to the immediate dismissal of the employee. According to The Guardian (2019), Google paid a former employee who resigned $35m as an exit package after he was reported for sexual misconduct by a co-worker pending investigations. Amit Singhal, the former employee, was reported by a co-worker of sexual misbehavior, which is conduct that the organization does not condone. The Company indicates

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that sexual harassment is against their business ethics, and it is an intolerable behavior for any employee of the organization. However, the lawsuit from the victim targeted Alphabet, the parent company of Google, and in the process of protecting the organization's reputation, the offender had to be paid off with an exit package of $35m. The Guardian translates the Company's decision as a show of tolerance to employees facing misconduct, which portrays a negative image to its reputation and also causes financial damage. It is not the first time for Google to undergo a business ethics scandal related to sexual misconduct. Andy Rubin is another employee who was paid off $90m to exit the Company after his sexual misconduct allegations were found credible (The Guardian, 2019). However, the Company has been forced to make changes by the employee through actions such as walking out of work, protesting how the organization handles sexual misconduct accusations. As a result, Google has made several changes in how they handle such cases indicating that employees that behave inappropriately will face serious consequences. The Company promises to be more forceful when it comes to handling sexual harassment cases and ended mandatory arbitration in the same. Handing payouts to both the victim and the offender in sexual misconduct cases is a common practice for many organizations to avoid the business ethics scandal. Regardless, in some cases, people often come forward, which leads to huge scandals in the media, especially for big companies such as Google. For the case of Google, its decision is not the best way they could have handled the scandal, although the Company is working on owning and correcting its mistakes. Set business ethics for a company should be maintained at all costs since violation leads to scandals that are costly for an organization.

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Crane, A., Matten, D., Glozer, S., & Spence, L. (2019). Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press. Google paid former executive $35m after sexual assault allegation. (2019, March 11).The Guardian, Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/mar/11/googleexecutive-payout-harassment-amit-singhal....