Ethical Dilemma suggested answers PDF

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ETHICAL DILEMMA 5: CLEAR CODES FOR GREY ZONES...

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ETHICAL DILEMMA 5: CLEAR CODES FOR GREY ZONES This dilemma focuses on employee misuse of IT equipment to examine the deployment of codes of ethics to manage business ethics in the workplace. Questions 1. What are your main ethical problems in this case? This is mainly a problem of misuse of company resources, but since there is a code of practice in place, it also raises issues of compliance with company procedures. Your main problems as the decision maker are ones of fairness – i.e. should the same rules apply to everyone in this situation – and conflict of interest – i.e. you don’t want to lose Paul, but on the other hand you have a responsibility to uphold the company code. 2. Set out the possible courses of action open to you. Some of the possible courses of action are as follows (these are not necessarily mutually exclusive): 

Do nothing and hope the problem goes away;

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Try and hush up the breach of rules by demanding that Fred does not discuss the events with other staff;

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Have a quiet word with Paul, and tell him not to be so stupid again;

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Announce to the staff that a potential breach of the code was made, but that no further action will be taken due to lack of evidence;

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Instigate a formal disciplinary procedure against Paul;

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Announce a review of the code of conduct.

3. Assess these alternatives according to a utilitarian perspective and a duty-based perspective. Which is the most convincing? Utilitarian perspective: Keeping Paul will benefit the employee and the firm, but what are the broader consequences to the firm and to society (and to yourself)? 

Doing nothing: benefit is keeping Paul at a crucial time for the company; cost is that the code of conduct is at risk if word gets out that there are no sanctions for breaking it, plus personal reputation damage if senior management discovers your role; and Paul may anyway lose his job if senior management take an interest. A further cost if Paul stays in post is uncertainty whether his judgement is poor in other areas.

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Hush it up: benefit is as above, plus the possibility of no trouble later; cost is as above, plus likely reputational loss with Fred.

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A quiet chat: benefit is as above, plus goodwill from Paul; costs are as above.

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Announcement, lack of evidence: benefit is as above, plus that the code of conduct is publicly reinforced; cost if word gets out is as above.

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Disciplinary procedure: benefit is that the code of conduct and what it represents is strengthened within the firm; cost is that Paul may lose his job.

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Code of conduct review: benefit is as above, plus that the code may become better fitted to the reality of the company; cost is as above, again if word gets out.

Duty-based perspective. 

Doing nothing: respects Paul’s dignity, but downgrades the value of the code of conduct (universality and consistency).

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Hush it up: as above.

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A quiet chat: as above.

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Announcement, lack of evidence: as above.

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Disciplinary procedure: treats the code of conduct as universally applicable. One can make no comment about respecting Paul’s dignity.

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Code of conduct review: respect’s Paul’s dignity, but does not apply the code consistently. Still, a review seeks to re-establish universality.

4. What would you do, and why? A range of answers are possible, but they should lead on logically from the above solutions. To ensure fairness, and perhaps most importantly, to impress upon employees that the code has to be followed by everyone regardless of status of rank, the best option is probably to instigate a formal disciplinary procedure against Paul. As it says in Crane and Matten (Chapter 5, in the section on “Effectiveness of codes of conduct”):

“… in order for codes to have credibility, companies must be willing to discipline employees found in breach of them. Similarly, Treviño et al.’s (1999) survey revealed that follow-through (such as detection of violations, follow-up on notification of violations, and consistency between the policy and action) tended to be much more influential on employee behaviour than the mere presence of a code.” Obviously, you as the manager would want to ensure that his good working record is taken into consideration, and the fact that this was a first offence, but if you don’t take the action proposed by the code, what is the point of having it? 5. Based on your answer, what are the apparent benefits and limitations of the code of conduct in this example? Benefits include: clearer guidance on acceptable behaviour; indication to staff of consequences for non-compliance; encourages ethical behaviour; etc. Limitations include: lack of flexibility to different situations; may be ignored by employees; need to be vigilantly applied; can be seen as unrealistic or unnecessary; etc....