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9.0 Moral Choices & Job Discrimination

The document discusses obligations employees have to their employers, including loyalty, avoiding conflicts of interest, and addressing ethical issues. It notes that loyalty requires reciprocity from employers and discusses how much personal financial investments could create conflicts. It also examines when employees should report issues like policy violations or health and safety concerns externally, even if asked not to by their employer. The document advocates for developing whistleblower policies and openness to moral questioning as beneficial for companies in the long run.

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Micheal Myo
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
30 views

9.0 Moral Choices & Job Discrimination

The document discusses obligations employees have to their employers, including loyalty, avoiding conflicts of interest, and addressing ethical issues. It notes that loyalty requires reciprocity from employers and discusses how much personal financial investments could create conflicts. It also examines when employees should report issues like policy violations or health and safety concerns externally, even if asked not to by their employer. The document advocates for developing whistleblower policies and openness to moral questioning as beneficial for companies in the long run.

Uploaded by

Micheal Myo
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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9.

0 Moral Choices & Job


Discrimination
Obligations to the Firm

 Loyalty to the firm: The employment contract


governs employer-employee relationships and
provides a framework for respective obligations of
employer and employee.
 The notion of company loyalty is commonplace,
considered a coherent and legitimate concept.
 Loyalty requires reciprocity, and workers
commonly believe that it is up to the company to
earn and retain their loyalty.
Business Ethics
Chapter 10
2
Obligations to the Firm

 Conflicts of interest arise when employees have a


personal connection to a transaction – one
substantial enough that it might affect their
judgment or lead them to act against the interests
of the organization.
 They are morally worrisome even if the person
doesn’t act to the detriment of the employer.
 Employees should promptly extricate themselves
from such conflicts or avoid them from the start.

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Obligations to the Firm

 Financial investments: Conflicts of interest may


exist when employees have financial investments
in suppliers, customers, or distributors with whom
their organizations do business.
 There is no simple answer as to how much of a
financial investment it takes to create a conflict of
interest.
 Company policy usually determines the
permissible limits of such financial interests.

4
• An employee knows that
a coworker occasionally
sips whiskey on the job.
• Should she inform the
boss?

5
• A dishwasher knows
that the restaurant’s Discuss
chef typically REHEAT
3- or 4-days-old food
and serves it as fresh.
• When he informs the
manager, he is told to
forget it.
• What should the
dishwasher do?

6
Self-Interest and Moral Obligation
 Concern with self-interest when loyalty and duty
conflicts is understandable and even warranted.
 What weight should self-interest be given in
resolving cases of conflicting obligations?
Some theorists believe that prudential
considerations outweigh moral ones.
Others say that nothing can outweigh morality
but morality itself does not require us to make
large sacrifices to right small wrongs.

Business Ethics
Chapter 10
7
Self-Interest and Moral Obligation

 Two points about the relationship between


prudential and moral considerations:
(1) Exaggerating the costs to ourselves allows us to
rationalize away the damage we are doing to
others.
(2) We have a collective interest in protecting the
welfare of society by encouraging people to act in
non-self-interested ways.

Business Ethics
Chapter 10
8
Self-Interest and Moral Obligation

 The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (2002) legally protects


those who report possible securities fraud.
 The act makes it unlawful for companies to
“discharge, demote, suspend, threaten, harass, or
in any other manner discriminate against” them.
 Companies need to develop explicit, proactive
whistle-blower policies.
 In the long run, companies benefit from openness
and a receptive attitude to moral questioning.

9
Discuss
• A consulting
engineer discovers a
defect in a structure
that is about to be
sold.
• If the owner will not
disclose the defect
to the potential
buyer, should the
engineer do so?
10

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