Ethical Employer Responsibilities

First and foremost, workers must be morally upright. Our communications agency expects all workers to treat themselves professionally and with strong standards in the workplace. Employees in this industry, for example, are not expected to embezzle corporate money or sell classified information to any company for personal benefit. Second, an employee can repay the employer’s loyalty by exercising extreme caution while planning to leave a job for a lucrative opportunity with another business. Finally, the marketing firm also expects all the employees to offer not less than two weeks notice before leaving the firm for another position offered to them (“Rights and responsibilities at work | Acas”, 2017).

Employees Rights

First, all employees in the firm are expected to have received and understood the terms and conditions of their work setting out when they are supposed to commence their work, what their core duties are, pay rates and other allowances, who they are accountable of at work. Second, they are also expected to meet minimum legal requirements for the treatment of other employees in the work place, terms, and conditions related to work hours and Health and Safety at work. Third, according to Equal Opportunities legislation, all employees should also receive the same pay rates and conditions especially when their line of work is similar. There are also laws that protect them against any discrimination against race, gender, and religion (”Rights and responsibilities at work | Acas”, 2017).

Two ethical employer responsibilities

Moral responsibilities

Employees have the duty and obligation to protect more so the company’s health and make solid decisions related to the firm’s business to enhance safety and security of the all the employees. This marketing firm has moral responsibilities towards all its employees. It pays employees a good salary, provides excellent working conditions and health benefits. For a productive, ethical employment relationship, the firm treats all employees as crucial as its stakeholders (Jackson, 2017).

Openness

For employees to feel great as part of the firms’ stakeholders, they should not be in any way intimidated or mistreated by the management; instead, there should be openness between employees and employers. The marketing firm allows and encourages its employees to report problems that they encounter at work for their comfortability. The level of transparency offers a great ethical environment thus making the employees feel like their opinions and ideas are valuable in ensuring the firm success of the company (Jackson, 2017).

One ethical dilemma that demonstrates employee understanding of the firms ethical standard

Discrimination

You have been given a promotion to be a boss in a new department in the firm that has a largely male milieu. The arrival of a new female employee creates a divergence since the firm has not yet conducted training on sensitivity. Thus, some of the male employees in your department make inapt comments regarding the female employee. She comes directly to you with a complaint regarding the sexual harassment; in your response, you give a warning letter to those involved in the incident. You also speculate whether it would be helpful to place the female employee to another department that has a few numbers of female co-workers where she might feel a little bit comfortable. Nonetheless, treating the female employee different from her co-workers by basing your arguments on gender or in the response of the reported harassment may be well thought-out as discriminatory or unethical conduct.

Evaluation of part A3 dilemma from a relativistic and utilitarian perspective

The utilitarian view concerning the ethical behavior offers the great good to a great number of individuals while ethical relativistic is a theory, which holds that morality is relative to one’s cultural norms. Employees usually do not know the steps to take after witnessing their colleagues being harassed by other employees sexually, mentally, or physically. Most of them usually worry too much regarding their jobs if they try to report the harassments incidents to their superiors. They may also fear being given names like troublemakers or weaklings when they report the co-workers who portray inappropriate behaviors. About the utilitarian view, the appropriate and best manner of handling this dilemma lies in the hands of all the members of staff who build up the employee handbook of the company. It is actually their responsibility to take account of particular languages, which highlights how employees won’t be punished for reporting gross conducts of their co-workers and also the type of punishment probably severe offered to those harass other co-workers.

In relativistic approach, for instance, according to Muslim doctrines, a man is not allowed to compliment or even look at woman’s hair, and if one does so, that is referred to as sexual harassment. Thus, if the handbook is created by employees who did not focus on Muslim doctrines, punishment is not given to the male co-workers, but they are warned against repeating the acts for comfortability of the new female employee.

Two common ethical decisions, which reflect corporate responsibilities and ethics that employees face

Side Deals

You are a sales marketing officer under an employment contract. As per the particulars of the contract, you are required to work only the employer thus using your skills in attracting new and potential clients to the business. However, if you begin attracting many clients more than what the employer might expect, you might begin thinking if an ethical issue might arise if divert some of the extra business in other places; hence, taking the commission. If you do not end up disclosing the new developments to the employer, actually you will probably violate both your ethical and contractual duties.

Gross Negligence

You have been selected as one of the company’s organizers of the annual upcoming charity foundations that the company does to help needy children. You and your fellow organizers have a plan to rush through the preparations in a much-anticipated event to head off for the holidays early. As one of the organizers, you have the responsibility to exercise the utmost care respecting decisions, which affect the firm and its stakeholders. Thus, failure to plan the event well including poor budgeting could be seen as gross negligence thus a breach to your legal duty and ethical care.

6. Ethical decision

For an ethical decision to be considered an ethical dilemma, first, there has to be the situation whereby a person known as an agent must make a decision regarding the course that they should take best. In 5a, the sales marketing manager has to make a decision on whether to try the business side deals or not. In 5b, the company organizer has a choice to make whether to rush through the preparations also or not. Both 5a and 5b situations provide the agents with different courses of actions to choose from in the scenarios. Both cases also provide a condition that in any of the actions that the agents will take, some of their ethical principles are compromised.

References

Jackson, M. (2017). Ethical Responsibilities in the Employer-Employee Relationship - Applying Ethical Principles - Exemplary Business Ethics & Leadership. Exemplary Business Ethics & Leadership. Retrieved 17 July 2017, from http://josephsononbusinessethics.com/2010/12/responsibilities-employer-employee-relationship/

Rights and responsibilities at work | Acas. (2017). Acas.org.uk. Retrieved 17 July 2017, from http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=4663