Workplace ethics ensures positive ambience at the workplace. Workplace ethics leads to happy and satisfied employees who enjoy coming to work rather than treating it as a mere source of burden. Employees also develop a feeling of loyalty and attachment towards the organization.
Organizations need to have fool-proof systems to measure the performances of individuals. Appraisal system needs to be designed keeping in mind employee’s performance throughout the year and his/her career growth. Periodic reviews are essential.
It is mandatory for superiors to know what their subordinates are up to. You need to know who all are going on the right track and who all need that extra push.
Workplace ethics ensures management guides and mentors their employees well. Appraisal and salary hikes should not happen just for the name sake. Workplace ethics is important as it enables management to treat all employees as equal and think from their perspective as well. Employees must have a say in their appraisal system. Transparency is essential.
An employee is bound to move on after a year or so if he/she is not appreciated and rewarded suitably. It is indeed the organization’s loss when employees after being trained quit and move on. Do you think it is entirely the employee’s fault? Why would an employee move on if he/she is fully satisfied with his/her current assignment?
Employees change primarily because of two reasons - Career growth and monetary benefits. Management needs to make employees feel secure about their job and career. Unnecessary favouritism is against workplace ethics. If you favour anyone just because he is your relative, the other team members are bound to feel demotivated and thus start looking for new opportunities. An individual’s output throughout the year should decide his/her increment.
Organizations need to stand by their employees even at the times of crisis. You cannot ask your employees to go just because you don’t need them anymore or your work is over. Such a practice is unethical. How can you play with someone’s career?
If an individual has performed well all through but fails to deliver once or twice, you just can’t kick him out of the system. Workplace ethics says that organizations need to retain and nurture talents.
If you have hired someone, it becomes your responsibility to train the individual, make him/her aware of the key responsibility areas, policies, rules and regulations and code of conduct of the organization. Employees need to be inducted well into the system. They must be aware of the organization’s policies from the very first day itself.
Workplace ethics also go a long way in strengthening the bond among employees and most importantly their superiors. Employees tend to lie if you do not allow them to take leaves. If you do not allow an employee to take leave on an important festival, what do you expect the employee to do? What is the alternative left with him? He would definitely lie. Do not exploit your employees and don’t treat them as machines.
No employee can work at a stretch without taking a break. It is okay if they talk to their fellow workers once in a while or go out for a smoke break. Understand their problems as well. If you feel the problem is genuine, do not create an issue. It is but natural that once or twice they would definitely call their family members and enquire about their well-being. Superiors should not have a problem with that.
It has been observed that organizations which are impartial to employees, lend a sympathetic ear to their grievances and are employee friendly, seldom face the problems of unsatisfied employees and high attrition rate.
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The article is Written By “Prachi Juneja” and Reviewed By Management Study Guide Content Team. MSG Content Team comprises experienced Faculty Member, Professionals and Subject Matter Experts. We are a ISO 2001:2015 Certified Education Provider. To Know more, click on About Us. The use of this material is free for learning and education purpose. Please reference authorship of content used, including link(s) to ManagementStudyGuide.com and the content page url.
CHAPTER 5
1) According to the classical view of social
responsibility, management’s only social responsibility
is to maximize profits. TRUE
2) The most outspoken advocate of the classical view of
organizational social responsibility is Milton F. TRUE
3) According to socioeconomic view, managers’ social
responsibilities go beyond making profits to include
protecting and improving society’s welfare. TRUE
4) When a firm engages in social actions because of its
obligation to meet certain economic and legal
responsibilities, it is said to be socially responsive.
FALSE
5) One argument against businesses championing social
responsibility issues is that businesses already have too
much power. TRUE
6) Possession of resources is an argument for social
responsibility. TRUE
7) The legal approach to going green is also known as
the dark green approach. FALSE
8) An organization is said to adopt the market approach
to going green when it responds to the environmental
demands made by its stakeholders. FALSE
9) The activist approach to going green is when an
organization looks for ways to protect the earth’s natural
resources. TRUE
10) In the preconventional stage of moral development,
individuals make a clear effort to define moral
principles apart from the authority of the groups to
which they belong or of society in general. FALSE
11) At the conventional level of moral development,
ethical decisions rely on maintaining expected standards
and living up to the expectations of others. TRUE
12) At the principled level of moral development, an
individual values the rights of others and upholds
absolute values and rights regardless of the majority’s
opinion. TRUE
13) The term “values” refers to the principles and beliefs
that define what is right and wrong behavior. FALSE
14) People with an internal locus of control believe that
what happens to them is due to luck or chance. FALSE
15) An organization’s structural design, its goals,
performance appraisal systems, and reward allocation
procedures influence the ethical choices of employees.
TRUE
16) When employees are evaluated only on outcomes,
they may be pressured to do whatever is necessary to
look good on the outcomes, and not be concerned with
how they got those results. TRUE
17) The Global Compact is a document created by the
United Nations outlining principles for doing business
globally in the areas of human rights, labor, the
environment, and anticorruption. TRUE
18) The Organization for Economic Co-Operation and
Development developed a global code of ethics. FALSE
19) Employees who raise ethical concerns or issues to
others inside or outside the organization are called social
activists. FALSE
20) Under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, whistle-blowers in
the United States who report suspected corporate
violations of laws now have broad protection from
reprisals and retaliation. TRUE
21) Social obligation is the obligation of a business to
meet its ________.
A)social and technological responsibilities
B)economic and social responsibilities
C)technological and economic responsibilities
D)economic and legal responsibilities
22) The ________ view of social responsibility holds
that management’s only social responsibility is to
maximize profits.
A)socioeconomic
B)classical
C)contemporary
D)sociolegal
23) The most outspoken advocate of the classical view
of social responsibility is economist and Nobel laureate
__.
A)George Stigler
B)Arthur F. Burns
C) Homer Jones
D)Milton Friedman
24) Under the concept of social obligation, the
organization does what is required by the ________.
A)society
B)stakeholders
C)environment
D)law
25) The ________ view is that management’s social
responsibility goes beyond making profits to include
protecting and improving society’s welfare.