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"Freedom of Speech and Sexual Harassment, a Critical Analysis"
BusinessEthics 2|P a g e
Table of Contents
TitlePage......................................................................................................................................................3
Introduction..................................................................................................................................................4
Whatthispaperisabout?.........................................................................................................................4
TheRelevanceofBusinessEthics..............................................................................................................6
GeneralDescriptionofthesubjectarea...................................................................................................8
FreedomofSpeechageneraldefinition...............................................................................................8
Sexualharassmentgeneraldefinition..................................................................................................8
Typesofsexualharassment..................................................................................................................9
OurViewsonthesubjectarea......................................................................................................................9
FreedomofSpeechincontextwhatwebelieve..............................................................................10
SexualHarassmentincontextwhatwebelieve..............................................................................11
WrittenreferencesontheFreedomofSpeechversusSexualHarassmentdebacle.................................11
Ethicalproblemsofrestrictingfreedomofspeechinthecaseofsexualharassment...............................12
Whytheseissuesfallintheethicalrealm..................................................................................................13
Analysiswiththeuseofethicaltheoreticperspectives.............................................................................14
Theimpactandconsequencesonthesociety/employees/organizationwithinthecontextofthe
Jamaicanbusiness.......................................................................................................................................16
ImpactsofSexualHarassmentingeneral...............................................................................................16
AJamaicanorganizationperspective......................................................................................................17
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................19
Bibliography................................................................................................................................................20
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Title Page
Term Paper Business Ethics
Topic: "Freedom of Speech and Sexual Harassment, a Critical Analysis"
Monday Group (Group 1) EBBA5 POM/FIN
Members
Gerron Thomas ID#0601486
Novelette J ohnson-Williams ID#0703558
Rochelle Edwards ID#0801946
Deborah Smith ID#0705131
Cerita Hickling ID#0504837
Faith Adams-Waysome ID#0503241
Stacey Anderson ID#0801664
Tutor: Mr. Milton Vassall
"Freedom of Speech and Sexual Harassment, a Critical Analysis"
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surround ethical issue areas such as safety and environmental standards, legal issues,
discrimination, fairness and honesty and even sexual harassment. Some organizations may not
see the relevance of these focusing on these issues. Nevertheless, these issues historically have
realized great failures and have resulted in loss of trust by customers, shareholders and other
stakeholders (Trevino & Nelson, 2010).
Business ethics allows management and employee to see eye to eye on what is right or wrong in
the organization. However to some employees and management, what the organization may label
as ethical, the individual may see it as unethical. This difference in judgment results in ethical
dilemmas within the organization
The relevance of Ethical Behavior in Business is can be viewed from the fact that laws are
insufficient and do not cover all aspects of deciding what is rights versus wrong. Ethics
highlights the impact of misconduct on the organization, employees and the wider society. It
helps the organization to establish moral rules and regulations by guiding employees towards
fostering greater behavioral self-responsibility as well as determining the organizations
obligation to society within the scope of Corporate Social Responsibility. In some companies,
codes of conduct, policies and procedures are limited in scope and detail concerning human,
environment and social costs in doing business and therefore do not cover the broad area of
subjective thought with regards to wrong or right. The concept of Business Ethics aims to set
general accepted standards relating to the issue of wrong or right and therefore areas not captured
in codified law are guided and judged under the concept of business ethics. In addition, learning
Business Ethics teaches us to act on principle by doing what is right not only within the business
and legal boundaries but also within unethical boundaries.
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also denotes that it is illegal to make offensive comments about women whether in the context of
simple teasing or off hand comments/gestures (Marshall, 2008).
Types of sexual harassment
In general, under an organization context sexual harassment is also likened to sexual
discrimination which may be of two forms 1) Quid Pro Quo and 2) Hostile Environment. Quid
Pro Quo occurs when a job benefit or opportunity is linked directly to an employee submitting
themselves to unwelcomed sexual advances. It may also occur when an employer or superior
makes evaluative decisions on the basis of whether or not the employee will attempt to meet
sexual advances. Quid Pro Quo is considered illegal whether or not the victim resists and suffers
the resulting impacts or submits and avoids the threatened harm. In a Hostile Environment
situation, employees in a workplace are subject to a pattern of exposure to unwanted sexual
behavior from persons other than an employee's direct supervisor where supervisors or managers
take no steps to discourage or discontinue such behavior. It may include, the telling of dirty
jokes, making sexually suggestive remarks, using derogatory comments of a sexual nature,
frequent physical contact and the posting of pornographic pictures in an employees cubicle
(U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 1995).
Our Views on the subject area
The two issues in isolation are integral ethical issues which will present major challenges for
management. Both must be respected and if violated will result in serious distress whether
emotionally or physically. The concept within the context of our thesis brings about another view
of both issues. Bringing both areas together is an ethical dilemma where we will need to make a
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choice on what takes precedence which in effect creates a conundrum for the ethical decision
maker.
Freedom of Speech in context what we believe
There are two proponents in favor of freedom of speech: the principled and the pragmatic
arguments
The principled argument states, if we are to demand the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue
freely according to conscience, above all liberties, then it is obvious that any limitations on
speech will erode that liberty. In principle we share the view that if we are to try and censure a
line of argument that is offensive, then an obvious question would arise: how do we determine
what is offensive? What safeguards do we have against these definitions encroaching too far?
The more pragmatic argument view of freedom of speech denotes that open and honest sharing
of views is a far more effective way of promoting good ideas and destroying bad ideas than
censorship and oppression.
However, based on the psychological makeup of human beings, each individual is restricted to
their view of the world and hence may sight opinions shared by others as offensive. From our
view, if there is no existence of freedom to offend, then freedom of speech in pragmatic terms
will fail in terms of its targeted objectives.
Therefore, we view the concept of Freedom of Speech as necessary but limited to the confines
of its overall contribution to society in terms of how speech proposed will be constructive and
not offensive.
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We must look to the writings of Prof. Eugene Volokh, where he suggests that the law or right of
freedom of speech is vaguely stated and is not applicable to all situations. The professor states
that despite the protection provided for freedom of speech under the first amendment, any
references which may impact another persons morale will be exempted from protection and will
be considered harassment (Volokh, 1995). The writings of Trevino in Managing Business Ethics
relates the point that compliments will be considered harassment if they are used to embarrass
someone and undermine the persons professional standing.
Therefore, an implementation of a clause to protect those victims of opinions freely expressed
and results in emotional distress should be considered an area for great research work.
Ethical problems of restricting freedom of speech in the case of sexual
harassment
Freedom of speech has been defined as liberal human right and any acts of suppressing human
rights is constituted as unethical because it defies the set standards of society, norms and general
practices. However the ethical problem in our view occurs when speech used is discriminating or
slandering. Thus, restricting free speech is generally unethical except when used to sexually
harass someone (Trevino & Nelson, 2010).
Herbert Spencer in the late nineteenth century stated The liberty of the citizen to do as he likes
so long as he does not interfere with the liberty of others to do the same. The liberty of the
citizen, in this case, would be expressing ones self through speech. He however failed to
consider ethical dilemmas where free speech may be used for the wrong purposes. Thus, one
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major problem is that free speech if not restricted within constructive boundaries may be used to
degrade, undermine, belittle or taint the view of an individual to the public (Marlin, 2002).
A general principle of law is any constitutional right ends where it infringes on the rights of
others. This delineates the argument presented in our thesis and also identifies the major ethical
problem in this ethical debacle. On one hand restricting free speech is an ethical problem. On the
other hand sexual harassment is also an ethical problem. Both issues are considered in the
context of human rights and respect but when the two are joined together and free speech is used
to sexually harass an individual we have a case of rights infringing on another right (Warburton,
2009).
The real problem with respect to our topic is that sexual harassment is illegal and since codified
by law which is considered in the concept of ethics, then we support any attempt to restrict such
a free speech in case of sexual harassment. If not restricted we will realize the impacts stated
under the sub-heading The impacts of sexual harassment.
Why these issues fall in the ethical realm
What is the ethical realm? The ethical realm is the dimension which considers the norms, values,
standards and principles governing an individual or group and how these practices lie congruent
with the concepts of honesty, respect, fairness, legality and dignity of an individual.
Given our definition of the ethical realm, we see where restricting free speech is unfair, but this
is however limited to sexual harassment. Why, because sexual harassment is inconsistent with
the parameters of the ethical realm, meaning, sexual harassment is illegal, disrespectful, unfair,
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and takes no consideration for the dignity of an individual. Therefore the above problems as it
relates to restricting free speech and sexual harassment must be considered in the realm of ethics.
Another reason why they should be considered in the realm of ethics is to assess the use of the
theoretic perspective of ethics or the application of ethics. Perspectives and theories are used to
solve ethical dilemmas and to assist in the decision making process (Kamir, 2005). These issues
create decision making challenges for individuals and management and must be guided by the
perspectives of ethics to determine right or wrong and hence must be considered in the ethical
realm.
Analysis with the use of ethical theoretic perspectives
When considering what makes sexual harassment wrong, or morally wrong, we must look at
several ethical theories. Deontology is based on the principles of equal rights and respect for all
persons. Deontology is an effective way to determine the righteousness of a particular subject. In
order to determine if an act is right, we must first decide what rule to follow. The rule Do unto
others as you would have done unto you. is a basic fundamental in business ethics, which can
easily apply to sexual harassment. In J amaica, sexual comments are seen as compliments or as
sexual harassment. Even though sexual comments can be interpreted differently by individuals, if
it is right to treat everyone as you would want to be treated, it is obviously wrong to sexually
harass anybody, as no one wants to be harassed. It is our duty to avoid harming other people, this
idea can also be applied to sexual harassment. Sexual harassment can not only hurt the person
being harassed, but the company as well (Trevino & Nelson, 2010).
Utilitarianism, is concern with the greatest good for the greatest number of people, utilitarians
believe that they should make decision that result in the greatest utility that is achieve the
greatest benefit for all those who are affected by a decision In sexual harassment cases, in
J amaica a common justification for sexual harassment is making innuendos in the context of
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jokes, or because it is an opinion which is not restricted from expressing. In either motive, it
results in happiness for the harasser on the other hand all individuals can become victims of
sexual harassment and hence restricting any contributor of same will result in the greater good
for society (Mill, 2000).
Ethical relativism maintains that right and wrong are determined by what ones society (or
culture) says is right and wrong. Some ethical relativists might argue that sexual harassment is
common in some countries or men-dominated culture. J amaica has a highly sexed culture and in
some organizations, the culture and the level of social relationships dictates what constitutes
sexual harassment. Many J amaican men in the workplace, whether intentionally or not, end up
encouraging or condoning harassment as a result of accepted norms formulated through
culture. They may be aware of impacts of sexual harassment but they feel this is right as the
culture does not promote ethical practices. How would a relativist assess the situation? The
relativist view is that points of view have no absolute truth or validity, having only relative,
subjective value according to differences in perception and consideration. This is discussed
within the context of morality and hence assessing a situation such as restricting free speech is
relative to the subject of the restriction. In our case, sexual harassment and we therefore conclude
that in the perspective of relativism comments of a sexual nature which would lead to sexual
harassment could be restricted (Marlin, 2002).
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Effects on sexual life and relationships: can put extreme stress upon relationships with
significant others, sometimes resulting in divorce
Weakening of support network, or being ostracized from professional or academic circles
(friends, colleagues, or family may distance themselves from the victim, or shun him or
her altogether)
Having to relocate to another city, another job, or another school
Loss of references/recommendations (American Association of University Women,
2002)
Some of the psychological and health effects that can occur in someone who has been sexually
harassed as a result of stress and humiliation: depression, anxiety and/or panic attacks,
sleeplessness and/or nightmares, shame and guilt, difficulty concentrating, headaches, fatigue or
loss of motivation, stomach problems, eating disorders (weight loss or gain), alcoholism, feeling
betrayed and/or violated, feeling angry or violent towards the perpetrator, feeling powerless or
out of control, increased blood pressure, loss of confidence and self esteem, withdrawal and
isolation, overall loss of trust in people, traumatic stress, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD),
complex post-traumatic stress disorder, suicidal thoughts or attempts, suicide (U.S. Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission, 1995).
A Jamaican organization perspective
We are of the view that neither the concept freedom of speech or sexual harassment has actually
found their way into the culture cracks of J amaican organizations in full effect. Many reputable
companies have implemented codes of conduct which govern accepted behaviors but
implementation is a far different topic from culturing a practice into norm. There are several
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considerations which may provide barriers to full implementation of codes of conduct which
monitor ethical issues such as sexual harassment. These include;
1. Cost factors to implement and monitor a full scale ethics programme may attract high
administrative cost for effective maintenance and follow up.
2. Involvement of leaders the general behavior of major leaders who are responsible for
leading the global change is unethical and will therefore retract from focusing energies on
foster a culture within the J amaican framework which accepts, awards and promote the
concept of ethics and to the larger extent sexual harassment.
3. Culture change implementing adopted international laws and practices will result in
culture change and will hence be resisted by the general masses.
Therefore, the fact that reconciliation of the views of freedom of speech and sexual harassment
are limited within the J amaican society and organization culture, organizations will continue to
realize the following impacts and consequences.
1. Impairment of public image as in the case of Scotia Bank and a former executive Bill
Clarke.
2. An increase in the number of sexual harassment reported cases
3. Decreased productivity and increased team conflict
4. Decreased job satisfaction
5. Staff resignations to avoid harassment. This results in retraining cost.
6. Resignations/firings of alleged harassers.
7. Decreased productivity and/or increased absenteeism by staff experiencing harassment.
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Conclusion
The argument proposed by this group speaks to the truth that restricting comments of a sexual
nature is not a violation of freedom of speech. This was outlined in the application of theories
and perspectives of ethics supporting sexual harassment over free speech, specifically comments
of a sexual nature. This topic holds of importance the highest point of ethical dilemmas and must
be assessed thoroughly. Given the culture of J amaica we are aware that fostering an ethical
culture in general is challenging, however organizations must identify the benefits of doing what
is right and within the concepts of ethics. Based on the arguments presented we can conclude
that in case specific situations it may be prudent to assess rights from the view of whether or not
they infringe on the right of another person and therefore if free speech is a right which
encroaches on another right that being rights to respect and justice, we support the view that
those arguments would benefit society greater if restricted.
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