Teaching PowerPoint Slides - Chapter 7

7
COMMON ISSUES AT THE

WORKPLACE
Learning Outcomes
At the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

 Explain the types of whistle-blowing and the justification for blowing
the whistle
 Define trade secret, employee theft and conflict of interest in an
organizational context, with examples
 Conceptualize privacy from individual, employee and consumer
perspectives, and differentiate between privacy and surveillance at
the workplace
 Apply ethical principles to justify the need to sustain and respect
privacy as a human right
 Explain why discrimination in employment is unethical, based on
Utilitarian, Kantian, Justice, Rights and Rawls’s Social
Justice/Egalitarian theories
BUSINESS ETHICS (SECOND EDITION) All Rights Reserved

© Oxford Fajar Sdn. Bhd. (008974-T), 2018 7–3
Learning Outcomes (cont.)
 Define affirmative action and differentiate it from discriminative

acts
 Discuss specific work-related issues and challenges faced by
women, and recognize the positive approaches and strategies
employers can take to support women at work
 Explain the forms of sexual harassment and outline the steps
to prevent it at the workplace
 Discuss the rights and duties of employees in an organization
 Describe the occupational safety and health issues in
employment
 Explain the due process in the case of termination of service
or unjust dismissal

Introduction
 An important aspect of human resource management in a

company is managing employee relations. Managers spend
a lot of time and effort on managing their workforce for the
obvious reason of sustaining a beneficial relationship.
 Employees and employers are involved in an intricate
relationship critical to the survival of the company.
 However, the employee-employer relationship is not all rosy
due to various issues that may have ethical repercussions to
both parties.
 Both parties need to play their roles accordingly to ensure a
constructive economic relationship for the benefit of all in the
company.

Whistle-blowing
 Whistle-blowing is the release of information or evidence

of immoral or illegal behaviour by an employee or former
employee of an organization to someone within the
organization who has the authority to investigate, prevent
and punish the perpetrators.
 Whistle-blowing takes place only when a (past or present)
member of an organization voluntarily reports such
information. Whistle-blowing does not take place if an
employee spreads gossip about other employees’
personal habits/indecent behaviour/takes retaliatory action
for reprimands.

Whistle-blowing (cont.)
 A whistle-blower can be any (or former) employee, who

are in positions of power and privy to confidential and
sensitive information.
 Whistle-blowing can also arise in a situation where an
employee has information about his/her superior’s
wrongdoing and reports it to someone else in a position of
authority within the organization.

 The aim of whistle-blowers is to prevent harm to others or

to an organization as a whole, rather than securing their
own personal interests.
 Organizations should strive to encourage internal whistle-
blowing by ensuring a clear and comprehensive whistle-
blowing policy and procedure. Employees should be
encouraged to report any wrongdoing or illegal practices
and their identity should be kept confidential.

 Internal Whistle-blowing
– Arises when a whistle-blower reports the evidence of
wrongdoing to someone of authority within an organization
(other than his immediate superior/CEO) and hopes that
the recipient of the information will take action to deal with
the misconduct or illegal practice.
 External Whistle-blowing
– Arises when an employee who discover corporate
misconduct chooses to bring it to the attention of external
parties, e.g. law enforcement agencies/the media.

 Justification for Whistle-blowing

– An employee is driven by appropriate moral motive
– The employee’s immediate supervisor, or the internal
whistle-blowing channel, failed to take appropriate action
– An employee has strong or credible evidence of
wrongdoing
– An employee has good reasons to justify blowing the
whistle

Dimensions of Employee Theft
 Trade secrets
– A trade secret is a valuable asset because the organization
may have spent plenty of money to acquire or develop the
information and it has a significant impact on its financial
position.
– The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) defines
trade secret as any confidential business information, including
manufacturing or industrial secrets, which gives an
organization a competitive edge.
– Trade secrets may be known to competitors through
commercial espionage, i.e. breach of contract where
employees or any other parties that have knowledge of such
information either voluntarily release or sell them for personal
benefit.
Dimensions of Employee Theft
(cont.)
 Employer’s physical assets
– Defined as any stealing, use or misuse of an employer’s assets
without permission.
– Larceny: the act of taking personal property from the owner
permanently without consent.
– Embezzlement: stealing by someone who is in the position of trust
and has legal access to cash/properties he is stealing.
– Skimming: the act of taking cash from an employer or
organization before it is recorded.
– Fraudulent disbursements: employees illegally using employer’s
systems and procedures to benefit themselves, which can be done
in four ways (cheque tampering, billing schemes, payroll schemes
and expense reimbursement schemes).

Conflict of Interest
 Conflict of interest occurs when employees have personal

interests that interfere with their obligation to promote the
interests of their employers.
 Employees are said to be involved in a conflict of interest when
they give priority to their personal agenda over their job duties.
 By doing so, employees make decisions or behave in a manner
that give them personal gain or advantage that may harm their
employer’s interests.
 Preventing conflicts of interest under the Malaysian legal
framework falls under the Malaysian Anti-Corruption
Commission (MACC) and Companies Commission of Malaysia
(SSM).

Conflict of Interest at the
Workplace
 When an employee uses his official position for personal

financial gain or to benefit a company in which he/she has
a financial interest.
 When an employee’s external financial or other interest
may inappropriately influence the way in which he/she
performs his/her official responsibilities.
 When an employee receives or gives a bribe or a kickback
for personal financial gain.
 When an employee receives gifts, entertainment,
hospitality, and other benefits from clients and business
associates.

Conflict of Interest at the
Workplace (cont.)
 When an employee engages in direct competition with

his/her employer.
 When an employee engages in insider trading.
 When an employee uses confidential information of the
employer for personal gain or interest.

Types of Conflict of Interest
 Potential conflict of interest

– When an employee has an interest that could potentially
affect the way he makes decisions for the employer, but
he has yet to be assigned such a responsibility or task to
make the decision.
 Actual conflict of interest
– When an employee has an interest that could potentially
influence the way he makes a decision on behalf of his
employer and the employer has actually given him the
authority to make such a decision.

Privacy
 Defining and conceptualizing privacy

– Privacy relates to confidentiality of information on private
individuals. Difficulties arise to define privacy as a concept
because it may differ between individuals due to many
different claims on the right to privacy in different situations.
 Three classic definitions of privacy:
– The right to be left alone (Samuel Warren and Louis
Brandeis).
– The claim of individuals to determine for themselves when,
how and to what extent information about them is
communicated to others (Alan F. Westin).
– The condition of not having undocumented personal
knowledge about one possessed by others (W. A. Parent).
Privacy (cont.)
 Why privacy has become an issue in the global era

– Violation of privacy occurs when other people know
someone’s personal information provided by others
without his/her consent.
– Today it is very easy to share personal information, views,
comments, criticisms or even gossip on social media.
– Privacy is an issue due to (1) progress and advancements
in ICT, (2) the vast amount of personal information
collected for organizational decision-making in the public
and private sectors, and (3) significant growth in database
marketing facilitated by ICT.

Privacy (cont.)
 Difference between privacy and surveillance

– Surveillance may be defined as a systematic investigation
or monitoring of the actions of one or more persons.
– In simple terms, surveillance is spying on others’ activities.
 Individual privacy at the workplace

– Individual privacy is a negative right from human rights
principles (to be free from outside interference).

Privacy (cont.)
– Employers today would scarcely dare to intrude so openly

in the private lives of their employees because of privacy
laws but they possess less obvious means of acquiring
employee information (Boatright, 2012).
– Employees, on the other hand are a resource or input in
the production process and an intellectual property of the
employer, and are obliged to comply with employers’
procedures, policies and guidelines.

Privacy (cont.)
 Consumer privacy
– The main threat to consumer privacy comes from the
explosive growth of database marketing.
– The countless bits of information generated in each
transaction are now used to generate lists for direct mail
and telemarketing solicitations.
– Why should consumers’ purchasing habits be monitored?
Yet business people justify and claim this to be a valid
business marketing strategy to stay competitive in a
challenging global environment.

Privacy (cont.)
 The ethics of protecting privacy

– Utilitarian perspectives: Whatever harm done to
employees by invading their privacy has to be balanced in
utilitarian calculation against the undesirable benefits that
these practices produce for both employers and
employees. Employers must be honest and transparent
with their employees for better appreciation, although
employers may perceive that it is their right to develop
policies and guidelines to be followed by employees.

Privacy (cont.)
– Kantian perspectives: The defence of a right to privacy

involve autonomy and respect for individuals. Hence, by
invading a person’s privacy, it violates the principle of
respect for persons and prevents him/her from making a
rational choice as an autonomous being.
– Islamic perspectives: Much as privacy is a human right
and justified through conventional ethical theories and
rational judgements, it is also religiously promoted in
Islamic contexts. Hence, it is doubly justified that privacy
must be protected as a human value in respect for
individual dignity and autonomy as a human being.

Discrimination and Affirmative
Action
 Globalization has led to diversity of the workforce, an

outcome of human resource mobilization across nations,
greatly facilitated by trade liberalization policies and
formation of trade blocks among member nations.
 Workforce diversity relates to differences in demographic
factors, e.g. age, gender, race, ethnicity, sexual
orientation, socio-economic background, talents and
capabilities.
 Discrimination is a wrongful act, whereby a person is
deprived of or marginalized from enjoying some benefits
or opportunities because he/she is a member of a group
towards which there is substantial prejudice.
Action (cont.)
 Forms of discrimination
– Gender discrimination (sexual harassment)
– Religion discrimination
– National origin
– Age discrimination
– Health status (handicap, etc.)
– Unjust acts that lead to discrimination, e.g. stereotyping,
are certainly uncalled for based on comparable worth
arguments, what more the rights arguments.

Action (cont.)
 Managers should establish employment practices that are

legal, fair and do not discriminate against any
organizational members (Jackson et al., 1992).
 Affirmative action refers to policies that take factors
including race, colour, religion, gender, sexual orientation
or national origin into consideration in order to benefit an
unrepresented group in the areas of employment,
education and business, usually justified as countering the
effects of a history of discrimination.

Action (cont.)
 The following ethical arguments support affirmative action:

– Utilitarianism
– Principles of justice
– Principles of rights
 Examples of affirmative action in Malaysia may include

meritocracy for Indian students, BR1M to ease the
burdens of the low income groups, and zakat.

Women at Work
 There is a steady increase in the number of women in the

Malaysian workforce.
 The figures indicate their significant contribution to the
Malaysian economy as a human resource.
 Socio-economic factors have contributed to this shift since
the 1970s, including the Malaysian economic development
process, export-orientated industrialization policies and an
increase in the educational attainment of women,
significantly showing an emerging pattern of dual career
families in employment.

Women and the Challenges at
Work
 Stereotyping women as sex objects

 Discriminative acts (less salary, prestige and potential for
promotion)
 Non-acceptance by male counterparts
 Discrimination against pregnant women
 Balancing full-time work with family obligations

Strategies to Support Women at
Work
 Flexible working arrangements

 Career planning
 Childcare centres/services at the workplace
 Provision of training on work-life balance
 Counselling services
 Provision of information services

Employees’ Rights and Duties
 Employee Rights

(cont.)

(cont.)
 Employee Duties

Occupational Safety and Health
 Most developed countries implement a solid network of

health, safety and environmental regulations that companies
have to abide by.
 The main issue is about the enforcement and implementation
of existing regulations.
 The health and safety of employees at the workplace is the
responsibility of the employer and also the employees.
 The Malaysian government introduced the Occupational
Safety and Health Act 1994 which places the responsibility of
ensuring that certain health and safety standards in the
workplace fall on the employer. The Act is an addiction to the
provisions of other written laws relating to occupational
safety and health.
Termination of Service/Unjust
Dismissal
 Many employees are at risk of losing their jobs for

relatively minor indiscretions/personality clashes.
 Due process in the workplace would mean that employees
have a right to be protected from the arbitrary use of
managerial authority.
 Promotion, disciplinary hearings and firing are the most
common processes where the right to due process is
particularly important.
 In the case of disciplinary procedures, employees should
be subject to these if a clear and objective neglect of
duties and a breach of contractual obligations has
occurred.
Termination of Service/Unjust
Dismissal (cont.)
 All
organizations
need rules to
ensure order
in the
workplace.
Each
company will
have a
different set of
rules,
depending on
the business.


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7

COMMON ISSUES AT THE

At the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

BUSINESS ETHICS (SECOND EDITION) All Rights Reserved

 Define affirmative action and differentiate it from discriminative

BUSINESS ETHICS (SECOND EDITION) All Rights Reserved

 An important aspect of human resource management in a

BUSINESS ETHICS (SECOND EDITION) All Rights Reserved

 Whistle-blowing is the release of information or evidence

BUSINESS ETHICS (SECOND EDITION) All Rights Reserved

 A whistle-blower can be any (or former) employee, who

BUSINESS ETHICS (SECOND EDITION) All Rights Reserved

 The aim of whistle-blowers is to prevent harm to others or

BUSINESS ETHICS (SECOND EDITION) All Rights Reserved

BUSINESS ETHICS (SECOND EDITION) All Rights Reserved

 Justification for Whistle-blowing

BUSINESS ETHICS (SECOND EDITION) All Rights Reserved

BUSINESS ETHICS (SECOND EDITION) All Rights Reserved

 Conflict of interest occurs when employees have personal

BUSINESS ETHICS (SECOND EDITION) All Rights Reserved

 When an employee uses his official position for personal

BUSINESS ETHICS (SECOND EDITION) All Rights Reserved

 When an employee engages in direct competition with

BUSINESS ETHICS (SECOND EDITION) All Rights Reserved

 Potential conflict of interest

BUSINESS ETHICS (SECOND EDITION) All Rights Reserved

 Defining and conceptualizing privacy

 Why privacy has become an issue in the global era

BUSINESS ETHICS (SECOND EDITION) All Rights Reserved

 Difference between privacy and surveillance

 Individual privacy at the workplace

BUSINESS ETHICS (SECOND EDITION) All Rights Reserved

– Employers today would scarcely dare to intrude so openly

BUSINESS ETHICS (SECOND EDITION) All Rights Reserved

BUSINESS ETHICS (SECOND EDITION) All Rights Reserved

 The ethics of protecting privacy

BUSINESS ETHICS (SECOND EDITION) All Rights Reserved

– Kantian perspectives: The defence of a right to privacy

BUSINESS ETHICS (SECOND EDITION) All Rights Reserved

 Globalization has led to diversity of the workforce, an

BUSINESS ETHICS (SECOND EDITION) All Rights Reserved

 Managers should establish employment practices that are

BUSINESS ETHICS (SECOND EDITION) All Rights Reserved

 The following ethical arguments support affirmative action:

 Examples of affirmative action in Malaysia may include

BUSINESS ETHICS (SECOND EDITION) All Rights Reserved

 There is a steady increase in the number of women in the

BUSINESS ETHICS (SECOND EDITION) All Rights Reserved

 Stereotyping women as sex objects

BUSINESS ETHICS (SECOND EDITION) All Rights Reserved

 Flexible working arrangements

BUSINESS ETHICS (SECOND EDITION) All Rights Reserved

BUSINESS ETHICS (SECOND EDITION) All Rights Reserved

BUSINESS ETHICS (SECOND EDITION) All Rights Reserved

BUSINESS ETHICS (SECOND EDITION) All Rights Reserved

 Most developed countries implement a solid network of

 Many employees are at risk of losing their jobs for

BUSINESS ETHICS (SECOND EDITION) All Rights Reserved

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