Prelims Question 4

Prelims Question 4

Ethics is relevant regardless of the type of organization and style of management. It is by this ethics that legal and moral laws are established. IT is not at all excluded from this.

Answer then the following.

1. List down the ethics for computer usage.

2. WHat common forms of ethic violations happen in the internet and in the organization?

2005 NATIONAL BUSINESS ETHICS SURVEY
The 2005 survey was done via telephone with 3,015 American workers in the contiguous 48 U.S. states. Below are the key sections of the October 12, 2005 ERC press release on the 2005 survey (the previous survey was in 2003). For additional methodology related information, the full National Business Ethics Survey report is available at www.ethics.org.

More than half of American workers have observed at least one type of ethical misconduct in the workplace, a slight increase from 2003, despite an increase in worker’s awareness of formal ethics programs, according to the 2005 National Business Ethics Survey (NBES) released today by the Ethics Resource Center. Employee reporting of misconduct they observe is also down by 10 percentage points. Despite the decrease in ethical conduct, according to the NBES report, “Ethics and compliance programs can and do make a difference. However, their impact is related to the culture in which they are situated.”

The survey of more than 3,000 American workers, analyzes trends in workplace ethics, the implementation of formal programs, the ethical culture within organizations, the impact of programs, and factors that pose risks of misconduct.

Some of the key findings include:

1. 52% of employees observed at least one type of misconduct in the workplace in the past year, with 36% of these observing at least 2 or more violations.
2. 69% of employees report their organizations implement ethics training, up 14 percentage points from the 2003 NBES.
3. 65% of employees indicated their organizations have a place they can seek ethics advice.
4. 55% of employees who observed misconduct at work reported it to management, down 10 percentage points from the 2003 NBES.
5. Five of six elements of a formal ethics and compliance program measured by NBES have increased over time with the presence of written standards of ethical business conduct up 19 percentage points since 2004.

Misconduct

The NBES defines misconduct as any behavior that violates the law or organizational ethics standards. The two most common types of misconduct observed by employees are abusive or intimidating behavior towards employees and lying to employees, customers, vendors, or the public.

Types of misconduct most observed by employees include:

1. 21% observed abusive or intimidating behavior towards employees.
2. 19% observed lying to employees, customers, vendors, or the public.
3. 18% observed a situation that places employee interests over organizational interests.
4. 16% observed violations of safety regulations.
5. 16% observed misreporting of actual time worked.
6. 12% observed discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender, age or similar categories.
7. 11% observed stealing or theft.
8. 9% observed sexual harassment.

Of those employees who observed misconduct, 52 percent indicated the conduct violated their organizations standards only, 4 percent indicated it violated the law only, and 44 percent indicated both the law and organization standards.

Levels of observed misconduct were distributed evenly throughout different sectors with 29 percent of employees in government agencies observing some type of misconduct followed by 26 percent of non-profit organizations, and 25 percent within publicly traded and privately held for-profit companies.

The smallest organizations, those with under 25 employees, were the least likely to have some employees who observed some type of misconduct with 16 percent. Organizations of other sizes all had higher, similar rates of observing misconduct, and ranged from a high of 31 percent for organizations with 500-1999 employees, to a low of 27 percent for organizations with 25-99 employees and 2,000-9,999 employees.

Risk

Recently, the U.S. Sentencing Commission also highlighted the identification and reduction of risk to the areas of ethics and compliance for organizations. Companies must now regularly assess the risk of criminal conduct within their organization if their ethics and compliance programs are deemed effective by the Commission.

For the first time in 2005, the NBES examined the potential for employees to encounter situations that are likely to result in misconduct. The NBES defines risk factors as:

1. Employee’s exposure to circumstances that invite misconduct.
2. Employee’s recognition of those situations as misconduct.
3. Pressure to compromise the standards of the organization.
4. Preparedness of employees to respond to these situation

3. How does ethics affect the decision making of mangers?

Cite Business owners often face difficult ethical dilemmas, such as whether to cut corners on quality to meet a deadline or whether to lay off workers to enhance profits. A current ethical debate concerns the use of extremely low-wage foreign workers, especially in the garment industry. In our complex global business climate, ethical decision making is rarely easy. However, as a business owner, you have several models available for analyzing your ethical dilemmas. Sometimes one approach will be more appropriate than another. If you take time to consider the various possibilities, you are more likely to make a decision you believe is ethically correct.

4.Cite a company which experienced legal or social conflicts because of its violation of ethics. You may check as example the problem of pre-need insurance companies in the Philippines.
a. Describe briefly the nature of the problem.
b. How was this resolved?
c. Who were affected?
d. What were the damages?