1. Affirmative action was introduced within the Executive order 10925 and signed by President John F. Kennedy in March of 1961. The act was mainly passed to promote the effort to improve the employment and educational opportunities of woman and members of minority groups through job hiring, college admissions, and other social benefits. The main idea was to get rid of unfair discrimination, and achieve a diverse workforce representative of our society, to promote efficiency in the workforce, and to promote economic development. Other landmark cases that helped push forward the idea of affirmative action was in 1996 when California passed proposition 209. This proposition prohibited government agencies and other institutions from discriminating against or giving preferential treatment to individuals based on race, sex, color, or national origin. Personally, I feel that affirmative action is fair. America has a long history of discrimination against a good handful of minority groups. I feel affirmative actions helps promote diversity, and helps America reach its full potential. Having a more “diverse” workforce or group of employees can allow for a company to expand its business in other social and economic areas. Diversity promotes growth and can allow for organizations to cater towards potential groups that they have not been able to in the past, thus leading to more business and profits.
2. I personally used to work for this “market” company. I won’t disclose names, but overall the entire organization wasn’t exactly toxic, just certain managers. I spent roughly six months at this company before returning to school full time. During my time at this market company, I and other employees were verbally mistreated on several occasions. This manager thought it was “funny” to call people names like “dumbass” or “retarded” as way of messing around or joking. Personally, for me most of the times I let it go because even if I said something, nothing would have been done to this individual. When these instances occurred with me, or other individuals it sets the feeling of “why try or why attempt to do my job at the best of my ability”. For me it was a motivational killer, and another stressor/annoyance that I did not need when I was trying to perform my day to day tasks. Overall, I would say the tone at the top of the organization was bad. The top boss knew of these occurrences and kind of just let them “slide under the rug”. I feel the management made mine and others work experience miserable. I knew through talking with other employees the position that I had, individuals prior to me roughly spent about the same time before leaving to pursue another opportunity elsewhere. I feel that management was the root cause for why working for this company was “toxic”.
3. In this scenario, I would not make the deal immediately. Especially when ethical decisions are involved, making a quick decision could potentially lead to more harm rather than good. When approaching this scenario, I would ask for more time to review the decision, and consider the rules, principles, and approaches to consider before making a decision regarding the deal. When thinking about this “decision” common things to consider are, “who could potentially be harmed, or what are the legal implications”. The disclosure rule comes into effect here in that its better to gather EVERYONE’s thoughts and perspectives on this “decision” versus me taking the authority and deciding for myself what my companies’ best interests or profits that they would gain from making this immediate deal. This case could come back to bite me in the ass.
4. Both informal and formal systems of communication need to describe or portray the same message. Being both informal and formal allow for companies to demonstrate an ethical culture. If these messages from both the formal and informal information systems differentiate, then there is a misalignment among the ethical culture of an organization. For example, if the CEO states within a speech about how the company cares for the society and environment around it, but at the same time the reward system that was portrayed only focuses on the bottom line and provides no additional guidelines for how goals are achieved, then the ethical culture is misaligned.
5. The main three steps that it takes to change an organizations culture involve diagnosing of the problem, implementation of a new plan, and an evaluation of the new plan’s effectiveness. This process is multi-dimensional in that everything involved needs to be placed at utmost importance. First off, individuals within the org should diagnose the root cause or problem that is causing this current “form” of culture. After determining a handful of “problems” individuals should move on to the implementation stage. This stage is most likely the most difficult because management needs to be creative, and knowledgeable about the potential benefits and harms that could come from implementing a new process that could potentially change the entire culture. Lastly, management should evaluate their course of action. Weighing the positives and negatives of their course of action is crucial for them to continue to make the tweaks necessary to produce the least number of negatives possible.
6. The main four questions that I would ask are: (1) What kinds of ethical dilemmas are employees likely to encounter? A good/relevant example that employees have likely seen in today’s world is sexual harassment. Some employees unfortunately may experience sexual advances, requests, or unwelcome verbal and physical behavior from other employees. (2) What are employees unaware of, or what do they not know? For example, management might not be fully aware that ethical problems are occurring. Some individuals may feel afraid to speak up or notify superiors because they’re afraid of negative repercussions that could happen to them, or they feel that they could be terminated for speaking out. (3) How are policies currently communicated? For example, if a new scenario arises and there is no current policy regarding the situation, that organization needs/should establish a brand-new policy to handle the situation. Additionally, all policies should be documented and in writing in my opinion. Also, policy should be brought up or addressed within meetings and all employees should be notified if any new policies are put into effect. (4) What communication channels exist? For example, if an ethical problem arises, who can these individuals reach out to have the problem resolved. HR plays a big role in this in that they should have an open and confidential environment that employees can go to express needs/concerns regarding problems and ethical issues.
7. The three most effective formal communication channels I feel would be, a company newsletter, employee manual, and review meetings. Regarding the newsletter, this essentially would be my electronic form of communication. Employees who receive the newsletter can learn about any upcoming changes, or new policies that are going to be implemented within the organization. An employee manual would be effective for new employees to read to learn about the company and its policies and procedures regarding ethics. Lastly, review meetings would generally be face to face, and would be a time to discuss any potential problems that have arisen, or the meeting can be used as time to brainstorm on how to tackle problems and create solutions.
8. I feel that the manager should inform his or her employees about the new policy. Additionally, employees should consider the customers situation/scenario. Consider what the customer feels that he or she can afford, and not pressure them into something that they don’t need. The manager should provide information on the best way to sell TV’s while still considering the customer’s needs. Taking advantage of people for your own incentives is morally wrong and ethically wrong. Overall, this scenario is difficult to explain to employees, and I hope that everyone takes an ethical route.
9. Fairness mainly has two components: (1) punishment need to fit the crime and (2) punishment applies to all employees no matter their sex, race, color, religion, or national origin. For example, a crime like “stealing”, punishment should be a lot harsher versus a lighter offence. Managers should have the knowledge about the law or rules. Documentation of the crime should be recorded just in case future problems occur with the same employee. Establishment of rules to all employees needs to be communicated effectively. So, don’t discriminate towards certain people, don’t have favorites, and be fair when assigning a punishment.
10. (1) Manager tells the employee to “not worry” (2) Decisions are made in a group
(3) Individuals are viewed as just a “cog” in a machine and they are unable to see a bigger picture. (4) There starts to be a psychological distance from the victim.
A bystander effect sort of comes into play. Meaning that there may be one individual who is less likely to speak up in that they need help because of so many people being present. This effect mainly occurs within when a group project goes wrong. Overall, diffusion of responsibility will cause people to be less likely to act because they feel someone else will. Sadly, in some scenario’s this is most likely to not occur.