Ethical Issues and Dilemmas

Abhishu Rimal
 Ethical Issues and Dilemmas
• Although it may seem like a matter of semantics, the
distinction between an ethical issue and an ethical
dilemma is an important one
• An ethical situation becomes ethical “issue” when it is
possible to ascertain the answer by simply adhering to
a clear-cut guideline in the Code of Ethics
• The ethical decision making process for an ethical issue
should occur quickly, leading to an easy resolution,
since there is no conflict between principles
• An ethical dilemma, on the other hand, exists when
two or more ethical principles or standards are
conflicting with each other
• Generally, BOTH WORDS ARE USED SYNONYMOUSLY
 Wage
• Payment given or received for work
performed
• We can either treat labor as one of
many means of production and let
supply and demand alone
determine wages
OR
• We can argue that a minimum
amount of income is due to each
worker, regardless of the economic
consequences
 A Perspective: Just Wage
• No one best definition of a Just wage

• “Just wage” refers to the remuneration which is

enough to support the wage-earner for his/her
necessities
• Wages that prevented access to necessities were
considered unjust as they would imperil the virtue of
those without access
 Ethical Principles/Dimensions of Just
Wage
• Every working person possesses
an inherent dignity and deserves
respect
• Each working person has the right
to be able to support themselves
and their families by the fruits of
their work
• Economic considerations and the
economic health of the employer
are also important
Another Perspective: Just Wage or Fair
Wage
• A “just wage” is a wage which would enable a person
to maintain one’s family according to the standards
of his/her social class
• With the advent of Industrial Revolution i.e. free
competition and demand and supply it was argued,
would automatically solve the problem and every
man would get what his services were worth
• However, bargaining between employer and
employee played a vital role leading to “unjust” wage
 Problem for Just Wage
• Different types of wages are far from offering
satisfactory solution to the problem of just wage
• Payment according to the value produced?? Very
difficult task
• No logical principle has as yet been found which will
serve as a standard of justice
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• Factors to consider in determining just wage:
1. The effective contribution which each individual
makes to the economic effort
2. The financial state of the company for which he
works
3. The requirements of the general good of the
particular country — overall employment
 Sexual Harassment
• It consists of
– unwelcome sexual advances or requests for sexual
favors
– sexual jokes
– verbal abuse
– physical or verbal conduct imposed on an
employee
• There are mainly two types sexual
harassment: quid pro quo harassment and
hostile environment harassment
 Sexual Harassment…cont’
• Harassment is difficult to detect and prevent, mainly
because the line between harassment on the one hand
and ‘office romance’, ‘joking’, or other forms of personal
interaction are blurred.
• Factors such as context, culture, timing, and frequency all
might shape whether a particular set of behaviors are
viewed as harassment or acceptable workplace
interaction
• Research consistently demonstrates that individuals
who experience workplace harassment often do not
make formal complaints despite suffering ‘significant
psychological, health- and job-related consequences
 Quid Pro Quo Harassment
• “Quid pro quo” literally means
“this for that”
• Occurs when employment, pay,
benefits, title, position or other
opportunities generally for
advancement or training
are conditioned on the
submission to unwelcome sexual
advances
• Illegal activity
 Why Quid Pro Quo Sexual
Harassment??
• The natural–biological model proposed that sexual
harassment results from natural and inevitable feelings
of sexual desire expressed primarily by men toward
women because of inherent sex drives and functions
• Power models viewed sexual harassment as resulting
from the fact that men’s economic power over women
enables them to exploit and coerce women sexually
• Sex role spillover theory proposed that sexual
harassment is a form of socio-sexual behavior at work
that is guided by the roles of men as sexual agents and
women as sexual objects
 Hostile Environment Harassment
• Most common type of sexual
harassment
• Appears to be motivated by
sexist hostility, not sexual
desire
• Undermines, humiliates, or
rejects a target on the basis of
sex with sexual and sexist
remarks, jokes, materials, or
pranks.
 Why Hostile Environment
Harassment???
• Gender harassment against women is primarily
targeted at those who violate gender ideals
• Men gender harass nontraditional women because
men are motivated to derogate women when they
experience a threat to their male identity
Workplace Sexual Harassment--- Nepal
 Nepal- Sexual Harassment Rules
• The Sexual Harassment at Workplace
Prevention Act came into effect on February
20, 2015
 Responsibilities and Duties of
Employer- Sexual Harassment
• Incorporating the necessary provisions relating to the
prevention of sexual harassment into the internal
employment rules;
• Disseminating information to create awareness on the
issues and implications of workplace sexual harassment;
• Making necessary arrangements for preventing the
recurrence of sexual harassment;
• Providing the victims with the necessary psychological
treatment
• Making an arrangement of victims to make anonymous
complaints
• Providing information to the victims on the procedure for
fling of complaints.
Punishment under the Act
• Punished with imprisonment of up
to 6 months, and / or fine of up to
Nepalese Rupees 50,000
• Any employer failing to comply with
the duties and responsibilities
imposed by the Act, may be
punished with fine of up to Nepalese
Rupees 25,000
• In case of repeated offence, double
the punished provided in the
foregoing may be applicable
 Punishment under the Act…cont’
• Compensation to the victim for any physical or
mental harm caused, and the actual expenses
incurred by the victim in the course of filing and
defending of his/her complaint.
• Any person who knowingly makes false complaint of
sexual harassment is subject to fine up to Nepalese
Rupees 10,000.
 Caveat Emptor
• Derives from the Latin meaning “Let the buyer
beware”; “caveat” or “cavere” as buyer, while the
term “emptor” as vigilance
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• Assumes that every purchase involves the informed
consent of the buyer and therefore it is assumed to
be ethically legitimate.
• In modern time Caveat Emptor makes little sense as
it has become impossible for a customer to evaluate
the adequacy of what is being offered
• Good business practices maintain that the
responsibility falls squarely on the shoulders of the
seller.
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• Relatively new concept, caveat venditor – ”let the
seller beware”, by providing full disclosure, being
truthful and not concealing product defects.
• Consumers have the right to presume that there are
no significant problems or defects unless informed
by the seller.
• The main justification for this change was due to the
excess of information possessed by manufacturers
and sellers.
 Gift Giving
• Gift is something of value given without the
expectation of return
• While gifts are often given as a gesture of goodwill,
overly generous business gifts tend to put pressure
on the recipient to extend more than just goodwill to
the giver.
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• Gifts can be monetary, actual items or can be tickets
to a sporting event, entertainment, travel, rounds of
golf or restaurant meals
• Inappropriate gift giving is deemed to be:
– offering or receiving an undue reward which goes
beyond the consolidation of a business
relationship
– designed to influence the recipient to act contrary
to known rules of honesty and integrity
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• Policies and practices on handling gifts and
invitations to special events vary from company
to company.
– Some ban all gifts to employees, excluding personal
gifts from friends and family
– Some accept gifts, but when received, donate them to
a non-profit organization
– In some when gifts received must be declared and it is
maintained in registers
– In some unsolicited gifts are shared with all
employees
 Corruption
• Abuse or misuse of power or trust
for self-interested purposes rather
than the purposes for which power
or trust was given

• An illegal activity (bribery,

embezzlement, fraud, influence
peddling, etc) conducted through
misuse of authority or power for
private gain and benefit
 Some forms of Corruption
• Bribery
• Embezzlement
• Fraud
• Influence Peddling
 Bribery
• Give money, in cash or kind, to someone in order to
persuade them to make favorable and biased decisions
for business gains
• Illegal activity
 Embezzlement
• A white collar crime where the embezzler attains the
assets lawfully and has the right to possess them, but
the assets are then used for unintended purposes
• Illegal diversion of funds away from a company or
business.
• To build a case,
– people must show that the defendant had legal authority
over the assets to posses, took (personally) them with the
use of illegal activity, and restricted the ownership rights of
the person who actually owns the property by making it
impossible to access.
 Fraud
• Involves using deception to convince the
owner of funds or assets to give them up to an
unauthorized party
 Influence Peddling
• A practice of using one's influence in government or
connections with persons in authority to obtain
favors or preferential treatment for another, usually
in return for payment
• Also called traffic of influence or trading in influence
 The Morality of Advertising
• Advertisement is a mass communication medium,
thus, require managers to exercise social
responsibility.
• Marketing managers have the responsibility of
– ensuring that their advertisements meet the ethical norms
– a balance between persuasiveness and honesty
• Companies need to show they have morals when
advertising to consumers, because that makes
consumers’ feel like the company cares about what
they need
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• In essence, they need to ensure
that the messages do not harm the
political, social, and morals
standards in the society
• Ethical advertisements are those
that does not lie and don’t make
false claims
• The presentation of misleading
statistics is unethical and should be
condemned as they deceive
consumers
 Continue…
• Certain social and demographic groups should be
protected; for instance, children should not be
targeted with advertising messages meant for adults
• Marketing managers should understand that people
make choices based on the information they are
given
 Office Romance
• Relationship between two individuals employed by
the same company that advances beyond the socially
acceptable association (generally employer and
employee) and the work-related duties that require
their interaction
• Occurs because people work closely together for
hours and can get to know each other in an intimate
way
 Office Romance…cont’
• When co-workers become romantically involved with
each other, a personal domain is added that cannot
be reached by other co-workers
• Researchers have argued that workplace romance
should not be of managerial concern unless they
disrupt an employees performance.
• Such affairs can sometimes have an enhancing, and
sometimes an impending, effect on job productivity
 Office Romance…cont’
• In particular, manager-subordinate romances tend to
disrupt employee morale more than peer romances
do
• Hierarchical romances can be devastating and
destructive because of the employee jealousy and
suspicion regarding favoritism
 Office Romance…cont’
• Office romances may involve employers when the
advances are unwelcomed, leading to sexual
harassment or when the romance goes “sour” and
one party retaliates with a sexual harassment claim
• Workplace romances place employers in a dilemma
– If a supervisor intervenes prematurely, the company
faces the liability of a privacy lawsuit
– Conversely, if a company ignores a workplace
romance that ends in a sexual harassment claim, it is
potentially liable.
 Fair Pricing
• In a fixed- priced system, fair price is when a
seller sets the lowest price for his good that he
is willing to accept and no other forces playing
a role
• While in a bargaining or a movable price
system, fair price refers to an asset's sale price
agreed upon by a willing buyer and seller,
assuming both parties are knowledgeable and
enter the transaction freely
 Ethical Issues in Fair Price
• True cost of the product is concealed
• Promotional pricing
• Follow the leader pricing
• Price Fixing
 Privacy in the Workplace
• Employee privacy rights are the
rules that limit
– how extensively an employer
can search an employee’s
possessions
– monitor their actions, speech,
or correspondence; and know
about their personal lives
 Continue…
• Employers have interests in protecting their
workplace and ensuring that they prevent theft,
unfair competition, and other misconduct
• Employers may use monitoring devices to protect
their own interests and to ensure the safety of their
workers and customers
• With the prevalence of electronic devices and the
advances in monitoring, there are a multitude of
ways that employers can now monitor their
workplaces
 Employer Responsibilities
• Employers must
– give their employees a place to work and make
sure they have access to it
– give them the tools, equipment and other
things they need to do their work
– pay their employees the salary and benefits they
agreed to, including vacation, paid holidays and
other types of holidays
– provide safe working conditions
– Respect the contract with the employee
 Employee Rights
• No discrimination at work and safe work conditions
• Healthy work-life balance
• Protection of job for people with disabilities and
medical conditions.
• Protection from sexual harassments
• Freedom to discuss the terms and conditions of the
employment with other employees and negotiating
wages to suit lifestyle as per changing times
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• Reservation to answering questions on age, religion,
nationality, and medical condition.
• Demanding certain changes and modifications due to
their prevailing medical conditions.
• Right to form or participate a union that aims to
improve the wages, lifestyle, working environment,
and emphasizes on employee rights at the
workplaces
 Ethical Issues in Advertising
• Advertising is manipulative, untruthful or deceptive
• Advertising creates and perpetuates stereotypes
• Offensive ads
• Advertising plays on people’s fear and insecurities
Advertising is manipulative, untruthful
or deceptive
Advertising creates and perpetuates
stereotypes
Offensive ads
Advertising plays on people’s fear and
insecurities
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