Introduction
In the course of business operations, there are several factors that affect the performance of other agencies in either a positive or a negative way. Because these factors originate from a variety of different domains in the majority of cases, the management of commercial entities always involves a comprehensive and extensive survey of these domains and determines the specific factors. The primary environment for the management of the organization includes legal, social, industrial, economic and other important areas. Due to the variety of operations involved, there are a number of legal considerations that are often satisfied in order to meet the obligations required in these areas. The application of these legal requirements may give rise to a need for the use of people with certain legal experience to advise companies on the legal requirements needed in these various fields. Another factor that observed strict adherence to some legal requirements is the aspect of harmful legal impact in the case of contradictory measures. Under unfavorable conditions, the legal consequences resulting from a breach of the legal requirements may involve the termination of the organizational procedures under a court order. Countries and cultures around the world have various legal requirements that influence the course of action taken in these fields. A highly significant and integral part of these environments is also the embedded ethical consideration in these legal structures.
The ethical considerations in this context highlight a number of criteria that need to be complied with by the participants in these environments. In a number of different cases, ethical requirements are defined in the legal documents, so they prove to be of a great essence for the stakeholders. In this regard, the document focuses particularly on the commercial situations integrated into specific ethical and legal requirements. This document mainly focuses on the specific element of discrimination in the workplace through elucidation of some ethical and legal considerations surrounding discrimination in the workplace.
A Description of the Business Situation
Discrimination in the workplace is a common phenomenon that is recognized worldwide at various levels of institutions. The term discrimination refers to resorting to unequal measure in the process of providing diverse opportunities. It is the inherent need of all the human beings around the world, without any regard for the diverse backgrounds in terms of society and culture they manifest, to be treated with equality. Therefore, discrimination can be regarded as contrary to human desires and in a number of cases leads to a high level of dissatisfaction that impairs the performance of different levels of people. In some cases, discrimination may be adopted based on race, age, religion, sex and social status among a vast number of aspects. In addition, discrimination in work may appear in a vast number of ways. It may manifest itself in the form of job opportunities that may give preference to the individuals belonging to a specific gender, race or cultural background over the people of other race or sex members that are considered to be relatively weak or inferior. The implementation of the compensation system sometimes witnesses the manifestation of discrimination. People with similar educational qualifications and work groups are expected to receive similar rewards at any workplace with respect to the principles of equality.
However, some members of the organization with the same working groups and the same educational backgrounds may receive a relatively high remuneration due to discrimination in the form of favoritism and hence, may violate the principle of equality. In addition, discrimination at the workplace may also appear in the form of inequality in the process of presenting the opportunities for promotion to the employees. The organizations that support the principles of democracy and equality as an integral part of the organizational structure should set the criteria purely based on merit as the foundation for the promotion of any employee. Cases of promotion based on factors other than merit that is not collectively representative of the entire organization are considered to promote discrimination in the workplace. Workplace discrimination affects other stakeholders of the organization, in addition to merely having a direct impact on the employees of the organization. The manager is the central person of the performance of any entity and needs to participate in all the activities of the organization. It should be possible through a communication channel that attempts the involvement of all the members of the company rather than merely those of the managerial staff. However, due to centralization by the authority of a small number of individuals, a group of administrators may be excluded from important organization management.
The federal regulations on discriminatory employment practices explain the various forms that discrimination in the workplace can present itself. First of all, the advertisement of the work should be constructed in the best possible way and cover a diverse set of groups of people. However, when the announcement presents ongoing opportunities to just some specific groups of people and publicly and clearly identifies and eliminates other similar groups based on some human characteristics; discrimination can be manifested with job advertisements. This discrimination in the announcement for the job is further replicated in the workplace in the case of employment. Discrimination within a job is then found in the form of certain people getting hired based on their social connections with the senior members of prestigious backgrounds of the organizational institutions. Collectively, the conditions of the organization must be structured, as it reflects the needs of the whole organizational structure rather than just the management of the organization. In a discriminatory work environment, the job conditions are not the same for all stakeholders. At a certain point, the terms and assumptions of conditions suggest additional benefits to specific employee’s section as others’ rights are being infringed. Finally, the regulation stipulates that the level of equality must be necessarily dominated in the course of vocational training and other activities of learning. It is assumed that discrimination during these training activities is, therefore, highly detrimental to the necessity of equality and results in an adverse effect on the overall performance of the organization.
The case of discrimination in the workplace is an obstacle to the contemporary society which has been witnessed even in the colonial times and the pre-colonial era. Several cases of discrimination have been reported in the history of the United States. During the period before World War II, the entire community of the African Americans witnessed race-based labor discrimination in the United States. Specifically, the black community was very meagerly paid and therefore was the victim of discriminatory actions in the workplace. Initially, the salary given to the members of the black community was generally lower than the salary provided for other races that were considered to be superior to the black race. This severely compromised the performance of the African American community during the events of the Second World War due to the fact that they were not satisfied with the conditions and the terms offered for their jobs. Even more disastrously, the era of the Second Great War saw the participation of a massive number of people belonging to the black race in almost every aspect of the war. However, it is a very unfortunate situation that despite the high participation of the African Americans with the pure sentiment of patriotism, the African American community still was not able to receive the wages that they very rightfully deserved. Thus, this regrettable situation led to an outrage manifesting in the form of demonstrations and protests among the whole population of the African Americans living throughout the United States.
Ethical Concerns Rising from the Situation
Discrimination in the workplace is a thing that is highly detrimental to the performance and productivity of the organization and therefore, it is highly imperative that it must be eliminated in order to achieve the desired level of work within the entity. There are some ethical concerns that arise from discriminatory acts in the workplace and present the essence of eliminating this vice at all levels. Initially, it is an ethical requirement that people must be treated with dignity and respect in the same way at each and every level. The virtue of promoting human dignity lies in the spirit of the fundamental rights all the human beings. When adopting discrimination measures at work, there are high levels of dissatisfaction because part of the staff is ignored in the process of adopted action. Such measures and strategy imply that the secluded members of the organization were isolated and hence may resort to taking opportunities against the members who were favored by the organization. Therefore, discrimination in the workplace causes disputes that do not conform to the ethical practices in the workplace. The principle of ethics opposes the occurrence of disputes at all levels of the organization, as it would effectively compromise the overall performance achieved within the organization. Furthermore, in most of the cases, disputes compromise the unity of the organization and therefore, it becomes imperative to remove them. Another ethical consideration concerning discrimination in the workplace is the performance of employees and other stakeholders. In an environment where individuals are equally recognized and evaluated, it is clear that they will often produce better results and would do their utmost to work collectively towards the achievement of the goals and objectives of the organization. Since recognition is a highly motivational tool, administrators need to consider measures to encourage employees to achieve the highest level of performance. However, members of the organizations tend to perform in a negative manner and are unable to reach their maximum potential in discriminatory work environments, given that discriminatory behavior is quite derogatory and is a corrupting factor. It is contrary to the ethical requirement of placing a key emphasis on merit in the entry of employees in each process of hiring adopted within the organization.
There are many theories that can be effectively utilized to assist in the attempt to explain the results observed in the workplace characterized by discriminatory behavior. First of all, the utilitarian theory has been adopted by several organizations that are in the constant pursuance of the actions that are ethically accepted and are striving to adopt a code of conduct concerning the improvement of the performance of the organization. This theory is based on the assertion that adoption starting at an organization must be in line with the ethical requirements of the various setups. These actions are also vital to the promotion of the best performance of the organization. Furthermore, it is worthy to note that the theory is based on the ability to effectively predict the consequence of a course of action. Before conducting an action, in general, the organization must be able to consider the results which will be apparent in the case of the initiation of the course. In addition to considering the existing ethical aspects, the strategy or measure should necessarily promote the interests of the organization. In the case of discrimination in the workplace, if these measures are incompatible with the majority of the members of the organization, discriminatory measures and strategies will inevitably result in a decline in the performance of the organization as a whole. Discriminatory acts will be wise within an organization only if it is supported by a majority of the organization.
The utilitarian theory adopted by the organizations has two main forms. These two forms include the utilitarianism theory of action and the theory of utilitarianism of rules. The utilitarianism of the actions (widely known as the theory of act utilitarianism) is based solely on the need to take action that brings the best profit for most members of a particular field. The utilitarianism theory of rules, on the other hand, attempts to benefit the majority of the organizational structure by the adoption of the measures that are considered purely fair. It also depends greatly on the specific values that are highly favored by the organization. Given the discrimination in the workplace, it is in the light of most organizational values that the actions are unethical and thus, would often lead to undesirable outcomes.
Explanation of the Specific Areas of Law under which the Situation will be Analyzed
The actions of discrimination within the workplace need to be considered in the light of the laws of employment. These laws explicitly identify the adoptions that are deemed desirable and necessarily result in the best possible outcomes for all the stakeholders of the organization. There a number of laws and regulations that tends to curb the negative phenomenon of discriminatory actions in workplaces. The Title IV of the federal government civil rights, that was implemented in 1964 calls for the prohibition of the cases of discriminatory behavior towards certain groups of people within the workplace and also sheds light on the legal actions that may be adopted by the organization and its members that act in a discriminatory fashion. The discriminatory tendency stipulated by this Act is based on race, gender, nationality, cultural and traditional practices and ethnicity.
The Equal Wage Act of 1963 recommends that both females and males should receive the same employment opportunities. It has to be adopted and must also be demonstrated in the compensation plans that have to do equality regardless of the sex of the employees. Later, in 1967, the federal government developed the age discrimination law to ensure that age is included in the work areas. This regulation was to ensure that people are fully included in the operations of the organization in the absence of any restrictions based on age. The special focus of this Act is on the employees over the age of forty, as they are the ones that face the most discriminatory actions within the organization. At the end of the nineteenth century, Title I and V of the civil rights law created the United States Disability Act trying to eliminate discrimination cases against the people with any disability.
Best Ethical Outlook
In order to avoid any case of discrimination within the workplace that would prove to be detrimental for the performance of an individual group of employees of the organization, it is imperative to consider behavioral courses that promote desirable ethics. In an attempt to curb the occurrence of instances of discrimination within the organizational environment, certain laws and rules would prove to be very helpful in defending the equal participation of all the employees, without any regard to the diversities among them. Through a number of laws and legislation, the federal government of the United States has taken actions towards the launching of various policies to motivate the management to incorporate a democratic environment within the organization. Because the democratic space within the organization is directly linked to the ethical standards of various agencies, there is a necessity to promote it. A democratic workplace environment ensures that the organizational goals are achieved through the participation of all the segments of employees. It ensures that every employee is directly involved in the processes of making organizational decisions. Also, it motivates the members of the organization to actively participate in each behavioral policy within the organization and to enable maximum performance at every organizational level. Thus, it can be considered the basic nature of any human society that the appreciation of all the levels of individuals within the organization is crucial towards the achievement of the organizational goals. In addition, the people can be further allowed to participate in the organizational processes by respecting the human dignity and this aspect is embedded in the policies of democracy.
Relevant Areas of Law
At some point, the employment opportunities can be viewed as contracts that bind employers and employees to each other. In order to regard employment opportunities as contracts, there are specific factors that must be taken into consideration in order to essentially bind both the parties. These factors must be agreed upon by the two parties, the employees and the employers involved in the contract to bind them legally. First of all, it is prudent to point out that it is necessary for there to be an offer to sign an employment contract. It is a negotiation of the parties involved in presenting the contract during the period in which the contract is bound. Employers must provide certain benefits in the form of remuneration, while employees must be able to provide services to the organization according to their job description. Secondly, the contracts must be accepted by all the stakeholders. In this case, it is very important that willingness is exercised at the time of conclusion of the contract and the entire process should be necessarily free of any forms of force.
However, certain considerations must also be taken into account in the process affecting the contract. It sometimes can involve the stakeholders, in this case, tailor-made between the employer and the employee to make the contract increasingly binding in nature. Furthermore, certain functions are reflected among the parties, to give friendly terms of the contract. Sometimes the resulting capacity can be dictated among the others, like the requirement of the educational qualifications and other requirements for the positions to be rendered within the organization. The capacity of the agreement will determine the terms and conditions mainly taken for employment contracts. Finally, any contract must be incorporated into a specific legal understanding. It is imperative for the legal considerations to be adopted that must establish conditions and considerations for all agreements. Regulation is also the key to the prevention of any issue that arises from employment contracts. For instance, through effective regulation, the possibility of impairing the performance of the employees is eliminated by getting rid of employment discrimination.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is worth noting that the cases of employment discrimination are very devastating with regard to the performance of the organization. In addition, discriminatory acts are disadvantageous in the way that they impair various rights belonging to any group of personnel. As a result, it is necessary to implement specific actions to eliminate these discriminatory strategies and measures. For example, one of the core activities that can be implemented involves the adoption of policies that severely prohibit cases of discrimination in the workplace. People involved in discriminatory acts must receive strict legal penalties to effectively curb the possibility of the occurrence of such actions in the future. Moreover, in addition to such regulations, particular legal structures should be established within the organization to advise towards the adoption directives. Also, in addition to the possible action plans, the management of these entities needs to ensure that selected adoption conforms to the institutional ethical standards. In relation to this, it is necessary to conduct extensive analytical activities in order to meet the ethical demands of specific general companies and societies. However, this is guaranteed only by the equal participation from the entirety of the target domain.
Furthermore, through the discussion of the situation, it can be noted it will act towards the achievement of the desirable objectives of the organization if the practice of democratic principles is ensured within the organization. Each stakeholder must be involved in the work through direct participation. Problems of existing opportunities need to be presented based on individual qualifications. In addition to achieving the motivation of the staff, the use of qualifications by providing various opportunities, all the employees and other stakeholders of the facility would work towards the adoption of the spirit competition and hence would acquire the ability to contribute to the achievement of established objectives of the organization, in addition to the other desired aspects at different levels of the organization.
Recommendations
Due to the negative impact of discrimination in the workplace, a number of recommendations can be made that should be considered by the management of the organization. However, it is prudent to incorporate certain principles of business, prior to the considerations. Firstly, it would prove to be of great importance for the organizational performance to consider the principles of reliability, responsibility, integrity, democracy, and responsiveness. The management of the organization should strive towards the promotion of a workplace environment that is based on the principle of democracy and ensures that all the members of the organizations are presented with equal opportunities of participation in the entire procedures of the organization.
In addition to the principles of the organization, in general, the specific ethical requirements of the entity and the society as a whole should be held in high regard. For instance, the ethical standards representing respect for the dignity of all the human beings are the ones that should be necessarily integrated. Hence, it would ensure that no policies are adopted within the organization that might result in the infringement of the rights of the employees in the workplace based on the various diversities among them. By respecting the human dignity emphasized by the ethical requirements, the management team of the organization must endeavor to ensure respect for the people at all levels and at all times. This must also be duplicated in the design of the policies enforced within the organization. The availability of a workplace founded on democracy acts towards enhancing the essence of respect for human dignity. However, due to the considerations of the ethical standards of the society and the interlinked assertions of legal nature, it is necessary to always critically analyze the appropriate decisions.
