Ethics Assignment #4

Given these query results, do you have an ethical responsibility to do something? Consider both the categorical imperative (pages 56–57) and the utilitarian (pages 92–93) perspectives.

Answer:

The profound ethical responsibility on my shoulders is to ensure the payments to all employees based on equality and fairness. It is my utmost responsibility to pay them without considering their ethnic, religious, national and creed backgrounds and focus on the parameters of work and efficiency. As an in-charge of such an activity, I am entitled to accomplish categorical and utilitarian perspectives in the context of duty performance. Resultantly, it will be ensured that payments are fairly distributed among the concerned personnel by discarding any type of difficulty.

Question#2

Given these query results, do you have a personal or social responsibility to do something?

Answer:

My responsibility parameter in a social context is to meet the immediate managing authority to explain the inferences and results based on queries. The concerned authorities as well as the affected personnel would be able to find the real basis of indicated scenario whether it is co-incidental or something planned action regarding Hispanic employees’ pay scale.

Question#3

What is your response if your manager says, “You don’t know anything; it could be that starting salaries are lower in those cities. Forget about it.”

Answer:

In such a scenario, I will show the respective data to the manager with comparison details of salary scales and race preferences, especially Hispanic community and others. It will provide a vivid understanding of the alleged disparity against a particular race i.e. Hispanic. The data will describe the fact that in the same work categories, the Non-Hispanic people get higher initial pay than those of Hispanics.

Question#4

What is your response if your manager says, “Don’t be a troublemaker; pushing this issue will hurt your career.”

Answer:

Such a matter must be escalated to the top management of the company to ensure that top management discourages such filthy practices of workplace harassment. And resultantly, an exemplary action should be taken against my manager. What I do present is solemnly based on the given data backing up the discrimination allegations against a particular community, i.e., Hispanic. In other words, the matter must be channelized properly to relinquish such a warning and threatening condition.

Question#5

What is your response if your manager says, “Right? We already know that. Get back to the tasks that I’ve assigned you.”

Answer:

I would prefer to execute a list of plans to rectify such an imbalance in the company before returning to allocated responsibilities. It will be a need of time to know the fact that the manager is bushing about to pass this time or truly working on right lines. Time passing techniques may result in fatal conditions in future which ultimately earn a bad name and loss for the company.

Question#6

Suppose your manager gives you funding to follow up with a more accurate analysis, and, indeed, there is a pattern of underpayment to people with Hispanic surnames. What should the organization do? For each choice below, indicate likely outcomes:

a. Correct the imbalances immediately.

Such immediate action to rectify the imbalance may cause financial difficulties for the company as a huge number of Hispanic employees are working. So, such an action needs a large amount of money to correct this imbalance.

b. Gradually correct the imbalances at future pay raises.

According to my viewpoint, it would be an appropriate strategy to solve this issue gradually because abrupt corrections in discriminated pay scales may lead to new financial chaos for the company. However, it is a critical need of time to train the managerial staff to curb such discrimination in future. Otherwise, if the Hispanic community, working in the company, goes for lawsuit against the company, the remedy based on financial needs to comply with the court order will badly disturb the financial and managerial fabric of the company.

c. Do nothing about the imbalances, but train managers not to discriminate in the future.

Such training of the managers to avoid this discrimination in future is crucial for the survival and progress of the company. Managers shall ensure that no employee would be harmed in future on pay scale differences. Further, if the employees become aware of such discrepancy, the matter may be dealt with in court leading to a big question mark on the credibility of the company as well.

d. Do nothing

If nothing is planned and executed within the appropriate time, it will breed heinous consequences on multiple dimensions. Firstly, employees may leave the company leading to staff shortages. Further, legal action may be in line against the company. In addition, the company has to utilize huge resources to earn its name in the good books of business quarters to pace progress.

Question#7

Suppose you hire a part-time person to help with the more accurate analysis, and that person is so outraged at the outcome that he quits and notifies newspapers in all the affected cities of the organization’s discrimination.

a. How should the organization respond?

The organization needs to take immediate steps to discover and nullify the core issues in this regard, which are mainly discrimination conditions. So, stepping forward to resolve the problems within a minimum time span may be fruitful. Hence, after taking very solid steps, the general public should be informed accordingly for a better reputation. Resultantly, it will mitigate the negative image of the organization and probe the positive side of the company to relinquish any type of discrepancy in future.

b. How should you respond?

Any employee, especially hired on a part-time basis has his concerns about the ongoing situation in the company. However, I believe that the interests of the firm should have priority in this concern and one should positively contribute by considering it a responsibility. The resolving mechanism may comprise on focusing on work, repairing of inappropriate happenings and avoid negative publicity because a huge menace has already prevailed in the company. In this scenario, I would gladly address the causative agents in alliance with symptoms and aftershocks of discrimination. In addition, a comprehensive plan of action must be chalked out to improve the company name and resolve the issue on a permanent basis.

Question# 8

Consider the adage “Never ask a question for which you do not want the answer.”

a. Is following that adage ethical?

It is highly unethical and immoral because neglecting to raise the question timely may lead to prevailed wrongdoing in multiple extents. Ultimately, the aftershocks may take the whole society in its poisonous tentacles instead of a small unit or a company. So, such a practice must be condemned for not raising a question.

b. Is following that adage socially responsible?

I do not agree with this slogan. Following the old adage is not socially responsible according to my viewpoint because asking the relevant questions are mandatory for a healthy society. Probably, the persons daring to ask questions may not get any answer or even not satisfied with the provided answers but it will nourish the whole society with courage, awareness, social benefits and overall positivity. So, society as a whole may get immense benefits by practices of one person to ask the question from respective quarters.

c. How does that adage relate to you, as MaryAnn?

As far as my personal practice is concerned, I always deserted to pay any attention to such slogan words because it prevents one to detect inequality and injustice in the society. In addition, it also hinders one to raise voice against such menace which has swallowed the moral basis of our society. So, as a responsible citizen and ethical person, it is my dire responsibility to ask questions and raise my voice even if I don’t get any answers or acquire some harm. I strongly believe that such questions have comprehensive answers at some place by someone. Which ultimately enlighten the society and strengthen its moral and ethical foundations.

d. How does that adage relate to you, as a future business professional?

As a future business professional, my goal will revolve around the continuing of my practice to ask questions as a versatile account person. Business units need timely decisions and comprehensive plan of actions to flourish and progress in the market. So, I would prefer to continue the legacy of inquiring and asking questions to determine issues at early stages in the firm. Resultantly, it will be an easy task for top management to make timely decisions and execute corrections easily.

e. With regard to employee compensation, how does that adage relate to organizations?

The ultimate goal of any organization is continued growth and progress adaptability. So, for accomplishing improvement processes, employee compensation policies must be judged and improved regularly. In this regard, the challenging role of organization is to ask questions to make the decision-makers aware of any hidden discrepancy. Such a role may ensure effective and efficient plans of action in the business vicinity. In addition, vulnerability risk of any firm by it competitors reduces to manifold by adopting such role and strategy to inquire about the hidden corners and ask questions.