For this analysis paper you first need to identify a suitable topic/case to analyze. To develop a topic/case, you should think about unethical decisions and/or actions that you’ve experienced or witnessed at work. Choose one of these for this analysis. If you haven’t worked or can’t identify a suitable one, ask friends or relatives if they’ve experienced an unethical decision at work, and consider using one of those. Many of you may be able to use your Reflection Paper #1 as a topic/case for this paper. If none of these sources work out, consider an unethical decision/action that has been in the news, and about which a lot has been written. You are free to use outside resources for AP#2 to research your case topic, if applicable. If you’re really stuck let me know and I may be able to suggest a topic.
[note: do not analyze the Penn State pedophile or the BP oil spill scandals – too many papers have been done on these already.]
The decision/action that you analyze should be (in your judgment) unethical, meaning that at least one, and possibly all three, of the ethical decision bases we’ve discussed would say that it was wrong. If you are unable to identify a topic, email me and I may be able to suggest one.
The critical difference between this analysis paper and analysis paper #1 is that in this paper you should analyze the ethical problem from the perspective of the moral awareness and decision biases of the perpetrator(s) of the unethical decision/action.
Therefore, choose a decision/action where the person or people involved committed an unethical decision/action due decision biases and/or impairments that you can identify and are at least somewhat complex. For example, accounting fraud is unethical. However, if all you know about the case is that the perpetrator committed the fraud, but not why, and why it wasn’t prevented, then this action may not be ideal for this paper. However, if you are aware of various personal, situational, or organizational factors (as you discussed in the Parable of the Sadhu video case) that facilitated the fraud, and you can apply a lot of the material on moral awareness and decision bias from class, then the accounting fraud would be a good topic for the paper, because you will have a lot class material to work with.
You will be graded on how much and how well you apply the material on moral awareness and decision bias. That is why it’s important to choose a good case – i.e., one that allows you to apply a lot of the course material.
Paper Write-up (please divide your paper into these sections)
Section I: Describe the decision/action that you are analyzing. Provide as much detail as necessary for me to understand what happened.
section II. Next, analyze why you think that the person or people involved did what they did. What biases or other causes of decision impairment led to the unethical decision/action? Apply material from the course to address these issues, and please be detailed and thorough. Specifically, apply in depth the article by Anand et al. Be sure to apply as well the articles written by Bazerman & Tenbrunsel, Mullainathan, and Carter if they relate to the decision/action you are analyzing. Also apply cases/movies including End Game, Obedience/Basic Instincts, and the Parable of the Sadhu to the extent you can. These resources are contained on Canvas in the modules Part 1 and Part 2B of the course.
Note that the Anand et al. article contains both personal/situational tactics for rationalizing corruption (in the first half of the article) that you can apply, as well as various organizational characteristics that also facilitate corruption (in the second half of the article). Again, you should apply both halves of this article in depth.
Section III. Indicate, to the extent possible, how this unethical action could have been prevented by the organization, specific people within the organization, or perhaps law/regulation from outside the organization. If applicable, apply the Bloxham article on whistleblowing.
There is no page limit. I suggest that your paper be approximately 5-7 double-spaced pages though more than this is fine. Please put your last name in the document title when submitting. Also, please don’t submit your paper in PDF form. Please submit in Word or something compatible with Word.
Grading Rubric: Your paper will be evaluated as follows:
Section 1
Employee theft is one of the factors that derail organizational development. Every year, businesses lose an estimated $ 50 billion to stealing from their employees (Snook, 2020). It is appalling that 75% of the employees steal from their organizations. Employees may steal money, equipment, and workplace supplies. Ideally, stealing from an employer is theft and should be treated as a criminal offense. Most importantly, employee theft is a violation of the ethical principles of an integral part of business operations. Both the employee and the employers depend on the ethical principle to provide them with a proper organizational framework. This paper constitutes an analysis of employee theft by presenting a scenario of employee theft in a company and the impact that such an incident had on the organization’s operations and the rest of the employees.
The Cashier at a retail store complained about the small salary she was being paid to the rest of her colleagues at the workplace. Over the years, she was thinking of ways to earn extra money to cater to her family. While working at the retail store for over five years, the Cashier had written several letters to her manager requesting a salary increment. However, her manager has been ignoring her letters. The situation got even worse when the Cashier’s son was ill and had to be taken to hospital, and she did not have health insurance cover. The series of unfortunate events escalated to compelling the Cashier to contemplate stealing cash from her work. The Cashier wanted to pay for her son’s medical bill at the hospital to have him discharged. However, her plea and letters to the manager did not bear any results. As a result, she resorted to taking money from the till where all the sales she made that day used to be temporarily stored before being transferred to the bank account. Every day, the manager would require all the cashiers to submit a record of the sales made. On that day, Cashier did not submit her sales record to the manager. Instead, she left her workplace earlier and did not request any permission from her manager. The following day, she reported to work and without informing her manager. The manager called her to the office to ask why she did not submit her sales records and money the previous day. The Cashier did not have any substantive explanation for failing to submit the payment. After interrogation from the manager, it was evident that she had stolen over $5000 from till. This was a violation of the business rules and policy that inhibits the employees from stealing. Ideally, she had violated the ethical principles of the company. The Cashier was suspended to give room for further investigation pending
Employee theft is unethical in the sense that it violates the moral principles that provide guidelines for the way business is conducted. Additionally, in various methods, the business ethic also guides how the individual employees acceptably conduct themselves. Ethical principles are crucial to setting a professional workspace between the employer and employee. The Cashier’s actions are informed by evil ideology, which contradicts the stipulated business ethics that are pegged on right and wrong. Primarily, ethical behavior determines the acceptable and unacceptable conduct for all individuals involved in the operations of a business. It is an exercise in futility to have a company operating without a proper framework guiding its actions. Though she believes that failure by the retail store management to increase her salary warrants her freedom to steal from the business, it is not morally acceptable. One of the fundamental ethical principles that direct the operations in the organization is honesty. The actions and communication of all the employees and employers are guided on the acceptable and moral principle. Arguably, the fact that she needed to pay the hospital bill for her son does not necessarily allow her to steal from the company. Prasad, Kumar & Kapoor (2020) argue that businesses stand on right or wrong choices. Most importantly, the Cashier’s actions take one side of the divide, and in this case, she was on the wrong side as per the ethical principle of her workplace.
On the contrary, the actions of the Cashier are explicable using the parable of Sadhu. According to the parable of the Sadhu, an individual can go astray when they lack the support of their group (Beyer & Nino, 2017). The actions of the Cashier to steal money can be explained by understanding that she wanted to clear the hospital bill for her son, which is a factor that prompted her to steal the money. Most importantly, the several letters she wrote to the manager requesting a salary increment can be understood as her approach to asking for support from the organization. In the parable of Sadhu, the narrator, McCoy, is motivated by self-interest instead of the common good and taking care of the old Sadhu. In a juxtaposition, McCoy’s character and actions contradict his friend Stephen and the Swiss couple, who are more than willing to help Sadhu(Beyer & Nino, 2017). It is imperative to note that the moral lesson from the parable of Sadhu proves that support from others is pertinent. Lack of such support can lead to a devastating situation in which an individual becomes vulnerable. The actions of the retail store manager resonate with those of McCoy. Though he was aware of the pressing issues the Cashier was facing, he could not violate the business policies to support the woman. Instead, he acts in the interest of the company.
The unethical actions of the Cashier could have been prevented by the organization having a human resource department that is responsible for addressing the plight of the employees. The problems of employees in an organization ought to be addressed in order for them to develop a sense of belonging in the company. It is appalling that the manager at the retail store did not make any efforts to get to understand the problems of employees. By developing a system of the human resource department that allows the employees to take part in the decision-making processes, it becomes possible to improve their working conditions (Semeryanova et al., 2020). If the Cashier’s needs were addressed prior and possible assistance offered, it would have helped prevent the situation.
Similarly, the practice of whistle-blowing is an integral part of the ethical consideration that should be taken into consideration when handling such a case. Though the cashier has violated the ethical principle of honesty, there is a need to follow the due procedures in tandem with the law. Even if the cashier was caught stealing the money, she should not be subjected to an immediate knee-jerk sacking. Instead, all the due procedure of suspending her should be taken into consideration. Ideally, the employer is at risk of unfair dismissal claims or even breach of the employment contract. As such, it is paramount first to suspend the employee and launch an immediate investigation. The decision to dismiss the cashier should be based on the ethical procedure and provide the employees with an opportunity to share their experience and defend themselves (Semeryanova et al., 2020). In this case, the cashier had her compelling reasons that informed her actions. Additionally, providing the employee with prior notice of their suspension from work is essential in maintaining employment.
Conclusively, unethical actions are motivated by workplace factors that can be addressed by developing an organizational culture that discourages such behavior. Employers are bound to inform the employees of what is expected of them in their job descriptions. Organizations need to have an effective human resource department that addresses the plight of the employee. In the scenario where the cashier had stolen money from the retail store, the problem would have been prevented if an effective system in the workplace took care of the issues of concern presented to the management by the employees. Similarly, enhancing ethical awareness among the employees is a sure way to curb such misconduct cases among the employees. There is a need to assess the workplace factors that motivate such unethical behavior among employees and put in place apt measures from the human resources department to handle cases of employee misconduct.
Beyer, J. M., & Nino, D. (2017). Ethics in practice: the parable of the Sadhu
‘ethics and cultures in international business,’ Journal of Management Inquiry, vol.8, no.3, pp. 287-297
.Prasad, N., Kumar, V., & Kapoor, S. (2020). Business ethics: A decision between right or wrong. Journal of Public Policy & Environmental Management, 1(1), 20-30https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Business-Ethics%3A-A-Decision-Between-Right-or-Wrong-Prasad-Kumar/b204e465b89d01af31eb27ebf15d6e6e8c1bee63
Semeryanova, N., Vasenina, I., Aitov, I., & Sedelnikova, E. (2020). Settlement of disputes upon the termination of employment contract by agreement of parties. In E3S Web of Conferences (Vol. 164, p. 11028). EDP Sciences.http://ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—ed_protect/—protrav/—ilo_aids/documents/legaldocument/wcms_127473.pdf
Snook, A.(2020) Employee theft and how to prevent them. I-Sight. Retrieved from https://i-sight.com/resources/5-types-of-employee-theft-and-how-to-prevent-them/
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