When
it comes to business ethics it seems that different companies have different
values and rules as to what things are acceptable and what aren’t. For example, some companies allow their
employees to access the Internet for personal use and others do not. The level at which certain behaviors are
acceptable vary widely, some holding employees to very high ethical standards
others are on the border of being unethical.
In
his video, Gallagher (2013) mentioned that even when certain behaviors are not
good for the customer or the company they are still widely acceptable, one
example is policy violations; these actions can often turn into a slippery
slope. As Lafollette (2007) pointed out
that in a slippery slope argument “we should reject some proposed behaviors or
policies because we judge that their likely consequences will be bad” (p.
131). When companies and businesses
treat certain behaviors as acceptable then there are no negative consequences
for employees and therefore they end up make poor decisions.
Unfortunately
at my previous job, my leaders did not exhibit many positive behaviors in
regards to ethics, which is one of the many reasons I chose to leave. Their behaviors ranged from slightly
unethical and possible acceptable to outright unethical. In my company, it was extremely common for
managers to leave their shift early yet be paid for the entire shift and most
took advantage of this. Their behavior
was acceptable in the eyes of the company and so they took advantage of it. On the other end of the spectrum, our department’s
manager was openly engaging in extramarital affairs with subordinates, often on
company time and during business trips. The
fact that these behaviors were simply overlooked for many years continues to
breed more and more bad decisions and unethical behaviors.
Gallagher, C. (2013). Business Ethics Keynote Speaker - Chuck Gallagher
- shares Straight
Talk about Ethics! Retrieved July 18, 2016,
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUJ00vNGCPE
LaFollette, H. (2007). The Practice of Ethics.
Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, Ltd.
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