Ethical Issues at Workplace Case Study 2022

Running head: ETHICAL ISSUES AT WORKPLACE
ETHICAL ISSUES AT WORKPLACE
Name of Student
Name of the University
Author Note

ETHICAL ISSUES AT WORKPLACE1
Case Study:
The scenario chosen for the purpose of the study is scenario number 1 or where one
evening I (the vice president field operations) get a phone call from an employee. The phone
call was from Ellen who stays a few states away from me. However she belongs to my area
of responsibility that is she works and lives in the same place (Othman & Othman, 2015).
Ellen had made the call that she can no longer tolerate the unethical practise going on in the
workplace that was her co-worker was being secularly harassed by their manager in their
three person office and that made her emotional (Lytle, 2015). She called me up to give me
the phone number and her name so that I can call her late in the evening when her husband
would be sleeping. I called the co-worker of Ellen as it was my responsibility to get more
details about the case (Alonso, Moscoso & Salgado, 2017). Tammy also said that she was
afraid of the manager because of his violent temperament and was afraid that there would be
some explosive outbursts if she said anything.
My conflict management style is generally collaborating because I always try to find a
mid-way that is acceptable to both the parties (Rahim, 2016). I try to find a solution that is
acceptable to both the parties and satisfies their needs. Therefore I try to attain a win-win
situation for both the parties. As it can be seen from the diagram given below that the
collaborating style of conflict management is high on both assertiveness and cooperative
(Connerley & Wu, 2016). However according to Lytle (2015) there is a need for external
parties to solve a situation when there is any form of harassment or discrimination taking
place in the workplace. In the present scenario there is an ethical issue taking place that is the
sexual harassment of the employees and therefore there is a need for external people to look
after these issues. This is so because there are potential legal issues involved in the same.

ETHICAL ISSUES AT WORKPLACE2
Figure1: Conflict management style
Source: (Ayub et al., 2017)
The laws that are involved in this situation are that of the civil rights act 1964 is
involved because it prohibits any form of discrimination in the workplace on the basis of
gender, race and other categories (Smith, 2012). Therefore the harassment taking place is
subject to legal actions under the civil act 1964. Further the violence against women act 1994,
also makes it easier for women to take cases of sexual harassment in the court in order to get
justice and the equal employment opportunity commission has also been established for the
purpose of reporting the cases of sexual harassment which was considered as a type of sexual
discrimination to the civil act 1964. The case also attracts the whistle blowing act towards
itself because the whistleblowing is used to convey any wrongful doing of the organization.
Ellen as we can see from the case scenario has adopted the same to report about the wrong
doing to the operational vice president who is responsible for that area.
The investigation will ensure that the confidentiality of the information is maintained
such that the employee who has spoken up and the victim does not feel scared to lose their
jobs. The next is to provide some form of protection to the victim from the accused otherwise
they may not be able to speak about the facts of the case. An investigator is to be appointed