Ethics in the Workplace: A Case Study

This article discusses a case study on workplace ethics violations and the dilemmas that arise in such situations. It explores the key ethical issues, professional ethics perspective, philosophical ethics, and sociological perspective. The article also highlights the importance of maintaining corporate decorum and the impact of wrongful actions on the society.

Running head: ETHICS
Ethics
Name of Student
Name of the University
Author Note

ETHICS 1
Introduction
As was reported in the newspaper article Deadspin, there was a violation of workplace
ethics by Mariners President Kevin Mather, former president Chuck Armstrong and former
executive vice president Bob Aylward. They were all accused of indulging in unethical
workplace behavior. Employees working in a company are seen to be indulging in sexual
perversion which arise due to availability of these materials on the internet. The workplace
dilemma shall be dealing with a situation where an employee who is very important to the
workplace indulges in sexual perversion by using illegal sites which are banned in the office. The
three people who were accused of sexual harassment by a fellow woman employee left their jobs
and quit. (Deadspin.com, 2018)
The complainant had accused one of employees of passing inappropriate and lewd
comments and for making women in the office feel uncomfortable. There are many issues that
arise out of the anonymity on the internet. Another situation arose when another employee
Aylward was accused of watching and playing porn on his personal devise and the pop messages
that displayed on the screen were full of inappropriate images. The women who faced the
harassment quit their jobs and left the office right after making the complaint. Armstrong,
another employee was also accused by another woman for inappropriately touching her and
making her feel uncomfortable. The accusations were glaring and had taken the business world
by storm because a video also went viral where inappropriate content was shown and women
were shamelessly groped. Though the other employees did not make any comments regarding
the incident, Mather claimed that the workplace ethics should be followed. He acknowledged
that workplace ethics are primarily important and that as a community, the organization could
have conducted themselves better.

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When an employee is seen to be indulging in such unlawful activities the dilemma that
arises is to retain that position of that employee in the corporate or to terminate him for
exploiting his position. There is sharp increase in the number of cases related to ethical abuse
and therefore it is the need of the hour to check these cases and to point out the challenges and
how to deal with the dilemmas that arise out of those problems. (Frost, 2015).
The key ethical issues are as follows:
1. Whether such actions of the employee will lead to sexual harassment?
2. Is the employee following corporate code of ethics?
3. Every company has their set of goals and principles and by indulging in such inappropriate
behavior, is the employee breaching corporate decorum
Professional Ethics Perspective:
Ethics is the science of applying morality rules and principles to existing problems to
reach a conclusion. Dilemma is supposed to arise when there is a constitution regarding a
decision which might have a negative impact on the well being of a person but the decision is
important to carry forward the basic principles of ethics (Kakabadse & Kakabadse, 2017).
Whenever there are conflicting interest or there is a competition in the values, a dilemma shall
arise as to the right approach which shall be applied. The rule of ethics is to reach a common
goal which is good for everybody. Applying the same rules of achieving a common good and a
conclusive goal it is important to apply the same logic in a professional sphere (Fainstein &
DeFilippis, 2015). It is not possible to ascertain the right conclusion of a particular problem but
the aim should be to ensure that the consequences of the action taken a positive and for the
upliftment of the common good.

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Professional ethics can be defined as a code of conduct which is applicable in a
professional sphere. Before going by this theory if any employee is seen to be using unauthorized
sites or indulging in inappropriate behavior, which has a negative impact on the working
atmosphere of the company he should not be leniently dealt with. Sexual harassment at
workplace is treated to be an unethical issue at an organization. To make sure that there is
corporate standards is behaviour the wrongdoer shall be strictly penalized and if need be should
also be terminated (Shohamy, 2014). It is very difficult to device a clear cut situation which is
good or principle to be applied to every situation. Therefore essentiality is to consider a probable
consequence and then act to reach the optimal decision. In this scenario, the employees did not
pay heed to right and wrong of their actions and indulged in unfair and unethical practice.
Philosophical ethics:
The philosophical concept of ethics can be seen as the divide between what is right and
what is wrong. Philosophy has a very strong relationship with morals and therefore it can be
stated that moral philosophy is similar to the concept of fair and unfair as well as just and unjust
(Darwall, 2018). Hindi Ling with dilemma it is very important to understand the moral
obligations of a person and what is the right method to ensure that the philosophy of brightness
wins over the concept of being wrong or unfair to a person (Halliwell, 2015). Moral philosophy
always works as a question that tries to find the answer to a particular situation. It is mostly the
purpose that is fulfilled by making sure that there is a clear understanding of what the obligations
of a person are and what are of true value to him. The ITC is of the opinion but it needs to be
checked if the employees are functioning as upholding the best interests of the company. ICT
also believes that their employee is a stakeholder’s trustee and therefore she has to abide by the
principles of the company. The code that is followed in the company is also termed as the ICT

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code which lay down the proper code of conduct which should be carried out in an ethical
manner (Moore & Ahmed, 2016). The philosophy behind implementing the code is for the sake
of making sure that everybody falls in line and that nobody breaches the principles of ethics. If it
so happens that a person with the intention to defraud the company enters into a transaction but
not only harms the environment of the company but also cast an unprofessional attitude the
company has to take strict steps. In cases of organizational setup with their employers and
employees working towards a common goal it is important to maintain code of conduct and it is
also important to associate obligatory mandates. The employees have accessed websites which
are against the principles of the company and therefore they have breached the company ethics.
Sociological perspective:
These are the code of ethics which also hold a sociologist understanding of the principles
of ethics. Working in an organisation the management and the workers have a duty to act in the
professional ability and also maintain the proper corporate decorum (Crane & Matten, 2016).
Professional responsibilities as well as conduct a Boat important factors and they should be
examined on a day to day basis. The ideals of sociology has to be maintained by the people
working in a company. There are no universal sociological rules but they differ from company to
company. The basic code of conduct for every company is same and the ethical standards ensure
the activities of the workers do not have a negative impact on the society. Hacking harassment
use of improper language or breach of any confidential information are considered to be against
the principles of ethics (Shapiro & Stefkovich, 2016). It is the rule of the society to do away with
issues that arise in an organisation so that the trust of the people in the society are preserved.
Companies need to have very strict policies so that there is no breach of the principles of ethics.
The dilemma arises as to how to deal with the problems so that the goals of equity and fairness

5ETHICS
can be achieved. The problem that arises in such situations is to keep in mind that a wrong action
can have a very negative impact on the reputation of the company.
Applying the principles of ethics in the current situation where it is seen that a lot of
people use the internet for wrongful gains and therefore it is very important to keep in mind that
the negative bearing of an organisation will also reflect adversely on the reputation of the
company. As these employees took part in a video that went viral, the reputation of the company
has started to delude in the public eye. Applying the concept of maximum happiness of the
maximum number it is also important to keep in mind the broader interest of the society (Ni &
Van Mart, 2015). It will be very unfair to keep in mind the interest of the company or the sole
interest of an individual working for the company. A social issues an issue involving human
emotions and therefore it becomes very challenging to understand the impact of a wrongful
action on the society (Spence et al., 2018). The employees in this case have harassed women and
they have been accused of unwarranted and unprecedented behavior which cannot be accepted in
a corporate setup. The employment rules mandate that they should be transparent and principled.
Therefore, the employees are socially accepted to be part of the workplace which has a societal
purport which enables that when an employee breaches that code of conduct, he is going against
the set rules of corporate decorum. Though the importance of the person in terms of profit
making is immense to the company the interest of other individuals living in the society is
equally important and therefore if the behaviour of the worker is seen to be potentially harmful to
the society the company has to take very strict actions.
With new advances in technology there are also ethical limitations and the entry of new
scientific and innovative practices bring with them various impediments to freedom. In this
digital world humans are very dependent on technology and when this dependence is curtailed

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they might arise situation where there is a complete breakdown of labour and productivity.
Therefore to ensure that there is both growth and development of human resources there needs to
be some balance so that there is proper use of internet (MacDougall et al., 2015).

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References
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