Ethical Dilemmas in Organization and Business Management Report

This report delves into the realm of ethical issues within the context of organization and business management, addressing the importance of ethical decision-making processes. It initiates with an introduction to ethical dilemmas and the significance of ethical systems within a business environment, highlighting key ethical theories such as egoism, universalism, relativism, virtue ethics, and utilitarianism. The report then presents a case analysis of "Top Glove," a company facing labor-related ethical issues, including illegal overtime, unethical recruitment, and poor working conditions. It explores the causes of these problems, attributing them to a lack of a clear code of ethics and unethical behavior at the management level. The report further outlines the ethical decision-making process, emphasizing steps like identifying ethical problems, analyzing moral impacts, evaluating alternatives, and implementing solutions. The report underscores the need for ethical leadership and the promotion of ethical behavior within organizations to mitigate such issues. Finally, the report recommends potential remedies, including changes to recruitment processes, the enforcement of ethical codes, and the promotion of ethical practices. The report concludes by emphasizing the critical role of ethical decision-making in ensuring the well-being of employees and the sustainability of businesses.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Case Analysis...............................................................................................................................3
Cause of Problem.............................................................................................................................4
Ethical decision process...................................................................................................................5
Remedy to solve problem................................................................................................................7
Enhance ethics in organization........................................................................................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
Ethical dilemma or issues are the problems and situations that need to be identify by
an individual in the management in order to understand the wrong and right actions and their
consequences on others (Davies, 2016). It is important for a manager to understand what is
going wrong in the organization in order to take ethical decision. Ethical decision is a process of
choosing the most appropriate alternatives amongst the available options with ethical values and
principles (Shaw, 2016). These ethical decisions are taken in the ethical system. Ethical system
in business environment consists of the principles, rules and values that an individual consider
while deciding between the right and wrong doing (Trevino & Nelson, 2016). There are several
theories which help in taking ethical decision that are egoism, universalism, relativism, virtue
ethics and utilitarianism. These theories of ethics can be applied in the business environment to
influence decisions of an individual in the business (Crane, Matten, Glozer & Spence, 2019).
Universalism theory refer to an ethical system with same values and belief of society in this
system all people of society share common values such as, when a person stole an item it is
considered as wrong doing by each and every individual or in every culture. This is called the
state of universalism.
Egoism is considered as the state in which the main focus is to “maximize benefits for
the individual or doing the right thing”; it means an individual should promote the activities that
impact to the society in a positive way. Utilitarianism is the most common and used principle or
theory in ethics that focus on the concept to “do the greatest good for more number of people”.
This is the principle of theory that guide ethical decision making or people take decision in
businesses on the basis of this principle (Hartman, DesJardins & McDonald, 2008). In

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businesses in order to ensure that the benefit of decision is more to company, government,
employees, customers and society. Relativism includes people culture, opinion, behavior and
religion in decision making process. Nowadays, businesses promote culture diversity due to that
this theory become more important as it is essential for managers to consider the opinions of
employees from different culture in order to respect their culture. Virtue ethics is another
important theory that is based on the level of moral values in an individual while taking decisions
(Griseri & Seppala, 2010). The aim of this report is to understand the ethical system in the
business environment, causes of ethical issues and remedies to overcome. Further this report
includes strategies or ways by which managers promote ethical behavior in the organization.
Case Analysis
Business faces ethical issue because of individual behavior and problem in the ethical
climate of the organization (Ferrell & Fraedrich, 2015). This can be understood with the help of
case of “Top Gloves”. Top glove headquarter in Kuala Lumpur and the company supplies rubber
gloves and medical equipment to 195 countries for that Top glove hired 11,000 migrant workers
in Malaysia in order to continue their business operations. But the workers are facing various
issues in the company related to working condition and working hours. It is analyzed from the
case that the company is not providing value to their workers and not treating them in a fair
manner. The main ethical issue that is identified in the organization is long and illegal overtime
hours. Further, few more issues that are needed to be highlighted are unethical recruitment agent,
breach of national labor law of Malaysia, poor safety practices, and unsafe environment. In top
gloves, workers are working more than 120 hours overtime in a month and as per Malaysian
labor laws overtime hours cannot exceed 104 hours in a month. Labor abuses in Malaysia seen
all across the country in various companies this is an ethical issue that needed to be highlighted

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not only at corporate level but at national level to ensure that workers will get their rights and all
the companies work in obligation of labor laws (Nikkei, 2018).
Cause of Problem
In top gloves, issues are identified that are labor abuses and overtime hours. The causes
of these issues are the management system and lack of ethical climate in the organization. The
company is not following or abiding to the labor laws because of that cause workers are facing
issues like illegal overtime hours, poor working conditions and safety issues. The causes of this
problem are no code of ethics, workers fear to leave job because of low minimum wages and
debts, and lack of ethical decision making.
In order to ensure smooth functioning of the company and to ensure workers satisfaction
each and every organization has to follow or develop code of ethics for the employees so they
can work accordingly. Code of ethics is the statement in which expected behavior from each
individual working in a workplace is given so that people at workplace behave ethically and
makes decisions appropriately (Adelstein & Clegg, 2016). The issue with Top Gloves is that the
company is not following any code of conduct and due to no code of ethics workers are facing
various issues. The main reason is that the company did not strictly follow all the laws and rules
formed by the government. Clear code of ethics helps the company to include all the rules and
policies according to that people will work in the organization. From the issue that is identified
in the case of Top Gloves it can be said that cause of this issue is unclear code of ethics as
explained earlier having proper code of ethics bind the people to work under rules and policies
that ensure ethical working and ethical decision making (Osibanjo, Akinbode, Falola & Oludayo,
2018).

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Ethical problems in any business arises due to unethical behavior of top level
management in the organization, due to financial factors employees take unethical decisions,
mainly to improve the profitability of the businesses by avoiding tax, lack of proper code of
ethics, unclear policies lead to poor ethical decision, unethical environment or bad organizational
culture, all these are the reasons that may lead or promote unethical behavior in the businesses.
Businesses should try to overcome this in order to avoid unethical decisions and negative
outcome of this on brand or business. In top gloves, the reasons or cause of problem that are
identified are financial related, poor ethical behavior, lack of code of conduct and unethical
behavior of top management or lack of ethical values at the top level as if top level didn’t force
the workers to work overtime and paid them fair wages as per the policies this might lead to
ethical decision and because of that workers interest also protected in the organization (Phillips
& Mountinho, 2018).
In business there are always grey areas related to ethics, as some businesses consider a
thing ethical and other might take it as unethical. Ethical issues in any businesses arise from the
way an individual behave. If the top level manager involved in corruption whole organization get
affected by this wrong thing (Bertland, 2009). In the case of top gloves this happened because
top level managers are involved in unethical decisions and they want workers to work overtime
and even didn’t pay them as per the overtime wages. Involvement of top management in
unethical decision is the main reason that workers face such kind of issues in the working
environment. In order to solve the problem of workers it is essential to take ethical decision for
the benefit of employees and for organization otherwise the top players like top gloves will not
able to survive in the market.

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Ethical decision process
Top gloves a manufacturing unit of gloves is a leading player in Malaysia but due to
workers exploitation the company highlighted in the unethical behavior. In order to minimize the
unethical behavior in the organization some ethical steps should be taken by the management,
society and government. Ethical decision making is a process of identifying the ethical cause or
dilemma then finding best possible solution to overcome it with right doing or by opting ethical
path (Wittmer, 2019). Ethical decision includes following steps that are; Firstly it include
identifying the ethical problem that need to be solved this can be identified by asking question
and analyzing the cost of that to others or society. Second step is to recognize all the moral
impacts of alternatives that are identified to solve the ethical issue such as benefits to society,
harm to people, and right exercised that greatly benefit people and right things that can be
denied. Third step is to analyze the alternatives or best fir for the situation by using different
approaches of ethics that are Utilitarianism and virtue ethics. This help in identifying economic
outcomes of the decision, legal requirements if any and ethical duties of each and every
individual involved in it. Lastly, decision is taken or solution is finally implemented (Schwartz,
2016).
A decision is considered as ethical only when these aspects are fulfilled such as
leadership, values, integrity, loyalty and concern. Leaders have the responsibility to ensure that
ethical decisions are implemented in the business in all the levels. Strong culture at top level
management ensure that this will be followed at lower level to so leaders are such that they
demonstrate ethical practices in the organization (Bazerman & Sezer, 2016). Ethical value
system is also considered while taking ethical decision so the ethical business unit follows the
code of conduct to ensure stability or uniformity in decision making process. The ethical

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decision making also include high level of integrity, the ethical businesses abide to all the laws
and regulation of government and ensure that this should be followed by the organization in the
fair manner. In order to implement ethical decision it is important to make solid relationship with
employees as loyal employees give best to their employers and contribute more so loyalty is
another aspect of ethical decision making (Zeni, Buckley, Mumford and Griffith, 2016).
In relation to the case of Top gloves, top management should firstly understand the cause
of worker exploitation in the company, in the above section it was identified that workers work
overtime in order to pay their debts to recruitment agency and all this things were appreciated
because the company don’t have a proper code of ethics for employee or if they have they are not
following it. In order to solve this problem ethically, after analyzing the problem top
management should identify the ways to solve it that can be by eliminating the recruitment
agencies for recruitment, following or framing a proper code of ethics according to the
Malaysian labor law that should be followed in whole organization. This problem is not only
related to top gloves but this is the case in every organization in Malaysia so government should
take a drastic step in order to protect the interest of migrant workers. Further, the ethical
behavior should be promoted in the organization so that the people who are involved in this
process take decision ethical. As in this case the if top level employers didn’t allow the workers
to work overtime this case might not happened as this indicate the lack of ethical behavior in the
organization and amongst the top level people.
Every ethical decision making involves some costs to the company or to the economy or
to the society. In the above case company can opt from the various alternatives by considering
the bad and good of each alternative. Top gloves should change its recruitment process, ensure
code of ethics for workers, and should promote ethical behavior in the organization. All these

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decisions affect the society and employees in the positive way. As workers will get pay for their
overtime as per recruitment policies, overtime hours will not exceed from 104 hours in a month
as per Malaysian law, and if training is given to workers about their rights and rules this will help
them to give voice to values. This will help the company to come back to track and protect its
workers from the unethical decisions and wrong doing that harm their health and safety and this
impact ultimately reduce the efficiency of workers and productivity of company (Pohling,
Bzdok, Stumpf & Strobel, 2016).
Remedy to solve problem
In relation to the case of top gloves it can be said that in order to solve that problem
management need to take steps that are discussed in the above section. With that it is essential t
promote ethical behavior in the organization as it creates a positive culture for employees and
managers. Businesses that have strong ethical culture and workplace add value to the companies
and support the valued and safe environment for the employees. According to Watkins & Wilber,
2015 “misconduct happen in every organization” but it is the responsibility of the businesses to
promote ethical conduct in the workplace amongst the employees through various programs and
activities.
In general, companies promote ethical conduct by setting the example by the top
management in front of their employees. Further, managers communicate the expectation that
they have from their employees regarding ethical behavior or ethical conduct in the organization.
The code of ethics is a statement that ensures that all the ethical expectations are fulfilled by the
employees it is a written statement in which all the expected behavior by the employees are
stated. Another way to promote ethical behavior in the organization is conducting seminars and

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workshops for employees to make them realize the importance of ethical conduct and behavior in
the workplace as well as impact of unethical behavior on the society, environment and
stakeholders. The most usual way that companies used in order to promote ethical behavior in
the organization or at workplace is rewarding ethical actions of the employees and punishing
unethical actions. Further a mechanism can be provided to the employees that ensure that they
can share ethical decisions or unethical behavior of other to the top level in order to stop the
unethical practices by each and every individual (Monshipouri, Welch & Kennedy, 2017).
In relation to top glove, the company can promote ethical behavior in the organization by
conducting various training sessions and workshops. These ethical programs that can be
conducted by top gloves in order to ensure that this sort of problem will not be repeated in the
future and the management of the company ensure ethical decision making in the company.
Ethical program should include the following points that are expectation from the employees
about ethical conduct in the workplace or premises, a strong communication system and the
committee that ensure the ethical problems to be solved on time , and ethical officer who give
training to employees about the wrong and right doing or its impact. These ethical programs are
of two types that are compliance based and integrity based. In the top gloves, compliance based
program should be conducted because employees of company didn’t follow code of ethics
whether it’s top level managers or workers. These programs help the workers to understand their
right and obligations for the company and the points in which they can raise their voice.
Compliance based program ensure that legal acts are not violated by the company already done
as the company didn’t follow labor law act and force their employees to work overtime in unfair
wages with no rest time. This can ensure that all these unethical behavior will not happen in the
future. As from this program the cause of problem is solved that means the company ensure that

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all the employees and management work in the ethical code of conduct and follow all the ethical
practices.
It is essential for top gloves to firstly frame a code of ethics for the employees as per the
Malaysian law and ethical behavior that company is expecting from its employees. After that top
gloves will conduct an ethical program in which all the expectations and roles of workers are
communicated. This is the remedy for the problem that was identified in the above section the
problem of workers abusiveness and exploitation. Further, these programs should be conducted
on the continuous basis in order to promote ethical behavior from top to lower level in the
organization (Barry, 2016).
Enhance ethics in organization
Businesses that follow ethical practices are successful and survive for the long run in the
market whereas unethical business practices lead to negative outcomes to the stakeholders. It is
an area of concern to enhance the ethics in the business and create a culture that nurtures and
support ethics. In order to enhance the ethical practices and behavior in the organizations various
strategies can be implemented. In order to ensure ethical culture and behavior in the organization
and to reduce unethical actions, for this strategies to be made to reduce unethical behavior such
as focusing on long term effect rather than short term benefits, ensure a proper code of ethics in
the business, by evaluating the impact of each alternative or evaluating the costs and benefits of
each alternative, abide to laws and regulations, and considering ethics as the critical factor for the
survival in the long run (Yuan, Lu, Tian & Yu, 2018).

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Ethics in an organization is important aspect, ethical behavior in the organization depend
on the employees value an d attitude and with that corporate social responsibility also help in the
companies to promote ethical behavior in the employees and concern for society. This benefits
the organization in following ways as through that more employees will be attracted and wants to
work in the organization, investors will be attracted towards the business because all the ethical
practices might impact on the share prices in positive way, attract more customers towards the
products and services. So because of ethical behavior and ethical code of conduct companies,
employees and customers get benefits (Zeni, Buckley, Mumford and Griffith, 2016).
“Every organization should have clear ethical codes, ethical standards, ethical programs,
and ethical decision making process”. The elements that help in enhancing ethical behavior and
strategies that can be used in order to promote and ensure ethical working environment are
corporate ethical standards, code of ethics, ethical programmes and ethical decision making
(Bell, Bryman & Harley, 2018). The strategies that can be used are such as employee
empowerment, communication procedures and policies, discipline, and changing bad patterns in
the organizations. Code of ethics enhance the ethical behavior as this is a written statement,
ethical programs also ensure ethical behavior as this train the employees and employers about
ethics, ethical standards help the companies to work according to laws and regulation and ethical
decision making ensure that the all people in the organization are involved in an ethical way in
the process and support right decision with proper facts and figures (Bowie, 2017).
Employee empowerment is the one strategy in order to enhance the ethical climate in the
organization. This includes giving more power to the employees as per their job role and work as
if employees have more control and power in hand they can justify their right decision. Further
this strategy helps the companies to increases the efficiency level of employees in their work.

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Empowered employees can take decision by own that encourage more creative solutions by the
employees for the problem (Kaptein, 2017). Communication of policies and code in a manner
that ensure ethical behavior and this can be done through training employees and managers about
ethical behavior. Ethical behavior can be promoted through discipline in the organization. It is
not possible to force the ethical behavior on the employees but with the help of disciplined
structure and processes it can be ensured that ethical violation not happened from the side of
employees. One more strategy that can be implemented from the side of organization is changing
policies and processes in order to promote ethical behavior such as company can change its
reward system, add some rewards for the employees who follow ethical practices, and can make
the organization structure in a manner so that employees can easily reach to the ethical
committee to disclose about the unethical behavior in the organization (Phillips & Mountinho,
2018).
Further, in order to enhance the ethical behavior of employees, the company should hire
the candidates that have high ethical values and belief. Hiring right candidate at the top level
help the company to ensure ethical behavior in the whole organization and solving the problem
in the ethical way. The ethical practices like prioritizing ethical decisions over profits or sales,
concerning for environment and society and sustainability etc. This kind of behavior should be
promoted in the organization by rewarding the employees, promote them on the basis of ethical
behavior, creating a participative system, disciplinary policies, ensure employees misconduct and
ensure ethical standard.

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Conclusion
Business ethics is related to the identifying the wrong and right doing in the organization
and its impact on the people. It is important for businesses to work in an ethical manner by
taking ethical decision. Business ethics are the set of values and belief or moral behavior that
guide the people in businesses. Ethical system in business environment helps the businesses in
taking ethical decisions by using approaches such as universalism, virtue ethics and many more.
This concept was understood with the help of Top Glove case, the problem that was identified in
the case “worker exploitation or abusiveness”. The main cause behind this was lack of ethical
behavior in the management and poor code of ethics. This problem can be solved by following
ethical decision process and in that by evaluating all the alternatives costs and benefits to the
company and people. The remedy that was found by analyzing all the alternatives was that the
company should conduct ethical program in order to promote ethical behavior in the
management. From the whole case study and readings it can be concluded that in order to earn
profits businesses are taking unethical path and violating laws and rules as done by top glove a
Malaysian company. So in order to ensure that all the businesses follow ethical behavior and
conduct in the premises, management, government and society should contribute.

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