Ethics and Sustainability: Ethical Frameworks and Workplace Behavior

This report, submitted for the MGT301A Ethics and Sustainability course, explores two key ethical issues within the Telstra Corporation: workplace discrimination and corporate espionage. Part A identifies these issues, analyzing the company's shortcomings in addressing discrimination against disabled employees and the theft of intellectual property. It then applies ethical frameworks, specifically the virtue framework to address discrimination and the rights approach to address corporate espionage, justifying the selection of each framework. Part B summarizes the issues and frameworks discussed in Part A and reflects on the future workplace behavior the author would like to see implemented to prevent such ethical breaches, focusing on disciplinary policies, anti-harassment measures, and collaborative work environments. The report emphasizes the importance of ethical decision-making and sustainable practices in the business environment.

Running head: ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
Ethics and Sustainability
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note:

1
ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
Table of Contents
Part A...............................................................................................................................................2
1. Introduction..............................................................................................................................2
2. Identification of Issue 1...........................................................................................................2
3. Ethical Framework for addressing Issue 1 and Justification of Choice...................................2
4. Identification of Issue 2...........................................................................................................3
5. Ethical Framework for addressing Issue 2 and Justification of Choice...................................4
6. Conclusion...............................................................................................................................4
7. Reference List..........................................................................................................................5
Part B...............................................................................................................................................6
1. Introduction..............................................................................................................................6
2. Summary of Issues and Frameworks in Part A.......................................................................6
3. Reflection on the Future Workplace Behavior........................................................................7
4. Conclusion...............................................................................................................................9
5. Reference List........................................................................................................................10

2
ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
Part A
1. Introduction
Ethics and sustainability are referred to as the most vital and significant aspects for any
particular business. These are required for analyzing the sustainability of the business and
whether the business is following some of the most significant and important attributes for
business management (Crane et al., 2019). Social systems are well managed in the business and
as a result, the business obtains some of the most important and significant advantages without
much complexity and issue.
2. Identification of Issue 1
The first and the most significant issue that is being highlighted in the business for
dealing with ethics and sustainability is workplace discrimination in my organization of Telstra.
The business requires to be aware of different anti discrimination regulations and laws (Trevino
& Nelson, 2016). The management of Telstra does not require to receive a complaint from their
employee or customer to be fined to violate the disabilities act and rule. The disable people were
not given with proper chance in the company to deal with the issues and complexities. Moreover,
they had unsafe working conditions in their business and as a result, the employees were highly
dissatisfied with their jobs. Due to such discrimination towards disable employees, the
organization has also faced legal proceedings in their business (MacIntyre, 2016). Whistle
blowing is required in the business for such condition and hence Telstra has lost their fame and
name majorly.
3. Ethical Framework for addressing Issue 1 and Justification of Choice
The most suitable and significant ethical framework that could be extremely effective and
significant to deal with the ethical issue of anti-discrimination within this particular organization

3
ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
of Telstra Corporation Limited is the virtue framework. It is considered as the most significant
and important ethical framework for different organizations as it helps in building up the correct
and effective decisions for the entire company (Werhane, 2019). There had been issues related to
work place discrimination within Telstra and as a result, the decisions undertaken by the
management were ineffective and inappropriate, as compared to the rest of the company. The
virtue ethical framework, hence helps in understanding the character of the organizational
management and customers in the most effective manner. The management of Telstra has not
been of a good character and hence virtue ethics is not being followed by them. As a result, it is
unethical to maintain workplace discrimination.
4. Identification of Issue 2
The second distinct and important ethical issue that is being highlighted in my
organization of Telstra Corporation Limited is corporate espionage. The employer was at major
risk that the existing employees were stealing their vital information (Swanson & Frederick,
2016). As the employer, it is a telecommunication organization, it had been extremely vital and
significant for them to ensure that the data or information is highly unethical in nature.
Moreover, the data was clients’ data that were being utilized by different companies in direct
competition with the respective organization. As soon as the intellectual property was being
stolen, the management got the news that the existing employees have stolen the data and might
be using it for further unethical working (Barry, 2016). In spite of the fact that every employee
had signed a non disclosure agreement during the initiation of their services, these employees
have stolen the data for their own purpose.

4
ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
5. Ethical Framework for addressing Issue 2 and Justification of Choice
The most suitable and significant ethical framework, which would be effective for
addressing this particular ethical issue of corporate espionage is the rights approach. It is a part
of the non consequentialist approach and provides knowledge about the rights of the employees
and staff. Moreover, it is helpful for decision making process in the organization (MacIntyre,
2016). The decision regarding right and wrong eventually permeate in daily life and ethics have
the concern for all distinctive levels in the life, like acting properly as major individuals, creating
responsible companies and government as well as making the society as highly ethical. The issue
that occurred in the organization of Telstra is highly unethical as per the rights approach, since it
does not deal with any type of complex and complicated option for the company. It is highly
influential in nature and helps to protect the ethical rights. As a result, the issue is extremely
unethical in nature.
6. Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion, a conclusion can be drawn that sustainability
requires nursing decisions, which not only emphasize on the current activities, but also focus on
the potential expectable consequences and that contextualize different environmental factors in
the most responsible manner. Both ethics and sustainability are required in the business to ensure
that maximum effectiveness and efficiency is being gained with proper management as well as
coordination of financial, social and environmental concerns and demands.

5
ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
7. Reference List
Barry, N. (2016). Business ethics. Springer.
Crane, A., Matten, D., Glozer, S., & Spence, L. (2019). Business ethics: Managing corporate
citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press, USA.
MacIntyre, A. (2016). The irrelevance of ethics. In Virtue and economy (pp. 19-34). Routledge.
Swanson, D. L., & Frederick, W. C. (2016). Denial and leadership in business ethics
education. Business ethics: New challenges for business schools and corporate leaders,
222-240.
Trevino, L. K., & Nelson, K. A. (2016). Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do
it right. John Wiley & Sons.
Werhane, P. H. (2019). The normative/descriptive distinction in methodologies of business
ethics. In Systems Thinking and Moral Imagination (pp. 21-25). Springer, Cham.

6
ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
Part B
1. Introduction
Business ethics refers to the successful implementation of correct and significant business
policies as well as practices, with regard to the different attributes and aspects (Kim et al., 2017).
Few of the most significant issues, which are quite common for the business include corporate
governance, social responsibilities, bribery, insider trading, work place discrimination and many
more. Some of the most significant and important ethical frameworks are present to deal with
these issues and to make the workplace ethical in nature.
2. Summary of Issues and Frameworks in Part A
I have highlighted two distinct and important issues in the first part of this assignment for
my organization of Telstra Corporation Limited. These two ethical issues include work place
discrimination and corporate espionage. The work place discrimination is about the
discrimination about disable people within the business (LeBreton, Shiverdecker & Grimaldi,
2018). The organization is not providing any advantage to these disable people and as a result,
they are highly demotivated in their work. Moreover, the organization has also violated rules of
business ethics, by not providing the disable people with proper opportunities in their business
and hence the organization is termed as unethical.
The second issue that is being highlighted in this particular organization of Telstra
Corporation Limited is corporate espionage. Few of the existing employees were stealing
corporate data of the organization and as a result, the organizational confidentiality and integrity
has been lost. Moreover, the organizational members were not maintaining work confidentiality
to a high level (Afsar, Badir & Kiani, 2016). They have even violated the non disclosure
agreement that comprises of financial penalties. However, my company was unable to eradicate

7
ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
these issues successfully and hence major discrepancy was being highlighted eventually. I have
used two distinct and important ethical frameworks for understanding these two ethical issues of
work place discrimination and corporate espionage, which are virtue ethics and the rights
approach. A proper work place behavior is needed in this scenario for ensuring that all the
employees are working properly and without facing any type of issue or complexity in the work.
3. Reflection on the Future Workplace Behavior
I have faced two distinct and noteworthy ethical issues of work place discrimination and
corporate espionage in my organization of Telstra Corporation Limited. Hence, I have planned to
get major accessibility and opportunity in the future work place, where these issues would not
exist anymore for me. I, being an employee cannot tolerate any type of unacceptable behavior in
my work place. This type of unacceptable behavior in the work place refers to the behavior,
which creates and even comprises of the major potential for creating as well as risking to the
business or health and safety features of the staff (Yang & Treadway, 2018). It eventually
includes bullying, harassment, aggressive or abusive behavior and discrimination or coercion for
the employees. Under the equality act, present in every specific country or organization, no
employee should face discrimination; however the employees in Telstra are facing
discrimination majorly and they are unable to eradicate them successfully. The disable
employees do not get proper opportunities and hence they lack motivation from work.
I do not wish to balance exercise for adequately dealing with such types of unethical
behavior from my work place and ensure that harassment and bullying is prevented in the work
place in every possible method. My future work place would be having a proper and effective
disciplinary policy and procedure (Beus & Whitman, 2017). It is the considered as one of the
most significant and important methods to deal with any kind of unacceptable behavior and also

8
ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
ensure that I and my entire organization am in appropriate place for comprehensive discipline. It
should be correctly and effectively followed in my future work place for ensuring that a
consistency is being maintained and all types of claims for unfair dismissal is avoided
successfully.
The employer of my future work place will also have to adopt different policies like Anti
bullying and anti-harassment for providing additional or extra guidance for the unacceptable
behavior successfully and without much complexity. As a result, the informal attempts in
resolving the major matters would be attempted in invoking the formal process eventually. For
any type of case of avoiding serious allegation, there would be an automatic response to each and
every situation, so that successful aspects are gained (Wang & Sung, 2016). It might even breach
the implied term of confidence and trust to a high level and it would also be breaching the
employment contract as a whole. Hence, I would have to ensure that I am potentially free from
any type of post termination restriction and unethical attribute in the company.
I have to become successful in eradicating as well as preventing the unacceptable
behavior within the respective work place for providing equal importance to the employer. I
would be ensuring that in my future work place, I will be properly dealing with all types of
issues and complexities leading to the failure of business and becoming a disciplinary issues
majorly (Afsar & Badir, 2017). It becomes quite difficult for different employees to know about
the fact that they should deal with the employer and also provide maximum effectiveness and
efficiency in the business to a high level. As a result, the disruptive behavior would be eradicated
majorly and the work place would be completely free from the issues related to unethical
attributes.

9
ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
I have even planned that the disruptive behavior in my future work place would be
completely eradicated and all the employees and staff would be working collaboratively. As a
result, I would be able to remove the problems for time and energy management and hence a
proper working ambience would be prevailed, unlike in the organization of Telstra Corporation
Limited. It is one of the major reasons that Telstra is losing their employees and there exists no
employee retention policy for the staff. I will also be ensuring that as soon as an employee will
be breaking any ethical rule or regulation in my future work place, I will be raising the issue by
whistle blowing process (Dumont, Shen & Deng, 2017). It is extremely vital to evaluate the
respective situation, establish the major facts and then take up prompt and immediate actions
with their internal processes and policies eventually. Hence, my future work place would be
effective and efficient than my current work place.
4. Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion, a conclusion can be drawn that ethics is the set of
rules and principles that is being utilized in particular organization for dealing with different
attributes and aspects related to ethical concepts and to ensure that the respective business or
organization is free from any type of unethical activity or action. Moreover, the work place
behavior is appropriate and would not include any type of complexity or issue to a high level.

10
ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
5. Reference List
Afsar, B., & Badir, Y. (2017). Workplace spirituality, perceived organizational support and
innovative work behavior. Journal of workplace Learning.
Afsar, B., Badir, Y., & Kiani, U. S. (2016). Linking spiritual leadership and employee pro-
environmental behavior: The influence of workplace spirituality, intrinsic motivation, and
environmental passion. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 45, 79-88.
Beus, J. M., & Whitman, D. S. (2017). Almighty dollar or root of all evil? Testing the effects of
money on workplace behavior. Journal of Management, 43(7), 2147-2167.
Dumont, J., Shen, J., & Deng, X. (2017). Effects of green HRM practices on employee
workplace green behavior: The role of psychological green climate and employee green
values. Human Resource Management, 56(4), 613-627.
Kim, A., Kim, Y., Han, K., Jackson, S. E., & Ployhart, R. E. (2017). Multilevel influences on
voluntary workplace green behavior: Individual differences, leader behavior, and
coworker advocacy. Journal of Management, 43(5), 1335-1358.
LeBreton, J. M., Shiverdecker, L. K., & Grimaldi, E. M. (2018). The dark triad and workplace
behavior.
Wang, Y. D., & Sung, W. C. (2016). Predictors of organizational citizenship behavior: Ethical
leadership and workplace jealousy. Journal of Business Ethics, 135(1), 117-128.
Yang, J., & Treadway, D. C. (2018). A social influence interpretation of workplace ostracism
and counterproductive work behavior. Journal of Business Ethics, 148(4), 879-891.