ETHICAL CONCERNS AND MEANS OF ADDRESSING THEM 6
Running head: ETHICAL CONCERNS AND MEANS OF ADDRESSING THEM 1
Ethical Concerns and Means of Addressing Them
Students Name
Institutional Affiliations
Ethical Concerns
The business sector in the economy has several ethical concerns ranging from the internal environment to the external environment of the business. Ethics are guidelines which direct how activities are done in the organization. There are standard ethics that each business I required to observe. However, these rules and guideline are not followed and therefore leading to the emergence of various ethical issues. This paper aims at discussing the current ethical concerns in the business sector and how companies can address them.
The first ethical issue that is so rampant in many businesses currently is an accounting. According to the companies act, it is required that businesses give a report that has been audited of their accounting information once a year. The report is expected to reflect the true financial activities of the company. However, this has not been the case since most companies do not give all the information, especially on their financial statements. Some of the audit reports are even corrupted, and therefore it becomes difficult for other sectors such as the government in terms of taxing. Investors also face a challenge as they cannot asses their possibility of investing in the company.
The second ethical concern that is rampant in the business sector is harassment and discrimination. This mostly comes in in employment and payments. Human resource management has had issues where the recruitment of employees into the organization has followed corruption cases. These discriminations follow the race, age, gender, religion and even national origin (Kimberlee, 2019). For example, it may be difficult for an employee from the Arabic nation to easily get employed in New York simply because of the nation of origin. In some countries, blacks are hardly considered for high wage salaries due to racial backgrounds. Some of the harassments include delayed payments or low wages and sexual harassments. These factors, therefore, bring about discrimination and harassment which is against the ethical issues of the business.
The third ethical issues are on health and safety. Several cases have been reported of deaths due to occupational accidents and work-related diseases. These risks include fall protection, electric and wiring methods, hazard communication, and environments. Some industries, for example, those working under loud noise are expected to provide protecting gadgets for the employees. However, they are not met as per the ethics regulations of business. The environment also ought to be taken care of. Some companies especially processing and manufacturing emit waste to the environment which exposes people to various health issues.
The fourth ethical concern is on technology, social media, and privacy. With the trends in technology, companies have adopted a new way of monitoring their employees. This includes the use of cameras on surveillance. They monitor videos and photos taken by the cameras. The issue is that the majority do not restrict the extent to which they monitor the employees. They, therefore, intrude into even their private life which is intruding their privacy and therefore violating business ethics on privacy. The employees, on the other hand, have used social media to expose their companies through blocks and other platforms. All these acts violate the privacy terms for the employee and also for the company correspondingly.
The fifth ethical concern in the business sector is on compliance and government issues. It is expected of every company to comply with all laws such as the environmental laws, federal and state safety regulations (Kenneth, 2019). This is mostly to be evidenced by the company’s commitment to its corporate governance. However, it has become a concern since most of these companies do not follow these policies. They deviate by even using the employees to break these rules and regulations and therefore, compromising the laws and policies that govern the business sector. Corruption, for instance, has been almost obvious to the extent that even when it is vivid, no action is taken. It is as if it has already been accepted and become a daily routine in the business.
The last ethical issues regard the integrity and honesty in the goods and services that a company offers. The products and services that a company offers are supposed to be authentic and match the description. Several cases of fake good have been reported. It may not be directly the company, but there may be people who forge the product’s brand. Customers and clients have had problems in getting what they exactly want. This cases mostly come from the external environment where other people try to imitate the products and services of the company. This also is an ethical issue because it compromises the integrity of products and services of the company.
Means to Address the Concerns
There are various ways in which companies can use in addressing these ethical issues. On the issue of accounting problems, auditing is in place to ensure that the accounting information is right. Companies can employ an internal auditor who will be doing the audits frequently like o a monthly basis to ensure consistency. The company can then employ an external auditor at the end of the financial period to ensure that all the records are correct. The internal auditor’s reports should correspond to that of the external auditors at the end of the financial period.
On harassments and discrimination, the company can put up policies in place for intolerance to any ethical misconduct in the workplace (Sousa, 2019). The employees can also be trained on ways they can use to identify these discrimination and harassments and how to report to the right authorities. The company can also encourage the employees to work together with the human resource department to ensure that employee rights are always adhered to.
The regulation on the safety of employees is more of the responsibility of the employee. In this case, it will call for the assistance of the government and labor unions. The company must ensure that in the institute’s safety measure for the employees. The company can consult with the government or any other safety agency to come up with ways in which they can provide safety measures for its employees. It should also be provided in the job analysis so that the employee can follow the regulations and use it for defense. The company should also regulate the extent to which they use technology to ensure that the privacy of the employee is not intruded. There should also be strict rules and policies concerning the conduct of employees regarding information about the company and what should get to social media and what not to.
Concerning compliance with the government rules, the government has a constitution. There are policies which are provided by the constitution concerning the conduct of companies. The company, therefore, has the responsibility to ensure that it adheres to these rules. The government should pass very strict rules concerning companies following the rules. It is the responsibility fo the leaders in the organization to find out what is expected of the company and guide the other members of the organization in following them.
Lastly, on the issue of integrity and honesty, the means to address them comes from the company. As has been discussed, most of these issues, especially on predicts, comes from the external environment. The company can, therefore, come up with measures to make their brands unique such that one can differentiate the original to the fake ones. The company can also make it clear to its employees of specific locations where their products and services without which the rest would be imitations. They can utilize standard bureaus and restrict the seal for the company so that the users are the ones known to the company only.
In conclusion, the major ethical concern that faces the business sector includes accounting issues, harassment and discrimination, technology, and social media, health and safety, compliance and government regulations, integrity and honesty. These spread from both the external and the internal environments of the organization. How the companies can use is majorly instituting policies and regulation in the majority of the concerns. It is the responsibility of the company especially the leadership to ensure that the policies are made clear and known to all the employees and that that they are followed to the later. The leadership should, therefore, be a neutral party and a person who can be trusted by the company and by other stakeholders in the sector.
References
Kenneth V. (2019). List of Ethical Issues in Business. Small Business – Chron.com, http://smallbusiness.chron.com/list-ethical-issues-business-55223.html. 28 January 2019
Kimberlee L. (2019). Examples of Ethical Issues in Business. Small Business – Chron.com, http://smallbusiness.chron.com/examples-ethical-issues-business-24464.html. 01 February 2019.
Sousa T. (2018). A List of The 4 Most Common Ethical issues In Business Right Now. Fast Capital. Retrieved from https://www.fastcapital360.com/blog/ethical-issues-in-business/