Ethical Responsibilities

Ethical Responsibilities

A1

The employees have the right to safe working conditions, equal treatment, and they have a responsibility to abide by the firm’s policies. Occupational Health and Safety Act (OSHA) of 1970 spelled out an employer’s obligation to provide a clean, hazard-free working environment for their employees. If the working conditions are not safe, then the labor force has the right to refuse to work, and the law protects them from any retaliation from employees. It has become mandatory to provide safe conditions to increase workforce motivation.

Fair and equal treatment of all employees is vital to the success of any firm. Employees should not be discriminated against due to their gender, race, age, or disability. The law sets minimum wages and age for the labor force to promote equality and fairness. Additionally, the employees have the responsibility to abide by the firm’s rules, policies, and engaging in ethical business practices, as is the culture of the marketing firm.

A2

As employers, the firm has the moral obligation to pay attention to the welfare of employees. The wellbeing of a workforce is not limited to fair pay and safe working conditions. It is about understanding the individual employee’s needs according to their strengths and weakness. An ethical employer that values their employees will make decisions or implement policies that are beneficial to employees even when they have an adverse negative impact on their profits. Taking care of the staff will increase their productivity as they become loyal to the firm. Employers also have the responsibility of explaining to the employees what kind of services the firm expects from them. Outlining the corporate ethical policy standards to new employees is crucial. The firm strives to conduct its practices ethical, and the management has to ensure each employee understands what such practices entail.

A3

According to Wozniczka (2016), marketing has a dark side to it. An understanding of ethical standards by an employee is exhibited by how they respond to ethical dilemmas. A marketing firm wants to increase the sales of its electronics. Therefore, the management authorizes Reagan, their best salesperson, to find any quick solution to the problem. Regan identifies social media as the hub for attracting more consumers. As a salesperson, he is aware that people check on reviews and comments written by previous consumers as they decide on what to buy. He decides to hire people to write positive reviews on different websites about their products. Reagan does not want to lose his position as the best salesperson, so he acts in an unethical manner to meet his obligations. If consumers learn of the false reviews, then they lose their trust in the company and all its products.

A4

Looking at Reagan’s actions from a realistic point of view, they were not justified as he acted in an unethical manner so that he could maintain his position and gain favor with the management. His actions will have a negative effect if the consumers find out what he did, and he is likely to end up losing his job. From a utilitarian perspective, an action is best when it gives pleasure to the majority of the people (Fieser, 2017). Regan’s actions are not justifiable even under the utilitarian perspective as the people to derive pleasure from his works are the marketing firm. The firm is not the majority group the consumers are, and no consumer takes manipulation lightly.

A5

Employees spend a lot of time in their jobs; this puts pressure on them to take care of personal issues at the workplace during working hours. Such behaviors produce an ethical dilemma because it signifies an abuse of the firm’s policies. However, what is the precedent that brought out such an action by the staff member? If the employee’s child or relative falls sick, then are they justified using the firm’s telephone to ask for help? Such areas are not black and white, where there are clear solutions to the situations. Therefore, the management and its staff have to discuss and outline what situation warrants using company time to conduct personal activities. Those rules should apply to both the employers and their employees to promote ethical practices.

Businesses are adopting the use of social media to conduct their activities, attracting more consumers. However, the use of social media poses an ethical dilemma in what is the right amount of content to post? For example, a marketer at a firm finds out that the product they are selling harms the environment. The employee passes their concern to management, but they choose to ignore it. The employee posts their fears on social media; the question of whether that was right or wrong arises. In such cases, the whistleblower’s employment gets terminated. Companies have to create policies that govern social media activities, outlining what constitutes a violation of these policies.

A6

            In the scenario of an employee’s family member making or taking phone calls during company time, the dilemma arises in that the situation is urgent. No one goes to work, expecting bad things to happen situations such as sickness and death of family or colleagues occur unexpectedly. Therefore management has to find solutions to such events and their effect on the work hours. In the second scenario, the employee can claim that they took what they considered as the right, moral cause of action. It is fair for consumers and the community to understand the effect a product may have on their health or to the environment. However, laying off of the whistleblowers is not ethical as their actions had a justifiable reason.

References

Fieser, J. (2017). Utilitarianism. https://www.utm.edu/staff/jfieser/class/300/utilitarian.htm.

Wozniczka, J. (2016). The ethical dilemmas in marketing– the positive idea and its desirable and undesirable consequences. Oeconomia. http://www.oeconomia.actapol.net/pub/15_4_195.pdf.