Once hired, employees should receive training on the company rules and expectations. This duty begins during the hiring process, when the company communicates to potential employees exactly what is expected of them. Likewise, a manager who consistently leaves early but expects all other employees to stay until the last minute is not demonstrating fairness.Īnother responsibility business owes the workforce is transparency.

A manager who abuses company property by taking home office supplies or using the company’s computers for personal business but then disciplines any employee who does the same is not modeling ethical behavior. One who says, “Get this deal done, I don’t care what it takes,” may very well be sending a message that unethical tactics and violating the spirit, if not the letter, of the law are acceptable. If a corporation expects its employees to act ethically, that behavior must start at the top, where managers hold themselves to a high standard of conduct and can rightly say, “Follow my lead, do as I do.” At a minimum, leaders model ethical behavior by not violating the law or company policy.

A manager’s job, perhaps the most important one, is to give people a reason to come back to work tomorrow. Managers should be ethical leaders who serve as role models and mentors for all employees. In a business context, the definition of this responsibility includes providing a safe workplace, compensating workers fairly, and treating them with a sense of dignity and equality while respecting at least a minimum of their privacy. Ethical Decision-Making and Leadership in the WorkplaceĪ contemporary corporation always owes an ethical, and in some cases legal, duty to employees to be a responsible employer. This section will explore the ethical and legal duties of employers to provide a workplace in which employees want to work. Workers also expect fair pay and respect for their privacy. Describe how employees’ expectations of work have changedĪll employees want and deserve a workplace that is physically and emotionally safe, where they can focus on their job responsibilities and obtain some fulfillment, rather than worrying about dangerous conditions, harassment, or discrimination.Identify Equal Employment Opportunity Commission protections, including those against sexual harassment at work.Describe the provisions of the Occupational Safety and Health Act.Identify specific ethical duties managers owe employees.By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Leadertask company management 6.1