Ethics is based on doing the right thing at all times, hence, the description of ethics as the systematic reflections on the moral standards and views that is norms and values (Hartman, Desjardins, & MacDonald, 2017). Ethics helps determine how to assess actions, character traits, and institutions. However, the right thing does not mean the same thing depending on the perception of the based on beliefs, culture, and regulations. Business ethics, on the other hand, can be described as the governing code that business use to ensure that their decision making is based on morality and doing the right thing both for the business and the employees. Various theories such as utilitarian and Kantian ideologies dominate the perception of different decision making in businesses although most businesses tend to base their decisions on the utilitarian view of choosing the option that will result in the highest rewards or outcomes for the majority of the people.
However, in other cases, the best outcome is not always the right thing to do. Therefore, the Kantian theory can help determine the best choice based on different ideologies. Based on the Scott Gerber’s scenario whereby an employee found to be clocking in his wife who was not showing up until after three years was fired and rehired due to his explaining the incident and because the father had been a loyal employee at the company (Giang, 2015). The essence that Gerber claims the company has a zero-tolerance policy for such behaviors raises the need to analyze the ethical issues the situation raised. The analysis explains whether Gerber should have rehired or refuse to rehire the employee. Hence the essay purpose is to determine whether it would have been ethical to rehire or not to rehire the employee.
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Identification of the Relevant Issues
As stated earlier, Gerber had to fire the employee after finding out that he was clocking in his wife although the wife arrived three hours later. Under the company’s law, the act was similar to stealing three hours from the company. However, the employee had the best reason possible for clocking in his wife. The wife was left at home taking care of their newborn baby. Therefore, she could not make it to work, on time as stipulated by the company (Giang, 2015). The company fired the employee, but after some time the employee came in with his father to explain the situation and reason he violated the company’s policy. The father had worked for the company for 20 years with his loyalty being key to rehiring the employee after he had violated the company’s policies.
The rehiring was evident that loyalty was still valued in the company and would ensure that other employees follow the father’s steps. However, did the employee use his father’s presence to gain sympathy from Gerber and his partner? Was the rehiring based on the father’s loyalty an ethical business policy? Does the move by the employee to clock in his wife due to taking care of the newborn ethical? Does the company policy make it impossible for the workers to have maternity leave, thus making it impossible for women to work for the company? The above questions demonstrate the different views that must be examined to determine whether the rehiring of the laid-off employee was ethical or amoral. However, even by using the above questions to address the ethical dilemma it is critical to determine whether the company would have stuck to their zero-tolerance policy on such behaviors thus not rehired the employee or whether the decision to rehire was the right choice.
The paper intends to employ three main theories namely; utilitarian, Kantian and virtue ethical theories. The ethical theories enable the decision-maker in the business to determine the right action or option to choose from the dilemma. The explanation below provides a detailed analysis of each theory while providing examples commonly used in each theory.
Utilitarianism
The ethical theory defines an action to be good or bad based on the consequences of the decision. The theory is also known as consequential because the rightness or wrongness of an act is dependent on the action’s ability to maximize happiness. Therefore, a business may term an act right if it helps achieve the business objectives or maximize profits. Utilitarianism is divided into two act and rule utilitarianism. Act utilitarianism is dependent on explaining decisions that benefit most people regardless of the societal constraints or personal feelings. Rule utilitarianism tries to depict that the laws must be formed to enhance fairness, therefore, promoting justice and benefits to the majority (Hartman, Desjardins, & MacDonald, 2017). Utilitarian ethical theories tend to ignore the happiness of the minority that is, if oppressing one person will solve the conflict among different people, utilitarianism would view the act as ethical. The theory tends to focus on the end product, therefore, may result in unethical practices being employed to achieve the most significant benefits (Hartman, Desjardins, & MacDonald, 2017). The theory promotes democracy thus may result in popularity injustices in the society or the critical business decisions.
However, the theory tends to be challenging in determining the maximum happiness in a business perceptive because of the different objectives. For instance, the company may be interested in maximizing profits thus employ non-unionized employees to ensure that the workers are paid less, but such an action would limit the motivation of the employees leading to declining in productivity. Therefore, the company must balance on the issues to achieve the maximum benefits by forgoing different happiness to promote the achievement of the primary goals, but such issues are not addressed in theory (Hartman, Desjardins, & MacDonald, 2017). Lastly, the theory argues that the only reason to choose action A over action B is that action A provides the highest happiness, that is, action A makes people or business happier than action B.
Kantian or Deontology
Immanuel Kant theory is a major theory under deontology and uses a principle-based framework whereby the rightness or wrongness of an action is dependent on the individual rights and duty or obligations. Therefore, the decision is ethical if the decision-making followed the person’s obligations. The theory tends to assume that forfeiting one’s duty to undertake humanity obligations is unethical because the person absenteeism affects the duties that he/she is supposed to undertake. The main flaw of this theory is determining the logical basis for deciding an individual’s duty.
Virtue Ethical Theory
Unlike the other two theories discussed above, this theory tends to base its argument by reviewing the character of an individual rather than the action itself. The approach reviews the motivation of the person deviating from the normal behavior. The approach also tries to determine whether an individual’s character traits or habits are good in human life perceptive. The main flaw of the theory is the failure to have a conclusive way of determining whether a person is moral or immoral (Irwin, 2011). Businesses may make the decision whereby the character who have broken the policies is forgiven because the decision-makers like him/her but the same people may fail to forgive another worker who has made the same mistake because they dislike him/her. The motivation tends to defer even in decisions that are similar therefore the failure to answer “why” in every answer or action is undertaken diminishes the theory’s appropriateness in most business ethics situations.
Assessment of the Relevant Issues
This chapter examines and evaluates the actions creating the dilemma using the ethical theories, corporate culture and stakeholders’ positions and values. Guided by the question whether Gerber should have or not have rehired the laid-off employee, it is possible to evaluate all the actions and decisions made.
Ethical theories answer the ‘Why’ in any decision made. Therefore, the first question is why the employee was fired? Stealing three hours from the company by clocking in his wife earlier than she arrived. The wife was left at home taking care of their newborn. According to deontology theories, the firing of the employee was the right decision because even in the situation the employee was required to be truthful to his duty (Giang, 2015). The employee was paid by the company and knew that the company used the clock-in system to identify the employees who arrived late. The action was also unethical regarding the character of clocking in his wife because it lied about the time that the wife arrived for duty. By using Kantian theory, it is difficult to determine whether caring for the newborn child primary obligation of the employee as he may have considered it appropriate to clock in his wife to care for their baby as his main obligation. The failure of Kantian theory to determine the logical basis of obligation makes it difficult to determine whether the employee’s actions were right or wrong (Giang, 2015). The employee may view taking care of the baby as the most important task but the company view that absenteeism or lateness is theft of the company’s hours.
Utilitarianism may view the issue different due to the consequences of the employee’s actions. Firstly, based on the child’s well-about taking care of the child for an extra hour or two would be healthy for the baby’s growth, therefore, justifying the actions. On the other hand, the employee was aware of the policy but clocked in his wife. Therefore, he was prepared to face the firing he received. The business knew that failing to fire the individual would portray that the behavior is right or condoned in the organization. This perceptive, it is clear that the company was right to fire the employee. Virtue ethical theories view the act as immoral, but the reasons or motivation to undertake the risks of being fired may be enough to warrant mercy from Gerber.
The corporate culture may have influenced the actions of the employee, for instance, the company does not allow paid maternity leave for women and the family needed money to cater to the needs of the child. The other perceptive is that most workers know it is easy to steal hours from the company. The action to fire demonstrated that the management might have decided to ensure accountability, but the failure of maternity leave violates equal working rights as such laws discriminate women.
The reason for rehiring was based on the loyalty of the employee’s father which means that the company violated its zero-tolerance policy on the behavior by the employee. According to Kantian theory, the business decided by breaking the laws or duty obligation. The business should have maintained its policy because it would be the best way to portray to the employees that working in the company should be the logical basis of their obligations. Therefore, deontology proves the rehiring was unethical.
Utilitarianism views the consequences of the rehiring of the employee. By rehiring the employee, the company was able to demonstrate that loyalty still matter in the company which would encourage employees to be loyal and remains as employees of the company. However, what would rehiring the employee mean in respecting the policies of the company? Other employees may term the move as discrimination if the company fails to rehire them for similar behavior. Based on the second assumption, it would be ethical for the company to reject the employ. Taking this option would demoralize the long-term and loyal employees who may increase the number of resignation in future. The loss of the experienced employees would be expensive for the company due to the costs of recruiting the employees. The costs of failing to rehire the employee are more than those of rehiring therefore utilitarian theory views the move as ethical. Lastly, virtue theory agrees with the utilitarian depiction because the Gerber and his partner depicted they valued loyalty which is favorable to the human life while working for the company. The management is viewed to be propelled by basing their decision on the extemporary actions of the father.
Gerber and his partner demonstrate valuable human character traits by honoring the loyalty and longevity of the father, the father was loyal and through his character traits his son was rehired, whereas his selfishness motivated the employee over his duties. He also used his father’s honor to acquire preference from Gerber and his partner.
The corporate policies are essential in formulating the corporate culture. The actions that led to the firing of the employee depict that the company discriminated against women regarding the absent maternity leaves. According to the Equal Employment Opportunity, a company should not discriminate against workers, and the lack of maternity leave is a discrimination against women. The male employee may have been laid-off for the clocking in his wife, but he may not have violated any policy if the wife was allowed to remain at home (Doblin, 2009). The failure to fire the wife is quite complicated and may be a way for the company to reduce the risks of being sued for discriminating against women.
Recommendations
The above assessments demonstrate that the rehiring of the employee was the right decision because two theories supported it. However, the unfair corporation policies that violated the Equal Employment Opportunity by discriminating against the workers. Utilitarianism supports the changing of policies to increase employees’ motivation because it will result in increased productivity. The change in policies will also make the workers appreciate their roles and association with the company which will enable better and legal policies for individuals to care for their children and remains motivated to engage in business tasks.
References
Doblin, F., (2009). Inventing equal opportunity. Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press.
Giang, V. (2015, June 2). 7 Business Leaders Share How They Solved The Biggest Moral Dilemmas Of Their Careers. Fastcompany.com . Retrieved June 15, 2018 from https://www.fastcompany.com/3046630/7-business-leaders-share-how-they-solved-the-biggest-moral-dilemmas-of-their
Hartman, L., Desjardins, J., & MacDonald, C., (2017). Business Ethics Decision Making for Personal Integrity & Social Responsibility. 4 ed. McGraw Hill Education.
Irwin, T., (2011). The Development of Ethics: A Historical and Critical Study, Vol. III: From Kant to Rawls, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
