Human Resource Case 1
The ethical dilemma that Karen’s boss is facing is whether to keep her in the job or sack her following the complaints from the clients and the coworkers. Karen has a bad attitude towards other employees as well as poor interpersonal skills when dealing with the clients. Despite being a competent employee who is valuable to the organization, her poor attitude and interpersonal skills lead to complaints from the clients who are the customers of the business. The boss in this scenario is faced with two situations, either to sack Karen and forego her best skills and competence or retain her and cope with the rising number of complaints from the clients and other employees.
Solving this ethical issue require the boss to the moral principles that will guide him in doing what is ethically right. For example, the boss can use the ethical principle known as beneficence. This is a principle that guides a person to make decisions that are considered be right. Besides, the least harm principle can also be applied in this ethical dilemma to guide in making the right decision. According to this principle, “an ethical choice is one which yields the least harm and to the least number of people” ( Page, 2012 ). Based on this, the best ethical decision would be to fire Karen because it would cause the least harm to fewer people. Retaining her would lead to the loss of many clients and thus loss of business. This decision can further be supported by the utilitarian theory of ethical decision. According to utilitarian theory, an ethical decision is one that will yield the greatest benefit and least harm. Based on this, firing Karen will yield the least harm and greatest benefit because retaining her will lead to loss of business clients as well as employees.
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Human Resource Case 2
The ethical dilemma, in this case, is whether the boss should fire Adam or retain him following the complaints from the employees about his way of management and lack of confidence and trust for the employees. Adams micromanages everything and have little trust for the other employees. Employees felt less trusted and micromanaged, a situation which makes them lose confidence in their work. Due to his style of management, one of the employees recently employed resigned complaining of Adam’s lack of confidence in her and his way of managing things. The boss has to make therefore a decision on whether to fire Adam or retain him and continue losing newly hired employees.
The boss of this organization can use various ethical principles to reach the best decision in this case. In this case, the boss can apply the principle of beneficence which states that the best ethical decision is the one that goes for what is right and moral. Because Adam has an inferior style of management and shows less trust in the employees, the best decision which can be deemed to be moral is to fire him for the sake of future organizational growth. Organizations require new skilled employees to add to its competence. By Adam’s style of management, most employees will end up resigning or working without motivation, and this affects the future growth of the organization. Also, the boss can rely on the utilitarian theory. According to utilitarian theory, “the best ethical decision is one which yields the least harm and most significant benefit” ( Sen, 2017 ). Based on this, firing Adam will yield the greatest benefit by allowing the remaining employees to work with motivation towards the success of the organization. Therefore, the boss should fire Adam.
References
Page, K. (2012). The four principles: Can they be measured and do they predict ethical decision making? BMC medical ethics , 13 (1), 10.
Sen, A. (2017). Elements of a theory of human rights. In Justice and the Capabilities Approach (pp. 221-262). Routledge.
