Ethics in Business: Abuse, Misconduct, Financial Crisis, Diversity and Discrimination

Q1. 

One of the most significant unethical behavior in our workforce is abusive behavior which constitutes 18% of all cases. The second most prevalent unethical conduct is lying to employees which accounts for 17% of the incidences observed. Conflicts of interest are the third most common forms whereby the interest of an employee is placed above that of the Company. Up to 12% of all unethical issues result from this. Fourth, violation of Company policies occurs in a lot of incidences. This mostly occurs on issues that are internet related and also constitutes 12% of all lies told by employees (Schwartz, 2017) . Also discrimination accounts for a similar percentage of such cases especially that pertaining to bias against some of the employees. 

A lot of violations also occur regarding the health and safety regulations set out to protect the workers in an organization, and 10% of all circumstances emanate from this. Also, lying to customers is also another unethical form of behavior which most workers engage in. Up to 10% of issues are as a result of this. Employees also lie to vendors and other members of the public. More often than not, retaliation occurs against the employees who have reported cases of misconduct. This accounts for 10% of cases. Falsification of time reports, especially those pertaining to the number of hours that an employee has worked is another common form of dishonorable behavior at work ( Schwartz, 2017) . There are 10% of such incidences. Moreover, stealing of other people`s property or that belonging to the Company also occurs at various workplaces, with 9% of such incidences being reported. Some of the most common accessories stolen by employees are: toilet paper, copier paper, tape, sticky notes, USB memory sticks and notepads. In order to remedy the situation, organizations should come up with basic standards of undertaking activities and institute disciplinary measures against those found engaging in unethical practices. 

Q2. 

Modern day businesses have not evolved to be more ethical today. One can assert this based on the conventional means of partaking in ethical misconduct and also the many corporate scandals that have been observed in the contemporary society. For instance, in the United States, some of the common cases are: Enron, WorldCom, and Tyco International. Japan has also had such incidences with the most common being the Toshiba scandal. Moreover, in the United Kingdom and Europe, Baring Bank, Parmalat, and Barclays Bank are some of the financial institutions that have experienced cases of unethical behavior. In Canada, on the other hand, Bre-X, Nortel Networks, and Hollinger International have also contributed to the rise in cases of misconduct in the working environment ( Schwartz, 2017 ). 

There are also incidents which could have been avoided but have ended up affecting the customers. One such case involves Merck`s recall of its pain killer in 2004 ( Schwartz, 2017 ). In 2014, General Motors also had to recall its automobiles which had faulty ignition switches owing to the occurrence of more than 100 deaths. But perhaps the most serious incident was Takata, whereby tens of millions of air bag inflators were recalled in 2016 since they would explode during accidents ( Schwartz, 2017 ). Also, the prevalence of bribery and corruption cases is startling. Companies such as Siemens have been faced with such allegations in 2008 and also Brazil`s Petrobas in 2015( Schwartz, 2017 ). In addition to this, leaders in various Companies are involved in corruption scandals more than ever before. For instance, Bernie Ebbers wrongly reported $3.8 billion in expenses, aiding a telecommunications company in the U.S. As a result he was sentenced to 25 years in prison ( Schwartz, 2017 ). Also, Nick Lesson bet the entire equity of Barings bank leading the 233 year old bank to collapse ( Schwartz, 2017 ). In this case, he was sentenced to 150 years. One can, therefore, observe that despite the constant efforts being made by organizations, unethical behavior is still being observed. 

Q3. 

The global financial crises was undoubtedly the worst that has ever occurred since the great depression. One would describe the meltdown as a failure of our “capital market processes.” For instance, one of the contributing factors resulted from the excessive risk taken by Lehman Brothers bank which further exacerbated the crises. The U.S house bubble, however, initiated the crisis. A lot of credit was easily accessible to individuals. Moreover, inflows from exterior markets led to the housing construction boom. This further led to debt-financed by the spending of consumers. Each time the banks could continually give out mortgages to potential owners of houses, the prices would skyrocket. Owing to this situations, the world investors observed the potential that the market held and they increasingly invested their finances. When the prices of houses finally dropped, all those who had invested huge sums of money reported large losses. 

Moreover, the same situation led bank-issued mortgages to drop. As a result, banks were left with no option but to enter into foreclosure resulting in an epidemic. Moreover, small financial institutions which had lent out money to customers, had assumed a large financial burden when it emerged that they too were not subject to deregulation; a system where the government offers financial institutions the right to nondisclosure of financial activities that they plan to partake in. Government processes which involved aiding financial institutions led to acquire greater financial commitments. Owing to the complex capital market processes, it emerged that some of the key policy makers were not knowledgeable on how the new processes worked and this further led them not to anticipate the impending crisis. Besides, the dramatic breakdowns that were exhibited in corporate governance led a majority of financial institutions to act in a reckless manner by taking up a lot of risk. 

Q4. 

Diversity and discrimination need to be considered since they have the potential to make or break a workforce in any organization. By the term diversity, one can infer to the idea of having individual workers from differing cultural of social settings. Alternatively, discrimination is an unethical practice which is capable of occurring as a result of this kind of diversity.  It may occur in a situation where the leader tends to favor individuals from his own race, gender or ethnic affiliation. This is an issue that is likely to lead in low productivity since the worker discriminated against is likely to become demotivated. 

If left unregulated or mismanaged, diversity may result in a workforce that does not coordinate activities accordingly. In this essence communication is likely to be a barrier, whereby workers only communicate with those they are acquainted with. Also, discrimination is a harmful practice which is capable of contributing to promotion or hiring of unqualified individuals. This may occur in a situation where the leader chooses to hire someone on basis of their race and end up leaving out a more qualified person. Also, the same to be observed where promotions are been granted on the same basis yet those who fail to receive such incentives are more deserving than the rest of the workers. The organization may eventually end up failing to meet its objectives. 

It is important to consider diversity for many reason, and also explain the same to employees. This is because it is important for them to understand that they come from diverse cultures where perceptions differ and also some practices and behaviors may be considered immoral by others. Besides, it will accentuate on the need to develop communication mechanisms when relating with people from a different ethnic affiliation. Moreover, workers are capable of understanding the harmful consequences of discrimination in the work environment and end up adopting impartiality in all their operations. In the end the business will end up succeeding. 

Q5. 

The corporate and company sponsored volunteer programs are a good idea for organizations to implement. This is due to the fact that they are capable of influencing ethical conduct in the workplace. This programs are capable of training a person to become responsible for their ethical behavior ( Schwartz, 2017 ). The idea here is not to merely restate the ethical laws and regulations but rather, to make them binding and enforceable. This later culminates in the ethical competence of workers. The programs should, however, not be necessarily long since this may result in boredom. 

Involving such programs is also essential since it has proved to be effective in the cases of those who utilize the initiative. A survey undertaken in the United States on organizations observed that 83% of all respondents perform such compliance criteria since they enable their work to exhibit better ethical behavior ( Schwartz, 2017 ).another example involves a study undertaken on 10000 American workers. Whenever these employees perceived that their leaders and supervisors were paying close attention to ethical practices, unethical behavior ended up reducing drastically ( Schwartz, 2017 ). Company leaders are critical towards establishing ethics in the working environment, failure to which they may be held liable to some of the misconduct observed on their workers; behaviors which could have been prevented by developing a training program. 

Reference 

Schwartz, M. S. (2017).  Business ethics: An ethical decision-making approach .