CURRENT ETHICAL AND UNETHICAL ISSUES IN MANAGEMENT

 

ETHICS. What is it?

In simple words, it refers to the rules of behaviour or ideas about what is wrong and right. Ethics is concerned with what is good for individuals and society and is also described as moral philosophy. The term is derived from the Greek word ethos which can mean custom, habit, character or disposition.

Now , here we are talking about ethics in business.
 So what is Business Ethics?

Business ethics is a form of applied ethics or professional ethics that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that can arise in a business environment. It applies to all aspects of business conduct and is relevant to the conduct of individuals and entire organisations.

HUMAN RESOURCE

What is human resources?

Human Resource is used to describe both the people who work for a company or organisation and the department responsible for managing resources related to employees. Human Resource Management involves both  strategic and comprehensive approaches to managing people as well as workplace culture and environment. 

ISSUES FACED IN HUMAN RESOURCES

Ethical issues in HR-

Performance appraisal

 The integrity of any performance evaluation process relies on fairness. When supervisors fail to make objective, honest appraisals, both organisation and employees lose. HR can influence an ethical review climate by designing a performance evaluation system that stresses objectively and by training on concert procedures and ethical practices.

Recruitment and hiring
This involves ethical choices between personal preferences and company needs. Hiring managers who make discriminatory selections jeopardize equal opportunities. HR protects the organisation in these situations by accurately presenting positions and encouraging focus on candidate ability and merits.

Compensation
Despite written policies on overtime and paid time off, HR confronts fairness issues that risk legal consequences. Enforcing equitable bonus eligibility criteria to avoid favoritism may be politically trying for the HR professional, as may supporting executive compensation plans perceived by employees to be too generous. 

Unethical isues in HR-

Sharing Personal Information

HR files should be stored in a secure location and made available only when necessary for management review. Sharing personal information found in a personnel file with anyone else inside or outside the company is an unethical expression. 

Altering Test Results

Any effort of a human resources employee to alter the results of an employee is indicative of ethical misbehavior.  To ensure against impropriety, subcontract testing to a private qualified company to ensure there is no opportunity. 

Accepting Payoffs

If a HR employee accepts payment from job seekers in exchange for preferential treatment in the hiring process this represents ethical misconduct. HR professional should hire the most qualified individuals without any expectation of a financial kickoff.

 WHAT IS MARKETING?

Marketing is the study and management of exchange relationships. Marketing is the business process of creating relationships with satisfying customers. Marketing comes in a wide variety of flavors based on audience, media platform and business in today's evolving and dynamic marketplace.

ISSUES FACED IN MARKETING

Ethical issues in Marketing

Market Research
Some ethical problems in market research are the invasion of privacy and stereotyping. The latter occurs because any analysis of real populations needs to make approximations and place individuals into groups. 

Market Audience
Selective marketing is used to discourage demand from so-called undesirable market sectors or disenfranchise them altogether.  Another ethical issue relates to vulnerable audiences in emerging markets in developing countries as the public there may not be sufficiently skilled.

Delivery Channels
Direct marketing is the most controversial of advertising channels particularly when approaches are unsolicited. TV commercials and direct mails are common examples. Electronic spam and telemarketing push the borders of ethics and legality more strongly. 

Unethical issues in Marketing

Lead buying/selling referal

When a center is contracted by a prospective client whom would be better served by a different treatment program, it is preferred and encouraged that they refer this prospective client to a center that could better meet her or his specific needs.

Misrepresentation of Services

Organisations should accurately portray the services they provide , the types of issues they treat, the credentials of their staff and all specific aspects of their facilities, locations, and amenities.

Misleading Information

  It should be clear to customers and referents that how's the company's facilities, their locations, and other basic information this should be clear at all times and in all forms of communication. Nothing should be hidden from the customers as it may lead to misleading information.

Finance is a field that is concerned with the allocation of assets and liabilities over space and time often under conditions of risk or uncertainty. Participants in the market aim to price assets based on their risk level, fundamental value and their expected rate of return. 

ISSUES FACED IN FINANCE

Ethical issues in Finance

Integrity

Financial Managers should strive for unimpeachable integrity. Customers, shareholders and employees should be able to trust a financial managers words. Managers should not allow prejudice, bias and conflicts of interest to influence their actions.

Timeliness

Timely financial information is just as important as accurate and transparent information. Management, investors and other stakeholders require decisions. The company should hold back news of a major contract loss in the hope that it can replace the lost revenue with new contracts.

Transparency

Financial documents reflect a company's performance relative to its peers and its internal strengths and weakness. Transparency also means explaining financial information clearly, especially for those who aren't familiar with the company's operations.

Unethical issues in Finance

Power and Wealth

The finance industry is marked by uniquely high levels of power and wealth. At the level of entire finance industry sector, wages are more than double of those in the rest of the economy. The modern finance industry has profound psychological effects on those who posses it.

Competitiveness

The disproportionate representation of widely valued outcomes such as power and wealth described in the preceding section makes the finance industry an attractive domain of work. The greater attractiveness of rewards in this industry implies greater competition in the environment.

Interpersonal Impact

Another characteristic of the finance industry is that it is defined by a relatively technical and impersonal type of work. People in this domain often make decisions that do not have implications that does not create a sense of ownership of the act.