Employee’s Moral Obligation towards the Organization

JOHN WALTER O. PASCUAL

Author

2017

Abstract

The aim of this article is to explain briefly employer and employee relationship, its nature, and the ethical responsibilities of an employee towards an organization. Some consequences are also stated for what will happen if an employee’s moral obligation is disregarded. The employer-employee relationship is a significant human relationship of mutual dependency. The relationship between the employer and employee is laden with moral responsibilities. Both worker and bosses should guide their choices by basic ethical principles.

Keywords: Employee, Moral, Obligation, Organization

Introduction

What makes an organization successful?  You’ve heard it all. Sales profit, good marketing, creativity, vision and even an attractive slogan. But the underlining factor behind all of this, the thing that makes all of this possible, is employer-employee relationships. If you’re going to look at it, we can compare an organization to an engine, and employee and employer being the wheels. A good relationship between these two wheels will only take the organization forward (II)

The employer-employee relationship should not be looked at simply in economic terms. It is a significant human relationship of mutual dependency that has great impact on the people involved. A person’s job, like a person’s business, is highly valued possessions that pervasively affect the lives of the employees and their families. With stakeholders everywhere, the relationship is laden with moral responsibilities. Though the pressures of self-interest are very powerful and compelling, both workers and bosses should guide their choices by basic ethical principles including honest, candour, respect and caring. (Josephson, 2016). After being hired by an organization, the new employee will undergo a process of contract signing. A contract, as defined in the dictionary, is a voluntary, deliberate, and legally binding agreement between two or more competent parties. (I) Included therein are the employee’s job description, salary details, and most importantly, the employee’s contractual obligations towards the organization. However, the obligations of an employee towards an organization are not limited to what was stipulated on the contract. Employees also have to fulfil moral obligations towards the organization. Examples of moral obligations of an employee are loyalty to the organization, working towards the goals of the organization and not doing anything that could harm the organization, executing the job with diligence, and the duty of not disclosing any confidential information about the organization.  

Organization and Employee Relationship

The Employee-organization relationship (EOR) is an overarching term to describe relationship between the employee and the organization.  A social exchange relationship begins with one party bestowing a benefit to another. If the beneficiary reciprocates, and then a series of benefits exchanges occur, this creates feelings of mutual obligations between the parties. Over time, the relationship can then be characterized as one where the exchange partners trust each other to reciprocate benefits received. But who is the organization? With the exception of principals, the organization cannot be a party to the employment relationship except through agents that represent them. Irrespective of who is taken as an agent of the organization in terms of level of managerial hierarch, an assumption is made in the EOR that managers, as organizational agents, act in concert with the interests of the organization. In other words, managers are assumed to adopt a role relationship in which actions and decision are guided by and also promote the interests of the organization. (Coyle-Shapiro & Shore, 2007)

When an employer hires a new employee, he is not just bringing a new member of the workforce aboard; he is also starting a new relationship. Because employers and employees often work in close quarters, they necessarily develop relationships. Managing these relationships is vital to business success, as strong relationships can lead to greater employee happiness and even increased productivity. To reap these benefits, one must keep the dynamics of employer-employee relationship in mind. (Schreiner). 

Relationship Basics

Generally, employer and employee relationships should be mutually respectful. The degree of closeness in these relationships will depend on both the employer and the employee. Some employers opt to keep their employees at a distance, to ensure that there is no confusion as to the hierarchy that exists between them. Others prefer to become friendlier with their employees, seeing this as a way to amp up employee happiness.(Schreiner).

Mutual Reliance

The employer-employee relationship should be one of mutual reliance. The employer is relying upon the employee to perform her job and in doing so, keep the business running smoothly. Conversely, the employee is relying upon the employer to pay her and enable her to support himself and potentially his family, financially. (Schreiner).  Reliance, as defined in the business dictionary, is an acting upon another’s statement of alleged fact, claim, or promise. Organizations basically hire people to do work for them like bookkeeping, encoding, and many more processes necessary in the operation of a business. However, there is more than this seemingly-simple kind of relationship between the two parties. Are employers giving the right compensation and benefits that the employees deserve for the work they’re doing? Are employees doing their best in meeting deadlines, reaching production targets? Were employees able to zero-out their workload? Or are they slacking in their workplace that’s why they’re unable to deliver what was expected from them?

Relationship Building

Just as with all relationships, the employer and employee relationship is one that must develop over time. Employers can promote the building of relationships by speaking candidly with their employees about their lives, asking them about their families and learning about their interests. Similarly, employees can promote the building of this relationship by being open with their employer and sharing information about themselves and their lives. (Schreiner)  In our workplace, we have this monthly touch point with our superiors. There, we discuss our performance rating. Aside from that, this is like a “get to know each other”. For example, you have personal problems which you don’t want to disclose to your other colleagues, you can disclose it to your superior. After listening, she’ll help you by giving advice or sharing similar problems they had encountered and how she’s able to overcome it.   Aside from that, we can also request counselling anytime if we have confusions in making big decisions.

We also have “gala” with our superiors, for example, eating together to some fast food chains after our shift and teambuilding. I believe these are just some of the ways which could help in bolstering the relationship between the employer and the employee.

Boundaries

Though the type of employee and employer relationship that is considered appropriate varies from company to company, boundaries exist at almost all companies. Generally, it is unwise for employers to develop romantic relationships with their employees. Similarly, employers should exercise care to ensure that the relationship they develop with one employee isn’t notably closer than the relationships they develop with others, as this can lead to concerns regarding favouritism or similar issues of unfairness within the workplace.(Schreiner)  Employers should embody the idiom “Business is business” in their every decisions. Business decisions made should be completely separate from the emotions or personal issues (i.e. a manager fires an employee to favour the request of another employee which the manager likes , or he promotes an employee even if that employee is not a performer while other candidates for promotion are performers). As for employees, the closeness of your employer to you must not blur the fact that there is a line that separates employees and employer.

Moral Obligations of Employees toward the Organization

If an employer were secretly to look for a replacement for an employee by conducting interviews behind the employee’s back, most employees would consider it as an act of betrayal. On the other hand, when an employee without any notice to an employer secretly looks for a new job, often covering up interviewing time with deception or lies, is it any less untrustworthy? When an employer decides to let go an employee, it is generally thought that the employer should give the employee ample notice or severance pay. But what of the ethics of the employee who walks into the boss, office and gives him a very short and unreasonable notice to leave his job. Due to the discrepancy in power, many employees adopt a double standard that gives them more leeway than they afford the employer. One aspect of this attitude draws on the doubtful assertions of necessity. Another is the implicit belief that if an offer is too good to refuse, there is no moral obligation to refuse. It does not take much scrutiny to see that these are all self-serving rationalizations. The moral obligations of an employee include loyalty, candour, care and respect. The mismatch in economic strength between the employer and the employee does not change that.  People of character take into account their moral obligations to their employer before they interview for another job If they know that their departure will jeopardize the organization, co-workers or customers they should make it clear at the job interview that they are not available until they have provided a reasonable transition. If we are not certain how much hardship departure may cause the principle of respect suggests that the parties most affected be given an opportunity to participate in a discussion to suggest the least harmful alternative. Since the employee/employer relationship operates in the context of business, there is a tendency to play different rules dictated by who has the leverage, and principles of expediency-what you can get away with-rather than moral principle. (Alolade & Adofikwu)

Another moral obligation of an employee towards an organization is Job Completion.  Basically, employees are paid to deliver what they’re required. In our case, we have our daily quotas or production target.  Employees should not be slacking inside the workplace and they should give 100 percent effort to their job at all times even if there’s no one watching them. Issues of slacking are common on some government offices. Some employees, especially those of higher position, comes to office to time in , then leaves immediately going to their other appointments like car washing  and others.

 Another obligation of an employee is to be honest.  Employees should give truthful information to their employers, and in doing so, help the employer make informed decisions. Remaining truthful without fail can present a challenge, particularly when presenting a little white lie would help an individual advance with her current position. However, honesty is not only the best policy but it is also the morally correct path on which all employees should remain. 

Another obligation of employees is that the employee is expected to act in utmost fidelity during the continuance of his/her employment and act in the employer’s interest at all material times. Employees basically are like representatives of a company. Imagine being drunk and provoking while wearing your organization’s shirt in a public place. People would likely perceive that an employee from company X is drunkard and lack self control. Employees must live by the core values of the organization they’re working for, not only inside the workplace but also outside, especially in public places. As employees of a certain organization, we are also responsible in keeping the good image of the company we work for.

Next moral obligation is avoiding conflict of interest. Conflict of interest is defined as a situation in which a corporation or person with a vested interest in a company becomes unreliable because of the clash between personal interests and professional interests. (III)  This is a common scenario especially to employees who have access to the money usage of their organizations. Government employees usually fall to these temptations. An example which recently happened is the case of Laoag City Treasury office wherein Php 85,000,000 was allegedly stolen by the city’s treasurer, before fleeing to the United States. (Adriano 2017)

Next moral obligation is to follow all lawful and reasonable requests by the employer. Employees need to follow all requests and requirements from their employer as long as they are lawful, within the scope of their job and their employment agreement, and are not dangerous to the health and safety of the employees. (IV)

Lastly, it is the employee’s moral obligation to not disclose confidential information of his employer.  An example of this confidential information is trade secrets. Trade secret is defined as any valuable business information that is not generally known and is subject to reasonable efforts to preserve confidentiality. (V) An example of these trade secrets is secret recipes of our favourite fast food chain. For instance an employee from Jollibee was terminated and later hired by McDo, he/she shouldn’t be divulging the recipes of the menu offered in Jollibee, as this will not only nullify the competitive advantage of Jollibee in that specific beverage but may also change the competitive positions of the two fast food chains.

Conclusion:

When an employer hires a new employee, he is not just bringing in a new member to the workforce; he is also starting a new relationship. Sine employers and employees often work in close quarters, they necessarily develop relationships. Managing these relationships is vital to business success, as strong relationships can lead to greater employee happiness and even increased productivity. To reap these benefits, one must keep the dynamics of employer-employee relationship in mind. The employer-employee relationship must be based on trust, respect, and mutual resilience. The relationship between the employer and employee should be strengthened. However, the line between employer and employee relation must not be blurred, meaning, employers must keep boundaries to main hierarchical difference. Also we’re able to cite some moral responsibilities of employees towards the organization and some of the problems which may occur upon failure to execute such responsibilities. We should try our best in upholding these ethical responsibilities even if no one is looking. God gave us knowledge to know what is morally right and wrong. We should not be wasting this gift, but instead we should use this for the betterment of ourselves and the world where we are living.

References:

Josephson, M. (2016) Ethical Responsibilities in the Employer-Employee Relationshiip-Applying Ethical Principles.   Retrieved from     http://josephsononbusinessethics.com/2010/12/responsibilities-employer-employee-relationship/

(I)                www.businessdictionary.com

Schreiner, E.(2017) What is an Employer-Employee Relationship.  Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/employeremployee-relationship-16737.html

Coyle-Shapiro, J and Shore, L. (2017) The employee-organization relationship: where do we go from here?    Retrieved from                                                                             https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/6610291.pdf

(II)              Importance of Employer-Employee Relationship(2014)

Retrieved from  http://blog.hrstop.com/importance-of-employer-employee-relationship/

Alolade, S. &  Adfikwu, A.  (2017) The Basic Rights and Obligations of Parties in Employer/Employee Relationship Retrieved from  http://www.thelawyerschronicle.com/the-basic-rights-and-obligations-of-parties-in-employeremployee-relationship/

(III)          www.investopedia.com

Adriano, L. (2017) Probe Lost Laoag Funds, Ombudsman Urged Anew   Retrieved from http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/

(IV)          https://www.employment.govt.nz/starting-employment/rights-and-responsibilities/employment-responsibilities/