Alice
Jessa Mae P. Reynon
Divine Word College of Laoag
Abstract
This article focuses on the ethical issues we may experience or witness in our
workplace. Rationalization — the ability to justify our behavior — is one of
our greatest moral failings. Very often, these situations begin in small ways,
with very small steps that seem insignificant.
It’s important to not only know how to recognize an ethical issue but
how to raise it, especially one that maybe has a great impact on the business or
related parties or the employees alone. This article aims to provide
significant ways and steps on how to handle such challenges. Both employer and
employees should guide their choices with basic ethical principles.
Introduction
Sometimes you sense that something isn’t right at work. You might disturb and feel uncomfortable with such things that contrary to what you know is right. Though you expect your workplace’s corporate culture to champion honesty and behaviors that are ethical and free from immoral, unethical, or even illegal activity and though you personally promote the highest standards of ethical conduct, you might one day find yourself working at a company whose ethical extent seems broken or whose new initiative pushes the limits on regulatory standards or runs utterly contrary to your strong work ethic.
Ethics can be dangerous to your career. The danger may come not from your own ethics but from the ethics of people around you and the organization of which you are apart. At work, you may be called upon to do things that turn out to be unethical or even illegal.
What should you do if that occurs? What do you do if you personally notice, experience, or even strongly suspect that your company has undertaken an activity or endorses behavior that is counter to the moral high ground, breaks a regulation, or could even be illegal? How do you know when it’s worth speaking up or not? Can you protect yourself from the potential consequences of calling out bad behavior? And when you do decide to say something, what do you say and to whom?
What's an Ethical
Issue?
A marketing associate sneaks reams of paper into their briefcase to take home. A division manager asks her financial analyst to fudge some numbers for a client report. A sales executive pressures his assistant to meet with him in his hotel room. A receptionist uses a sick day so he can go to the music festival his boss didn't approve Paid-Time-off for (Plumhoff, 2019). These are some of the many ethical challenges that an employee may experience in their workplace.
Most individuals and companies do not set out to make a defective product or to engage in massive fraud. Very often, these situations begin in small ways, with very small steps that seem insignificant. It is also important for people to understand that most ethics scandals typically involve a number of people who are included in the decision-making process at each stage. As a result, responsibility becomes diffused among these individuals, making it difficult to attribute blame to or impose accountability on any particular person. Although people may feel uncomfortable with what is happening as they move down the “slippery slope,” they convince themselves that “so long as it is legal, it is ethical” or that they are doing what is expected of them. Rationalization — the ability to justify our behavior — is one of our greatest moral failings. Behavior that would clearly be considered unethical by an outsider becomes acceptable to those involved because “that is the way it has always been done” or “it doesn’t really hurt anyone” or “that’s the way they do it at Firm X.”(Boatright & Baumhart, 2013).
Take ENRON, for example. Were the actions of ENRON
CEO a good example of ethics? No. But, what they were was a classic example of
two things: One, those actions displayed how ethics were not used in any way.
Two, their actions painted a grim and realistic picture of what can happen when
ethics are neglected. Had ethics been considered in the first place by the
leaders of the company, there would have been no scandal. If ethics were used
on a daily basis in every company, there would never be scandals.
Pastin
(2013) identified different personality types in terms of how people deal with ethical
problems on the job:
The conformist
is an employee who follows rules rather than questions of authority figures. One
might think this person could be counted on always to do the right thing. The
conformist might look the other way, however, if a higher-up were acting
unethically. After all, a manager is supposed to be obeyed. This person will
run into work-related conflicts unless there are strict rules and well-defined
consequences for not following them.
The negotiator
is someone who tries to make up rules as he goes. When faced with a sketchy
situation—say, a co-worker is drinking on her lunch hour—this person might wait
to see if the behavior affects his job in any way, to see if the drinking gets
any worse, or to see if anyone else notices. The negotiator will eventually
encounter ethics-related trouble if he is required to exercise judgment without
guidelines, because this person changes the rules according to what seems
easiest at the time.
The navigator
is someone who, when confronted with a situation in which people are behaving
unethically, is able to rely on an innate ethical sense to guide her actions, even
if these decisions aren’t easy. This person has a sound moral compass, which
provides the flexibility to make choices, even unpopular ones. The navigator’s
ethical sense imbues her with qualities of leadership. Other people respect and count on this person. The navigator will succeed in most organizations but
will leave a company that is unethical.
The wiggler
doesn’t give a lot of thought to what is right. Instead, this person takes the
route that’s most advantageous to him. For example, he may lie to appease a
supervisor. The wiggler is motivated by self-interest—getting on a manager’s
good side or avoiding conflict. The wiggler will run into trouble when others
sense that he dodges ethical issues to protect his own interests.
The Importance of Ethics
in the Workplace
Ethics in the workplace should be a core value of any organization. Aside from doing the right thing, conducting ourselves ethically has great rewards and returns. Being ethical is essential to fixing problems and improving processes. It is needed to establish baseline measures and increase efficiencies. Most importantly, it is essential to have strong working relationships with people. On the other hand, covering up our unethical behavior does the opposite. Obfuscating and hiding from our failings impedes our ability to grow as leaders, as workers, and as people. It also ensures that our coworkers won’t trust us. ( Sporleder, 2020)
What Should You Do When
You Spot an Ethical Issue?
Plumhoff
(2019) provides a guideline on how to deal with ethical issues in the workplace:
1) Acknowledge that the
issue exists. First, don't rationalize it away.
Don't think "this is business as usual" or "this isn't a big
deal." If you see something that makes you feel uncomfortable, it's
probably because it's violating the morals and principles by which you try to
live your life, and unless you're a true narcissist with absolutely no concern
for the wellbeing of others, those principles are worth listening to.
2)
Assess
the scope and severity of the problem. Next,
understand what's at risk, both for you and your company. If you've noticed
your cubicle mate tucking extra granola bars from the snack pantry into his
backpack, your spidery sense of "stealing from the company is not
good" might be tingling, but what's the potential bad outcome? A monthly
food budget that's $4.99 higher? It's not that he's not committing an ethical
violation, but it might not be worth reporting.
You also want to be clear with
yourself about what’s happening. If your coworker is leaving early every day,
is it worth doing something about it? One could make the argument that she’s
stealing time from the company and therefore taking money that’s not hers. But
if she gets her work done, does it really matter? (Gallo, 2015) Gentile
suggests asking yourself: What is the value that’s being violated here? Why is
this troubling me? Being clear about the issue will help you accurately weigh
the pros and cons of addressing it.
When considering whether or not
something is worth reporting, you should consider the repercussions you'll face
— both if you choose to report it, and if you choose not to report it and later
the issue comes to light.
In a world where we're dependent on
our jobs for things like health care and having a place to sleep at night, it
might not be worth risking your security for the security of the company. (Is
that granola bar fiend and cubicle mate also your supervisor, for instance?)
That calculus starts to change as the risk to the company, employees, or its
customers goes up, in which case you may feel a true moral imperative to
report, regardless of the repercussions you may face.
In those more drastic situations,
you should also realize that you could very well face negative consequences if
you choose not to report, and someone later finds out you were aware of the
issue but said nothing.
As you consider the scope of impact, think about the
following dimensions: the company's employees, the company's clients, the
company's reputation, and the company's bottom line. How many of those are
affected? How big or pervasive is the problem?
3) Determine
who to talk to. Once you've defined the harm and decided it's worth
bringing up, it's time to figure out who to talk to about it. If it's a smaller
issue, consider talking to the perpetrator themselves, and do so in a
non-accusatory way. See if you can better understand the situation at hand. If
it really is an ethics violation, see if you can get the person involved to
change their behavior.
If the violation is a bigger deal, consider bringing
it up with your supervisor. Say something like, "I see X happening and it
worries me. Does this worry you, too? If not, can you help me see why?"
Try to understand their perspective and ask yourself if they're being
reasonable and you just missed something, or if they're rationalizing away the
flag. If your boss is involved in the issue itself and you don't feel
comfortable bringing it up with them, or if it's a severe issue that puts
people at risk, you may want to go to straight to Human Resources. If you have
a reporting hotline, you can use that, or you can speak to your HR rep in
private. Consider your own safety throughout the process. Just because a
company has a "No-Retaliation" policy doesn't mean it will always be
followed, so there's no shame in reporting anonymously if that option is
available to you.
Document
your findings, if you can, to better protect yourself from any whistleblowing
repercussions.
All companies have a standard of ethics that must be followed, but ethics goes beyond just company policy. There are laws to be obeyed, ethical practices to live up to, and a standard of excellence that every professional need to strive to reach. When there is unethical behavior in the workplace, it is absolutely imperative that it is reported. If you find yourself in the unenviable position of being the one to report the unethical behavior, here’s how to do it right says Peloquin (2015).
1. Investigate the
unethical behavior. Just because something
looks unethical, that doesn’t mean that it automatically is. There may be
unforeseen reasons why things are being done the way they are, and your jumping
to conclusions will only make the situation worse. Before you file any reports,
do a bit of digging into the practices that appear unethical. Find out what’s
really going on, and talk to others who may have noticed it as well. Give your
co-workers a chance to explain themselves before you take it to HR.
2.
Compile
proof. If things are as unethical as they
appear, it’s time to compile the proof of the unethical practices. You may need
documents to back up your claims, or you can take notes of the things that are
morally or ethically wrong. Make sure to note who is doing what and when, and
gather any paperwork that can help to back up your claims. ALWAYS have
copies--one for yourself and one for HR.
3.
File
a claim with HR. The Human Resources department in your company will be able to help you with the
process of filing the claim. They will usually walk you through it step by
step, but they’ll question you to ensure that you have the necessary proof.
They want to avoid any problems at your office just like you do, so they’ll
want to be certain that there truly is unethical behavior taking place.
4.
Fill
out the reports. There is going to be a bit of
paperwork that you will need to fill out to file the claim, so be patient. Fill
out the paperwork correctly and neatly, and don’t be in a rush. Take it home
and fill it out there, where none of your co-workers can snoop on you or see
what you are doing. Make sure your report ONLY contains facts, with as little
personal opinion as possible. Your only goal is to deal with the unethical
behavior, not act vindictively to push a wrongdoer. Take the emotion out of it, but
treat it as a "facts only" report.
5.
Keep
it to yourself. Once the claim has been filed, HR
will do its own digging into the problem. They will handle the investigation
into the claim, and they will take steps to correct the issue. DO NOT talk with
others about it, and do not gossip about the person being investigated. No
matter how much proof you have, don’t share it with others. Just keep to
yourself, keep working hard, and let the matter sort itself out.
References
Plumhoff,
K. (2019). How to Speak Up About Ethical Issues at Work. Retrieved from https://blog.powertofly.com/how-to-speak-up-about-ethical-issues-at-work-2640124479.html
Boatright,
J. & Baumhart, R. (2013).
Confronting Ethical Dilemmas at Work: Why Do Good People Do Bad Things? https://blogs.cfainstitute.org/investor/2013/10/21/confronting-ethical-dilemmas-at-work-why-do-good-people-do-bad-things/
Pastin,
M. (2013). The Different Ways People Handle Ethical Issues in the Workplace.
Retrieved from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-11-11/the-different-ways-people-handle-ethical-issues-in-the-workplace
De
Cremer, D. (2016). 6 Traits That Predict Ethical Behavior at Work Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2016/12/6-traits-that-predict-ethical-behavior-at-work
Peloquin,
A. (2015). Retrieved from https://www.careeraddict.com/report-unethical-behaviour-in-the-workplace
Kouchaki,
K. and Smith, I. (2020). Building an Ethical Career Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2020/01/building-an-ethical-career
Gallo,
A. (2015). How to Speak Up About Ethical Issues at Work. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2015/06/how-to-speak-up-about-ethical-issues-at-work
Sporleder,
J. (2020). How to Cultivate Ethics in the Workplace. Retrieved from https://www.payscale.com/compensation-today/2020/02/ethics-in-the-workplace
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