etika OUM Chapter 10

7/29/2019 etika OUM Chapter 10

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TOPIC~LOYALTY

TO

A COMPANY


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A COMPANY LOYALTY IS VITAL FOR A HAPPY MARRIAGE

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LOYALTY IN THE WORKPLACE

Do you think loyalty is important in theworkplace?

Employers value and expect loyalty from theiremployees.

Loyalty designates the moral obligation of

employees:1. To discharge their duties competently.

2. Obey the legitimate orders of their Superiors.

3. Keep proprietary information and tradesecrets confidential.

4. Avoid any conduct that is in conflict with thecompanys rightly interests.

3

YES


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WHAT LOYALTY MEANS

Loyalty is required from an employee by anemployer.

Loyalty is a prized virtue.

Moral obligation - expectations are essence of theemployment contract.

Employee will not share confidential information withoutsiders.

Subject to disciplinary action.

To shed light on matters related to loyalty:

1. Are these restrictions limited?2. Can companies compel managers to sign

agreements that appear to be all-inclusive inrestricting outside activities?

Doubtful - companies have the right to insist. 4


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WHISTLE-BLOWING A Whistle-blower, in the business world, is

one who reports on fellow employees,supervisors or company officers illegal orimmoral actions.

Divided into two categories:1. Internal Whistle-blowing - accusation made

within the company.

2. External Whistle-blowing - accusation

reported to other people e.g. governmentauthorities or the media.

A. When is whistle-blowing morally justified?

B. Is it morally obligatory? 5


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INTERNAL WHISTLE-BLOWING

Have good reasons to suspect that themanager is doing any one of the following:

1. Falsifying expense accounts;

2. Taking bribes from the suppliers;

3. Using companys resources or equipment for

personal use;4. Stealing supplies and materials from the

company;

5. Working for a competitor. Mark of loyalty to your company to blow the

whistle on the manager - obviously doing anillegal action. Will you blow the whistle?

7YES


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Criteria of Justification for Internal Whistle-blowing

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Significant Harm Should be evident.

CRITERIA OFJUSTIFICATION EXPLANATION

Accurate Facts Be sure of the facts.

Already knownby the

Management

Try to find out whether the suspects activity isalready known by management.

Reasonableexpectation Reasonable expectations that blowing the whistlewill be effective; Supervisor will put a stop.

Impact ononeself

- Has to consider possible damage to his ownreputation.

- Will the action be seen as a mark of loyalty, ortrivial talk, or an act of spite, chance to smear a

rival for promotion- Troublemaker?

Moral Obligation - Confronting the suspect with his wrongdoingmight stop it.

- Who has the primary obligation to watch out.- Investigate any questionable action by any

employee.


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Criteria of Justification for External Whistle-blowing

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CRITERIA OFJUSTIFICATION EXPLANATION

Internal report ofwrongful conduct

- Ensure that effort has to be made to report wrongfulconduct internally, through proper lines of organisation.

- Company should have a chance to clean up its act beforeit goes public.

External agencies

- Must be evident that external agencies are unable or

unwilling to report what is going on.

Degree of harm- Degree of harm that the company will suffer as a result of

the whistle-blowing.- Should be proportionate to the harm its wrongdoing is

causing.- Only when these conditions are satisfied, would external

whistle-blowing be justified.

Significant case ofharm

- Harmful to stockholders, employees or the publice.g. fraud, embezzlement, unsafe working conditions,illegal dumping of hazardous materials.


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Preventing and stopping wrongdoing lies witha degree of supervision.

The more responsibilities a manager has forcompany operations, the stronger theobligation.

Manager obliged to report wrongdoing to

outsiders only if serious harm is at issue. If it is evident that appropriate levels of

supervision are unable to stop it.

In the US, government employees who blowthe whistle are protected by law againstretaliation.

Private sector, regarded as informers.10


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Morality of termination whistle-blowers

Can companies fire, demote, cut shortcareers of whistle-blowers?

No legitimate grounds to discipline them solong as the cases are genuine.

However, a company can take action for the

following reasons:1. Lied about a case;

2. As an act of revenge;

3. As a protest over an unfavourable companypolicy;

4. To discredit a rival for the purpose ofpromotion.

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NO


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IMPROPER LOYALTY

Does loyalty means covering up for the bossserious mistakes or wrongdoing?

Violation of duty to cover up.

A subordinate:

Has to carry out the legitimate orders of hissupervisor and keep him informed about theprogress of his work or task.

May even be obliged to tell the Supervisor

about the actions of other persons or groupsthat may adversely affect the bosssoperations.

Wrongdoing by his boss should NOT be

ignored. 12

No


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SUMMARYOF TOPIC~LOYALTY

TO A COMPANY13


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Employers value

and expect

loyalty from theiremployees.

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Employees have a moral obligationto be loyal to their employers by

doing their job competently,obeying the legitimate orders of

the supervisors, keeping

company information and tradesecrets confidential, and

avoiding acts that conflicts with

a companys rightful interests.


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Employers should not askmanagers to show their loyalty

by committing illegal orimmoral actions, engaging in

deceitful advertising, orharassing, demoting, or evenfiring employees for non-job-

related reasons.

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The obligation to blow the

whistle internally dependson who has primaryresponsibility fordiscovering andinvestigating an

employees questionableactions.

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An employees immediatesupervisor has to be alert to

any seriously questionableactions a subordinate might

perform. A companys securityorganisation, if it has one, isresponsible for helping to

protect the companysassets.

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A decision to blow the whistleexternally, to some outside party, is

justifiable when all the conditionsfor internal whistle-blowing have

been satisfied, and if the company

supervision knows about butrefuses to take action to remedythe harm posed to the interests of

the shareholders, employees or thepublic.

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There is no moral justification forfiring whistle-blowers who

uncover cases of wrongdoingthat involve serious harm to

people or the environment that

could not have been preventedthrough the usual company

channels. To do so would be to

unjustly punish someone fordoing what is morally right.

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Loyalty is sometimes

mistakenly taken tomean covering up

for a Supervisorserrors or

wrongdoing.

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THE END OF

TOPIC~22

etika OUM Chapter 10

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