Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

Discuss about the Stakeholder And Issues Management Approach.

It is worth mentioning that in the global business environment of the 21^st century, many corporations and companies of every size are faced with the challenge of addressing several ethical issues that exist in the corporations or the companies. Businesses have the social responsibility of developing codes of ethics and conduct for the purpose of conforming to the norms and the regulations of several ethical theories (Smith & Wong, 2016). In this assignment the ethical issues that exist in the business model of Uber will be analyzed by several ethical theories and ethical frameworks.

Sexual harassment in the workplace is constituted by acts such as unwanted and unwelcome sexual advances by any individual in the workplace which affects the employment of another individual. The legal definition of sexual behavior is unwelcome visual, verbal and physical conduct which is sexual in nature which is pervasive and severe in nature and which creates a hostile work environment. It is worth mentioning that there are two legally defined forms of sexual harassment in the workplace (Bolman & Deal, 2017). The first is Quid Pro Harassment. Quid Pro harassment can be defined as unwanted sexual advancement by the employer for career advancement of an employee. It is worth mentioning that this type of sexual harassment is unlawful in nature whether the employee submits to the unwanted sexual advances of the employer for the purpose of resisting the threatened harm or resists the unwelcome behavior and suffers the consequences. The second type of sexual harassment can be considered to be Hostile Environment Sexual Harassment. It can be stated that this type of sexual harassment occurs when an employee in the workplace is subjected to comments which are sexual in nature, which are sexually offensive or unwanted unwelcome physical contact as a regular part of the work environment. As mentioned before occurrences of sexual harassments have been reported in the workplace of Uber. Uber has also been involved in controversies where the passengers have reported instances of sexually harassed by the Uber drivers.

In this given scenario, the ethical framework which can be used to analyze the ethical issue in consideration is the Duty Framework. This framework can also assist an employer to assess whether an action is line with the ethical obligations and whether a duty is required to be exercised (Eskerod & Jepsen, 2016). Thus in relation to the chosen company, Uber it can be stated that the management of the company has the duty to ensure that the employees in the organization are not subjected to any unwanted and unwelcome sexual advances in the workplace. For the purpose of preventing any occurrence of sexual harassment in the workplace the management of the company has the duty to formulate a policy which would stipulate the strict actions to be taken against anyone who has been accused of sexually harassing an employee.

Disregard of Customer Privacy

The second ethical issue that can be associated with the organization in consideration, Uber is the privacy of the customers. U.S senator AL Franken had sent Uber a letter accusing the company of disregarding public policy.  Franken, the chairman of the subcommittee on Technology, Privacy and Law had been angered by the policies of the company in consideration. The application that is used by the company allows the same to track the location of the customers. This in the view of Franken is in violation of the duty of respecting the privacy of the customers. However, the C.E.O of Uber after receiving the letter from Franken did not reply or respond to the letter. The matter of concern is not the invasion of privacy but the fact that most of the customers do not know what the company is doing with their information. It is worth mentioning that Uber uses the “God view tool”. The same technology is used by the law enforcement authorities. However, there is a major difference in the usage of the technology by the law enforcement agencies and Uber. The police force uses the aforementioned technology for the purpose of protecting the public from harm, whereas Uber tracking device is a mere way to further the business interests of the company.

The ethical framework that has been chosen to address the ethical issue in consideration is the virtue ethics framework. The Virtue Framework tries to identify the character traits, both positive and negative that motivates people to act ethically in a given situation (Han, 2015). This approach takes into consideration the character traits of a person and also analyzes what the actions reveal about the individuals. It can be stated in accordance with the virtue ethics framework that ethical behavior of an individual can be described as whatever a virtuous man would do in a situation (Van Hooft, 2014). Thus in this given scenario, the ethical framework of virtue ethics can be applied to address the ethical issue in consideration. It can be inferred that the act of infringing the privacy of the customers of Uber cannot be called virtuous. Any company possessing good virtues would not infringe the privacy of its customers for the purpose of furthering his own interests.

Conclusion

Thus, in conclusion it can be stated that the ethical issues that continue to plague the reputation of this company, Uber are sexual harassment reported by the customers and the employees and the act of disregarding the privacy of the customers. The ethical frameworks that can be used to address the issues in consideration include the duty frame work and the Virtue ethics framework.

Importance of Corporate Governance

It is worth mentioning that by implementing the measures as suggested by the ethical frameworks will help address the ethical issues as discussed earlier. It can be stated that if Uber formulates a policy declaring the actions to be taken against those who have been accused of sexual harassment, the instances of sexual harassment is expected to reduce. The duty framework makes it mandatory for the company to formulate such a policy as it is the duty of the company to address such ethical issues.

The second ethical issue that had been identified was disregarding the privacy of the customers of the company. The first ethical framework that has been used to analyze the ethical issue in consideration is the Duty ethics framework. The first ethical framework that has been used to analyze the ethical issue in consideration is the Duty ethics framework (Vaughn, 2015). . It is to be mentioned that the Duty Framework focuses on the duties and the obligations of people in a given scenario. It also emphasizes on the ethical obligations people should have and the things people should refrain from doing. In accordance with the principles of the duty framework it can be stated that ethical conduct is defined by the fulfillment of one’s duties and the obligation of doing the correct thing. It can be stated that the aforementioned framework can be utilized for the creation of a system of regulations and rules that takes into consideration the expectations of the all the stakeholders (Sen, 2017). The ethical framework that has been chosen to address the ethical issue in consideration is the virtue ethics framework. The Virtue Framework tries to identify the character traits, both positive and negative that motivates people to act ethically in a given situation. This approach takes into consideration the character traits of a person and also analyzes what the actions reveal about the individuals.

The influence of corporate governance on workplace behavior is immense. The significance of corporate governance and its impact in modern business structure cannot be ignored. From the very beginning, the structure of corporate governance has created major impact in each and every aspect of an organization that involved communication skills, decision making and leadership skills (Westermarck, 2017). However, the nature of the impact is such that it has been governing the board of directors. It emphasizes on the part that how the board conducts itself and at the same time interferes in the governance of the company. The influence of corporate governance on individual behavior is vast. It creates great influence upon the performance of the company and the board. In this regard, the ethical standards of the company undergo major changes and the functioning of the company can be changed drastically. The structure of the corporate governance has proved to be beneficial in creating major impact on the procedures of risk management, internal controls and corporate compliance.

Importance of Organizational Culture

Organizational culture is an important term which greatly impacts the behavioral pattern of individuals at workplace (Westermarck, 2017). It is worthwhile to refer here that, a weak organizational culture leads to low employee motivation and in such process promotes bad behavior within the workplace. In this regard, it is noteworthy to mention here that, companies need to emphasize upon the basics of organizational culture for the purpose of efficient functioning of the workplace. The culture of the organization has to be such that it should emphasize upon improving the organizational culture. The individuals of the organization must be motivated. In this way, misconduct by employees can be reduced which could save the organization from substantial and consequential loss. In my organization, I often felt that I am being targeted and considered to be unimportant. Therefore, it is important to encourage interaction between the management and the other employees. In this way, each and every employee will get equal attention.

The nature of the ethical codes of the organization must be such that it will establish the ethical stance. It is important to know the employees working in the organization. In this regard, it is important to understand the present work culture for the purpose of determining the areas of improvement (Campbell, 2016). Candidates must be asked about the ethical concerns which are currently faced by the organizations. Organizational priorities must be given. Proper training should be given in order to enhance ethical decision making. It is important to demonstrate on ethical standards as well. Therefore, training sessions must be conducted where discussions regarding ethical implications must take place. It is equally important to reward ethical behavior. In this way, the employees will not face ethical dilemmas.

Conclusion

Thus to conclude it can be stated that implementing the measures as suggested by the frameworks can be helpful in solving the ethical issues that continue to plague the reputation of the company in consideration. In accordance with the principles of the duty framework it can be stated that ethical conduct is defined by the fulfillment of one’s duties and the obligation of doing the correct thing. The nature of the ethical codes of the organization must be such that it will establish the ethical stance. It is important to know the employees working in the organization. In this regard, it is important to understand the present work culture for the purpose of determining the areas of improvement. The ethical standards of the company undergo major changes and the functioning of the company can be changed drastically. The structure of the corporate governance has proved to be beneficial in creating major impact on the procedures of risk management, internal controls and corporate compliance.  It is important to introduce work ethics assessment which shall reveal the attitude of the employees towards behavioral issues like discrimination, bribery and theft. The procedure of recruitment must be ethical.

Reference List

Smith, L. C., & Wong, M. A. (Eds.). (2016). Reference and Information Services: An Introduction: An Introduction. ABC-CLIO.

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership. John Wiley & Sons.

Weiss, J. W. (2014). Business ethics: A stakeholder and issues management approach. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Eskerod, P., & Jepsen, A. L. (2016). Project stakeholder management. Routledge.

Van Hooft, S. (2014). Understanding virtue ethics. Routledge.

Han, H. (2015). Virtue ethics, positive psychology, and a new model of science and engineering ethics education. Science and Engineering Ethics, 21(2), 441-460.

Vaughn, L. (2015). Doing ethics: Moral reasoning and contemporary issues. WW Norton & Company.

Sen, A. (2017). Elements of a theory of human rights. In Justice and the Capabilities Approach (pp. 221-262). Routledge.

Westermarck, E. (2017). Ethical relativity. Routledge.

Campbell, T. D. (2016). The legal theory of ethical positivism. Routledge.