Assessment Requirements

The employees operating in a company faces the challenges relating to bullying and harassment. Bullying is referred to a situation relating to a persistent patent of mistreatment which employees face in the workplace which results in causing them physical or emotional harm. Harassment is referred to the unwelcome or unfair behaviour of the boss or senior members at the workplace. There are several ethical issues relating to bullying and harassment in the workplace. In Australia, the Fair Work Commission focuses on entertaining the cases relating to bullying or harassment at the workplace (Fair Work, 2018). In case of Origin Energy, the corporation is liable to ensure the safety and wellbeing of its employees by providing them a healthy workplace environment since it operates in gas and energy industry and the risks relating to the work are relatively high. From an ethical perspective, it is the responsibility of the management to ensure that health and wellbeing of the employees.

The management has to ensure that they are taking appropriate precautions to avoid adversely affecting the health of employees, therefore, they have to eliminate bullying and harassment at the workplace. The management of Origin Energy bullies its staff members to ensure that they did not leak the confidential information of the enterprise. The whistleblower has alleged that the management of the company has complete knowledge regarding the bullying and harassment related issues which employees face in the organisations. However, they did not intentionally take any actions to stop the same. It shows that the bullying and harassment related issues are linked to the management style of Origin Energy (Slezak, 2017). It is obvious that if the management did not take any corrective action regarding these issues, then it will become a part of the culture of the organisation. The irresponsibility of the senior level management affects all the employees in the corporation. By adopting ethical management practices, the issues relating to bullying and harassment at the workplace can be eliminated by the management of Origin Energy.

Dismissal means removing an employee from the workplace or ending the employment contract by forcing the worker to resign because of his/her undisciplined conduct. Since an employee is dismissed based on indiscipline behaviour, it can be seen that there is a connection between discipline and dismissal. However, dismissal is considered unfair or immoral if the employee is terminated on unethical grounds. There are various ethical issues which corporations face while dismissing their employees. In Australia, the Fair Work Act 2009 is enacted by the government in order to govern the employment relationship. Section 386 of the act defines dismissal (Austlii, 2018). Various rights are given to both employee and employer under this act under the Fair Work Ombudsman. This act provides that employees have the right to get a reasonable and fair dismissal. To ensure the same, the employer has to comply with certain policies and guidelines while dismissing the employees. The guidelines include providing appropriate notice within a reasonable time, paying the pending salary and others. If an employee is dismissed unfairly, then the employee has the right to file a suit against the employer for violating the provisions of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Employsure, 2018).

Part A

In the case of Sally McDow, Origin Energy did not provide proper notice to her while dismissing her from the company. The reason for her dismissal was that she knew about the unethical conduct of the company and she tried to information about the same to the senior level management, however, they did not listen to her concerns (Cranston, 2016). The CEO of the company also denied accepting the report of McDow on the ethical issues raised in the corporation (Slezak, 2017). Therefore, there was no reasonable ground available for the dismissal of McDow, and she was terminated unfairly based on which the provisions of the Fair Work Act are violated, and the decision to dismiss McDow is unethical.

Whistleblowing is referred to the act of reporting the unethical or unfair actions of a company to external authorities which include government organisations or media. There are various ethical concerns relating to whistleblowing since it adversely affects the public image of the company. The whistleblower is also facing the risk since he/she leaks confidential data of the company, therefore, protection is provided under the Treasury Laws Amendment (Enhancing Whistleblower Protections) Bill 2017 (APH, 2017). This provision provides the protection to the whistleblowers under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) in Australia. Although whistleblowing assists in disclosing the information regarding unethical practices of a corporation, however, many times the employees act unethically or in an unfair manner to improperly use whistleblowing to affect the company’s reputation negatively. Such actions come under the definition of unethical whistleblowing under which the whistleblower can face legal consequences.

To avoid these situations, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) has provided various guidelines which should comply in order to conduct whistleblowing in an ethical manner. Firstly, the whistleblower has to ensure that its reports regarding only those issues which are unethical or unfair in reality. While reporting the actions, it is important that the whistleblower complies with a particular hierarchy to avoid acting in unethical manner. The unethical conduct should be reported inside the company rather than outside sources such as media since it can negatively impact the market reputation of the corporation (ASIC, 2018).

In the case of Origin Energy, McDow reported the unethical behaviour of the company to the senior level management, however, her concerns were denied. She knew that the directors are acting unethically since they are intentionally violating the provisions since the calculated that paying the fines would be cheaper than making changes in their operations (Ferguson, 2017). There was an issue of bullying and harassment at the workplace as well which employees face in Origin Energy. McDow prepared a report regarding all these issues, however, the CEO denied to accept her report or take any actions regarding these issues. After which McDow was dismissed from the company. Therefore, she reported regarding these incidents in the Federal Court, therefore, she has complied with the proper procedure issued by ASIC based on which it is ethical whistleblowing.

1. Workplace Bullying and Harassment

There are seven key steps given in the AAA ethical decision-making model which can comply with individuals to take an ethical decision while facing ethical dilemmas.

Step 1

Origin Energy failed to take the standard to address the issue of leaking of gas well which negatively affects the environmental resources. The directors of the company decided to pay the fines rather than fixing these issues. Employees were facing issues of bullying and harassment at the workplace (Ferguson, 2016).

Step 2

Key stakeholders in this scenario include Origin Energy, employees, environment, government, and the public. The ethical issue includes harming of the environmental resources due to the failure of compliance with governmental regulations which breaches the interest of the public. Another ethical issue was unhealthy working environment for employees due to the failure of the management of Origin Energy.

Step 3

Moral conduct in this scenario includes compliance with governmental regulations as per Guy’s ten core values which include honesty, accountability, caring, and responsible citizenship. By complying with code’s principles of professional conduct, the company should take corrective actions to eliminate the issue of workplace bullying and harassment.

Step 4

1. Not taking any actions so that McDow can save her job.
2. Reporting to external authorities since the internal management of the company has failed to take corrective action.

Step 5

In the first course of action, the values discussed in step 3 are violated since the company will continue to be unethical and employees will work unethically. In the second option, the principles of honesty, accountability, caring and responsible citizenship comply. Also, the principles of professional conduct are followed as well.

Step 6

The short-term consequences will be positive for McDow, however, in the long run, the interest of the environment and the public will be violated in the first option. In the second option, the unethical behaviour of the company will be stopped which will have positive consequences in both long and short term. Based on Utilitarianism ethics theory, the consequences of a situation should be positive and benefit a large number of people to constitute it ethical (Lee, 2012). Thus, the second option is ethical.

Step 7

Since the consequences of the second decision are ethical and they comply with the principles and values, it is the ethical decision in this scenario which is taken by McDow

Implementing an ethics program is not easy for organisations since they have to define the “right thing to do” especially when people have different opinions regarding rights and wrongs. The ethics program assists the corporations in addressing the key ethical dilemmas which it faces while managing its operations. An effective ethics program assists companies in resolving the issues which they face internally which eliminate the requirement of whistleblowers (Ferrell & Fraedrick, 2015). The employees and management can share the issues which they face in the company if it has an effective ethics program which establishes a positive workplace environment which is focused towards achieving the benefits of all stakeholders of the enterprise. In the case of Origin Energy, the implementation of the ethics program will terminate the requirement of whistleblower since all the ethical issues of the company will be resolved internally. The first step of implementing an ethics program is to make it specific which means that it should target specific behaviour of the organisations and reinforce the actions of employees. The ethics program should specifically target the particular issues faced by stakeholders of a company to ensure that ethical breaches relating the same are addressed. For example, Origin Energy faced the issue of violation of governmental and environmental related policies since a standard was not maintained by the company to ensure that these requirements are followed (Slezek, 2018). Therefore, the ethics program of the corporation should focus on ensuring that it complies with the provisions to ensure that the environment is not polluted.

2. Ethical Issues in Discipline and Dismissal

The company should fix the leak of gas wells to avoid the leakage of harmful gases in the environment which can harm the health of people as well. Therefore, the company should handle the situation by implementing an ethics program which will conduct an internal audit and enforce the directors to take corrective action by reducing the unethical practices of the organisations. The ethics program should support a two-way conversation which means that only implementation of ethical policies by the directors is not enough, the employees should have a say in it as well (Gunia, Wang, Huang, Wang & Murnighan, 2012). The employees should be able to give their views on the topic of ethics program since it assists them in sharing their views regarding the same. The employees can highlight the key ethical issues in the organisation by ensuring that they get the chance to share their views regarding the ethical policies of the corporation. This element cannot be achieved without the implementation of policies for ethical leadership in the organisation. Ethical leadership is a key part of the ethics program since ‘ethics comes from the top’ and in case the leaders did not act ethically, then it becomes easier for others to act unethically as well in the company. If the leaders are not perceived ethically, then it becomes impossible for the organisation to maintain a positive reputation of the company in public.

While acting in leadership positions, the leaders should ensure that they comply with moral and ethical norms to ensure that they act ethically while taking business decisions which ensure the effectiveness of the ethics program (Eisenbeiss, 2012). For example, the directors of Origin Energy were aware regarding the fact that they are acting unfairly since they failed to comply with governmental regulations. They decided to pay the fines if they get caught rather than fixing the issues which are a great example of unethical decision making. The sole objective of the directors was to generate more profits by operations of the company. They were also aware that employees are being mistreated in the organisation and they faced issues such as bullying and harassment. When McDow wanted to give the report regarding these issues to the CEO of the company, then the CEO declined to accept the report (Slezak, 2017). If the leaders were acted ethically, then McDow did not have to blow the whistle on the company. Therefore, it shows that ethical program which is supported by ethical leadership would have prevented the requirement of whistleblower in Origin Energy to highlight its unethical operations. Moreover, the ethical leadership is all about interactions with employees. The behaviour of the CEO of Origin Energy with McDow is a good example of unethical or unfair practices. The ethics program should be interactive to ensure that employees and the management are aware regarding the key principles which they have to comply with while discharging their duties. The interactive ethics program often include a roadmap in which steps are given which can be followed by members to resolve the ethical dilemma.

3. Ethical Issues in Whistleblowing

Proper communication channels should be open between the management and the employees to ensure that they are able to share their views regarding the ethical behaviour in the organisations and learn about the key ethical norms which they have to comply with. In order to ensure the same, the corporation should establish an ethics committee. The committee should be responsible for overseeing the operations of the management and employees to find any ethical issues in their behaviour. The committee should also be responsible for conducting an internal audit in which a report should be present which highlight the key ethical issues which the corporation faced and the actions taken by the management to address such issues. The committee should interact with employees confidentially to ensure that they disclose any issues which they face in the workplace. For example, McDow could have disclosed the issues of bullying and harassment at the workplace to the ethics committee; however, since there was not committee established, she had to blow the whistle on the organisation (Cranston, 2016). Thus, the corporations can prevent the needs of whistleblowers by incorporating an ethics committee which oversees the works of the management and employees to find any ethical issues and resolve them internally. The ethics program should be a part of the culture of the company which promotes and reinforce the moral principles by the actions of its members. The ethics program should also be visible, and its principles should protect employees operating in different levels of an organisation.

The management should clearly communicate regarding the ethical policies in the organisation to make them visible to the employees. They should also clearly define the procedure which employees have to follow if they wanted to disclose an issue regarding the unethical behaviour of the organisation. The steps should be clear and simple, and the employees should not feel hesitated while complaining regarding the ethical issues. An ethics hotline should be available in the ethics program which should be open for everyone in case they wanted to share the issues which they face in the company. If McDow had an ethics hotline, then she would not have to report the actions of the company to external authorities. The ethics program should also provide procedure for penalising the actions of the management or employees if they act unethically. For example, McDow was dismissed unethically because she reported regarding the unethical activities of the company (Ferguson, 2017). Therefore, any such actions taken by the management should be punished according to ensure that such behaviour can be avoided in the future. Therefore, the main objective of the ethics program is to ensure parties disclose the ethical issues which they face in the organisation internally so that they can resolve in the company. It prevents the requirement of a whistleblower since the employees feel free to share the issues which they face in the enterprise and these issues are resolved within a reasonable time.

References:

Cranston, M. (2016, 27 January). Origin Energy employees offer evidence to support whistleblower case. Financial Review. Retrieved from https://www.afr.com/business/energy/gas/origin-energy-employees-offer-evidence-to-support-whistleblower-case-20160125-gmdpnr

Eisenbeiss, S. A. (2012). Re-thinking ethical leadership: An interdisciplinary integrative approach. The Leadership Quarterly, 23(5), 791-808.

Ferguson, A. (2017, 25 January). Chilling tale of Origin Energy whistleblower. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from https://www.smh.com.au/business/chilling-tale-of-origin-energy-whistleblower-20170124-gtxuhz.html

Ferrell, O. C., & Fraedrich, J. (2015). Business ethics: Ethical decision making & cases. Scarborough: Nelson Education.

Gunia, B. C., Wang, L., Huang, L. I., Wang, J., & Murnighan, J. K. (2012). Contemplation and conversation: Subtle influences on moral decision making. Academy of Management Journal, 55(1), 13-33.

Slezak, M. (2017, 17 January). Origin Energy ignores coal seam gas well leaks, whistleblower says. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jan/27/origin-energy-ignores-coal-seam-gas-well-leaks-whistleblower-says