Question:

Discuss about the Management Ethics for Tasmanian Bread Mills Pty Ltd.

What is the morally right thing to do in the case and why do you think it is right, given your moral world view?

In the following assessment, Robert the HRM for Tasmanian Bread Mills Pty Ltd was offered a promotion by a large foreign owned multinational cereals company who bought both of the mills as well the distribution facilities for the Robert’s mill. He was told that he would be promoted to the senior HR professional and he would be relocated to the head office located at Hobart because the cereals company wanted to shut down the northern mill within a year. He was also advised by the company to not share this information with anyone in the town or at the mill. Though this promotion was beneficial for Robert in way ways, first of all he would have received a great career boost and second of all, his wife wants to move to Hobart because of her parent’s health condition and there were many jobs which were related to his wife’s skills (Floridi 2013). However, Robert did not accept the offer at the end because he knew that the town would actually suffer if the mill closed down and a lot of people would have lost their jobs. If the multinational cereals company gave more time to Tasmanian Bread Mills then the workers at the mills would have time to look for a better opportunity and they would not have lost their jobs overnight. Robert thought this from a moral standpoint and he did not think of his personal benefits over so many people of his community (Newman and Cain 2014). Due to a short notice period, many people would have lost their jobs. The foreign company wanted to avoid any kind of industrial conflict and media campaigns so they thought of the company over the employment of so many people. 

What moral norms or values would voice, and how do they flow from your world view?

It can be agreed by many people that Robert did the right thing by not going ahead with the agreement. Despite the fact that the offer would have been very beneficial to him, however by being selfless and putting his community over his own goals, he was morally correct. He and his wife had left the in 2011 to work and after working for 10 years as a HR professional, he came back to the town. It is clear that he has a deep connection to the town and the community because he could have applied for better positions for large multinational organizations however he chose his town by coming back and he again his chose his town later when he did not accept the proposition of the foreign company (Scott 2016). A person who can distinguish between what is wrong and what is right and chooses right over wrong is moral. Moral values such as truth, freedom or charity, they all have one similarity that is when they are working simultaneously, they either protects or enhances life.  Whereas when a person whose morality is reflected in his will when he is about to do the right thing, though it would be hard or dangerous is called ethical. In this assessment, Robert has both morality and ethics (Boehm, Kunze and Bruch 2014).  He knew that he was letting go of a golden opportunity however he knew that what would be beneficial to him and his wife would actually cost the jobs and lives of many people in the society (Ionita 2014). If there was a scenario where the workers of the mill were given a notice then Robert might have reconsidered, however the situation he faced gave him no other alternatives but to decline the offer. 

Answer:

How would you enact these norms and values given the circumstances set out in the case.

In the given assessment, I did not agree with the foreign company because my personal benefits would affect the entire town. Therefore disagreeing to the company is one thing; however, finding a different alternative where I would get to keep the tie up with the foreign company and at the same time the people from the town would not have lost their jobs that would be beneficial to all. First, I would have explained to them that closing down the mill would actually be the last option, because a lot of people’s jobs are at stake as well as the public facility status of the town (Komarova Loureiro, Haws and Bearden 2015). As there is no other major employer in the town and the labor market of Tasmania has been down for many years it would definitely be hard for the people. Second, I would actually show the company that success of the mill that has played a vital role in the economy of the town. Even though the company was brought by a multinational company, it was not bankrupted or was running on a loss (Lamba and Choudhary 2013). I would actually have point to bargain with them that the status of the Tasmanian Bread Mills still matters. However, in the worst case scenario if the company does go ahead with shutting down the mill, as the HR I would actually request them to extended the time and let the workers know because just to avoid the media and industrial conflicts, a lot of people would lose their jobs (Parkes and Davis 2013). It would not only be unethical but also unwarranted from the foreign company. The idea is to convince them and the advantage of the mill’s profit can be considered a bargaining chip.  Furthermore, as the HR it is my duty to inform the mill of the current situation because this to the employees is a conspiracy to get what they want and if I go ahead with the imitative then I will not be any different from the foreign company (Kreps and Monin 2014). In the assessment, I would agree with Robert however I would try to bargain with the company to see if there would a a positive result for both of the sides. 

Identify the emotional, cognitive, cultural, political, and institutional “enablers” and “disablers” that would likely influence your ability to voice your moral values, in the circumstances described in the case.

What moral norms or values would voice, and how do they flow from your world view?

Enablers are those who would look for possible solution rather than obstacles and disablers are those who look at their past experiences before making a decisions rather than seeing what is before them (Fosfuri, Lanzolla and Suarez 2013). Studies show that in Australia, the hierarchy is created for the betterment of the employees as the managers are depended on their employees for their individual performances. At the workplace the communication is rather informal than most countries and there is a connection between the employees. It is known that it is a loosely knit-society and people are quite social as they look after themselves and their families. The workplace is quite display initiative and hiring and promotion is done through the basis of what an employee has done or achieved over a course of time. Since the early 2000s, there has been a downfall in the share of routine in cognitive jobs (Vines, Dunphy and Monk 2014). Political factors have the reasons for the increase of IT sectors in Australia started a set of occupations to be the next possibility. Technology made possible for cognitive jobs to be performed from other parts of the world where labor cost is low. Non-routine jobs are now steadily significant because jobs like architecture requires creativity and thinking ability whereas jobs like child care work requires presence and dedication (Prooijen and Jostmann 2013). This is beneficial to Australian community due to high educational level in the society. Australian people exhibit a great respect for traditions and culture and they focus on achieving quick results rather than long term methods. It is known that they possess a positive attitude towards optimism and also place a high importance to leisure time. Emotional factors are beneficial for an HR when it comes to persuasion and making people understand. In this case, by making the foreign company understand that why the mill should still operate.  When they have to work they do not focus on any other things and when they enjoy, they act as they please. It can be said that is rather an indulgent society. Therefore in the above case all the five factors of emotional, cognitive, cultural, political, and institutional plays a major role. As an HRM it is also essential to possess these traits so that by the means of communication and negotiation, the mill would remain active. When looking at the cognitive aspect, the enablers are crucial for a human resources manager as their job is to make people understand. Disablers on the hand would be that it cannot be directly observed, cognition relies mostly on inference and it ignores the traits towards behavior that have been shown to affect it. It is essential in this case because through cognition it would be easier to make the foreign company understand and come to an agreement that would be beneficial to the mill and the town. Whereas institutional factors has analyzes the drivers of offshore business process and information technology outsourcing. This in case, examine the mechanisms by which regulative rules, social rules, culturally supported habits and subconsciously accepted rules and customs influence assessment, selection as well as continuation of outsourcing projects.

References

Boehm, S.A., Kunze, F. and Bruch, H., 2014. Spotlight on age?diversity climate: The impact of age?inclusive HR practices on firm?level outcomes. Personnel Psychology, 67(3), pp.667-704.

Floridi, L., 2013. Distributed morality in an information society. Science and engineering ethics, 19(3), pp.727-743.

Fosfuri, A., Lanzolla, G. and Suarez, F.F., 2013. Entry-timing strategies: The road ahead. Long Range Planning, 46(4-5), pp.300-311.

Ionita, C.R., 2014. About Moral And Philosophy Of Law. The Morality Of Legal Science. Supplement Of, P.220.

Komarova Loureiro, Y., Haws, K. and Bearden, W., 2015. Moral Malleability and Morality Matching: Consumer Deviance in Response to Company Wrongdoing. ACR North American Advances.

Kreps, T.A. and Monin, B., 2014. Core values versus common sense: Consequentialist views appear less rooted in morality. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 40(11), pp.1529-1542.

Lamba, S. and Choudhary, N., 2013. Impact of HRM practices on organizational commitment of employees. International Journal of Advancements in Research & Technology, 2(4), pp.407-423.

Newman, G.E. and Cain, D.M., 2014. Tainted altruism: When doing some good is evaluated as worse than doing no good at all. Psychological science, 25(3), pp.648-655.

Parkes, C. and Davis, A.J., 2013. Ethics and social responsibility–do HR professionals have the ‘courage to challenge’or are they set to be permanent ‘bystanders?’. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 24(12), pp.2411-2434.

Prooijen, J.W. and Jostmann, N.B., 2013. Belief in conspiracy theories: The influence of uncertainty and perceived morality. European Journal of Social Psychology, 43(1), pp.109-115.

Scott, E., 2016. Ethics and human resource management. In Practicing professional ethics in economics and public policy (pp. 215-221). Springer Netherlands.

Vines, J., Dunphy, P. and Monk, A., 2014, April. Pay or delay: the role of technology when managing a low income. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 501-510). ACM.