Analyze either Case 6.2 Freedom to Fire or Case 6.3 Speaking Out About Malt In your answer deal with some of the discussion questions listed at the end of the case plus any other issues that seem important.
Analyze either Case 6.2 Freedom to Fire or Case 6.3 Speaking Out About Malt In your answer deal with some of the discussion questions listed at the end of the case plus any other issues that seem important.
(Unit 9)
Order Description
Suggested length for each assignment is 750-1000 words. Additional research beyond course readings and materials is not required although some may find it helpful for some questions. You are expected to reference quotations from course materials. Im not picky about format as long as its easy for me to locate and check them.
Workplace Issues & Employee Rights
The next two units deal with what could be termed human resources ethics workplace issues concerning the fair treatment of employees. What ethical and legal constraints are there on the hiring and firing of workers? What rights should employees have in the workplace? What about discrimination against women and minorities? What accommodations should be made for people with families and how does childbearing impact womens advancement? These are all topics in this unit. The next unit will deal with the controversial issues of affirmative action and sexual harassment.
The main reading for this unit is a chapter from Shaw & Barry. This is the same text we used in Unit 6 for Professional Ethics and you will notice a similar format. There is a textbook treatment of workplace issues (p.177-199) followed by Cases 6.1- 6.5 (p.199-208) followed by articles on Employee Rights and Employment at Will (p.208-214). You will notice the course notes treat these topics in very different order than the text because I prefer to deal with them in the historical sequence in which they arose.
Learning Outcomes
After completing this unit you will be able to:
Define employment at will and explain how weve moved away from it with the right to unionize the right to non-discrimination non-harassment etc.
Consider what additional rights (such freedom to speech and privacy) employees should have.
Develop ones philosophy of the role of work in our life whether as a vocation or means to the end of making money and whether consumerism can compensate for unfulfilling work.
Consider on the impact of increasing work hours on family life womens childcare responsibilities on their careers and the ethics of family-friendly programs.
Readings
Shaw William and Vincent Barry (1995) The Workplace(1): Basic Issues from Moral Issues in Business 6th ed. Belmont CA: Wadsworth p.259-296.
Boatright John (1997) Women and Family Issues from Ethics and the Conduct of Business 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River NJ: Prentice Hall p.229-235.
Tittle Peg (2000) Case Study Safeways Jewelry Policy from Ethical Issues in Business: Inquiries Cases and Readings. Peterborough: Broadview Press p.266-267.
Web Resources
EEOCs Politically Correct Crusade Against Hooters a Wasted Effort Nations Restaurant News December 4 1995
Jean Hollands website
Film
Her Brilliant Career
42 min 2005 Distributor: Cinefete
Synopsis: Whenever power and money come together no matter what the profession women still remain notably absent. Although women make up more than 45 per cent of the labour force in Canada less than half of all public corporations have any women on their boards. What is it about women that block their progress? Male groups strive to drive out or drive down women who do not adopt the values and behaviour of masculine identity in the workplace and then recoil in horror at those survivors who have become so masculinized in economic and organizational behavioral terms that their variance from the female stereotype is treated by the organization as deviant. This program examines discrimination in the workplace and politics and introduces the viewer to a controversial program for women executives. Jean Holland has developed a unique workshop in California that aims to help ambitious female executives get ahead. She calls it the Bully Broads program. Its all about women modifying aggressive behaviour to make it in a mans world. She whips her female firebrands into shape the theory being that once theyve graduated from her course theyll be more successful in navigating the male dominated corporate culture from which they came. Although some women attack the program as anti-feminist Holland claims 85% of her graduates get promoted within one year of finishing the program.
Glossary Terms
Bill of Rights
Bona Fide Occupational Qualifications (BFOQs)
Employment at Will (EAW)
Nepotism
Persons of Note
Ewing David
Schwartz Felice
Due Date Reminder
Assignment 2 is due in week 9. Check the Roadmap for details. Assignment 3 is due in week 11 but if you have done the first two assignments you can skip it because you only have to do 2 of 3.
You should start thinking about an essay topic now and doing any necessary research since essays are due in week 12.
Required Readings
________________________________________
Shaw William and Vincent Barry (1995) The Workplace(1): Basic Issues from Moral Issues in Business 6th ed. Belmont CA: Wadsworth p.259-296.
Boatright John (1997) Women and Family Issues from Ethics and the Conduct of Business 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River NJ: Prentice Hall p.229-235.
Tittle Peg (2000) Case Study Safeways Jewelry Policy from Ethical Issues in Business: Inquiries Cases and Readings. Peterborough: Broadview Press p.266-267.
Unit Nine: Workplace Issues & Employee Rights
9.1 Employment at Will and its Limits
(Shaw & Barry p.260-262 p.293-296)
The traditional free-market capitalist doctrine on employment policy is Employment at Will. We will look at it and how it has been eroded or limited by the rise of unions anti-discrimination law and other regulations governing employment law.
Employment at Will (EAW) in the absence of a specific contract an employer may hire fire demote or promote any employee (Shaw & Barry p.293).
It is defended on the basis of property rights the freedom of owners and managers to do what they want with their business.
This would be reasonable in a condition of rough equality or a 19th century world of small farmers tradesmen and merchants.
But we live in world where giant corporations dominate whole industries a world of employees and bosses. In such a context EAW does not promote equal freedom since owners and managers are in positions of much greater power than workers.
Firing is a black mark on a workers record and a barrier to getting a new job. And some grounds for dismissal are unjust.
If a few corporations control an industry and they are run by a single ethnic group (e.g. White Anglo-Saxon Protestants) that practices discrimination the negative social impact is huge.
Utilitarian perspective
Most people work for others. They are employees so it is in their interest to have some protection from arbitrary power. Even the majority of managers work for others. Furthermore having a job and being treated decently in the workplace are vital human interests. Employees who are abused generally suffer more loss of utility than their bosses gain. Thus there is a strong case based on the Greatest Happiness Principle for limiting Employment at Will in our society.
Rights Perspective
Rights developed as a way of limiting the power of the monarch (Magna Carta) or the state (US Bill of Rights). To protect the individual employee in todays world they need to be brought into the workplace and used to limit the power of corporations.
Unit Nine: Workplace Issues & Employee Rights
9.1.1 Right to Join or Organize a Union
(Shaw & Barry p.273-279)
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