Ethics deals with the individual’s character and the individual moral rules
that govern the limits of our conduct. It’s a function that everyone will think about
from time to time. Most people will live by their values and moral standard, from
time to time people’s ethics and morals will change depending on how their life
style changes and their beliefs change. Ethics deals with the individual character
and with the morals of right and wrong, fairness and unfairness, good and bad,
duty and obligation, and justice and injustice[ CITATION Sha08 \l 1033 ].
Business ethics deals with what constitutes what’s right and wrong, or what’s
good and bad, for people conducting business. Professional code of ethics are
the rules that are supposed to govern the conduct of members of a professional
group of people, they are understood to have agreed to abide by the rules given
as a condition of their agreement in their profession. Violating the professional
code of ethics may result in the disapproval of their professional peers, and may
result in the loss of their license to practice or may result in termination. In ethics
there are many theories, one that I agree with is the consequentialist moral
theory, it states the moral rightness or wrongness of actions as a function of their
results. If the consequences are good, then the action is right; if they are bad
then the action is wrong. The non-consequentialist theories see other factors as
also relevant to the determination of right and wrong.
The current trend in the workplace is an at will employment, now the law
seems to be gradually be moving away from at will employment, but our moral
obligations are not limited to merely obeying the law. More and more
corporations are coming to acknowledge and to design institutional procedures
that respect the rights and moral dignity of their employees, the corporations that
are moving to this new procedure are more successful then the companies that
still follows and practices the at will employment. The new way of employment is
ethical; they have to have a reason for termination and practice the new
procedures. It stands for what is right and fair, with justice. All corporations
should have procedures in place to how to handle termination and give reason
and purpose to dismissal. The hiring practices are a very important way a
corporation conduct affects the welfare and the rights of employees and potential
employees. This is done through personnel policies and procedures; this is how
corporations handle the hiring, firing, paying, and promoting of employees. The
human resource procedures and policies structure a corporation basic
relationship with the employees.
The ethics of screening potential employees is giving the fairness to every
candidate that they have a fair chance and guarantee that everyone will get a
chance. If done improperly it will undermines the ethics of the corporation and will
have an unethical recruitments policies and will invite injustice into the hiring
process.[ CITATION Sha08 \l 1033 ] The fairness in personnel matters requires
the policies, decisions, and standards affecting the employees and potential
employees be directly related, based on clear and available criteria and applied
equally. Determining the fair thing to do is not always an easy thing to do. A
useful approach of moral aspect is hiring to examine the principle steps involved
in the process: screening, testing, and interviewing.
One of the main concerns in screening is wrongful discrimination; this is a
moral and ethical concern. The law forbids discrimination against individuals
based on age, sex, race, national origin, or religion[ CITATION Sha08 \l 1033 ].
These factors should never be alluded to in job specifications or recruitment
advertisements. The Americans with disabilities act is intended to protect the
rights of people with disabilities to obtain gainful employment and it forbids
employers from discriminating against employees or job applicants with
disabilities when making employment decisions. Employers must make
reasonable accommodations for an employee or applicant with a disability as
long as it doesn’t inflict undue hardship on the business. Respect for the rights of
people with disabilities may sometimes have to be balanced against expenses to
