Ch 17, Instructor’s Manual, Business & Society, Carroll 10e
Chapter 17
Employee Stakeholders and Workplace Issues
LEARNING OUTCOMES
After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
1. Outline the characteristics of the new social contract between employers and employees.
3. Explain the employee rights movement and its underlying principles.
5. Discuss the right to due process and fair treatment.
6. Elaborate on the freedom-of-speech issue and whistle-blowing.
TEACHING SUGGESTIONS
INTRODUCTION – The employer/employee relationship is central to business’s role in society.
The authors devote two chapters to the subject, with this being the first. They discuss some of
the changes occurring in the workplace and to the social contract, as well as the employee rights
movement. Particular areas of interest include the right to not be fired without just cause, the
right to due process and fair treatment, and the right to freedom of speech in the workplace.
These employee stakeholder issues entail economic, legal, and ethical responsibilities.
KEY TALKING POINTS – The issues discussed in this chapter should be highly relevant to the
students, because they hope to be employees of companies in the near future, if they are not
already. The doctrine of employment-at-will has the potential to affect each of them, both
Much has been written about employee rights and due process in the workplace. As pointed out
Ch 17, Instructor’s Manual, Business & Society, Carroll 10e
The most dramatic topic in this chapter is the question of freedom of speech, particularly that of
whistle-blowing. As the textbook mentions in Figure 17-5, several movies have been made
about true-life whistle-blowers. Although several of them are now dated, students can view
graphic representations of some of the very real hazards whistle-blowers encounter. In addition
to informing a discussion of employees’ right to free speech, these movies are also excellent
PEDAGOGICAL DEVICES – In this chapter, instructors may utilize a combination of:
Cases: 5-Engineered Billing
6-The Waiter Rule: What Makes for a Good CEO?
8-To Hire or Not to Hire
11-Family Business
12-Banned if You Do, Banned if You Don’t
13-Location, Location, Location
15-Nike, Inc. and Sweatshops
17-Chiquita – An Excruciating Dilemma
18-Dole’s DBCP Legacy
29-Felony Franks (2)- Home of the Misdemeanor Wiener
31-Moral Dilemma – Head vs. Heart
32-Walmart Labor Practices
33-Case of the Fired Waitress
35-Looksism at A&F
36-Two Vets, Two Dogs, and a Deadlock
37-Are Criminal Background Checks Discriminatory
40-Tragedy in Bangladesh
41-Software Sojourn
Ethics in Practice Cases:
Should I Say Something?
The Pocketed Purse
A Whistle-Blower’s Windfall
The Serial Whistle-Blower: Have the Incentives Gone Too Far?
Ch 17, Instructor’s Manual, Business & Society, Carroll 10e
Spotlight on Sustainability:
Employees are Key to Sustainability
LECTURE OUTLINE
I. THE NEW SOCIAL CONTRACT
II. EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
III. THE EMPLOYEE RIGHTS MOVEMENT
A. The Meaning of Employee Rights
IV. THE RIGHT NOT TO BE FIRED WITHOUT CAUSE
A. Employment-at-Will Doctrine
2. Moral and Managerial Challenges to Employment-at-Will
B. Dismissing an Employee with Care
V. THE RIGHT TO DUE PROCESS AND FAIR TREATMENT
A. Due Process
B. Alternative Dispute Resolution
1. Common Approaches
3. The Peer Review Panel
4. The Future of ADR
VI. FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN THE WORKPLACE
A. Whistle-Blowing
B. Consequences of Whistle-Blowing
VII. SUMMARY
SUGGESTED ANSWERS TO DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Students should recognize that their answers to these discussion questions should be well
reasoned and supported with evidence. Although some answers will be more correct than others,
students should be aware that simplistic answers to complex questions, problems, or issues such
as these will never be “good” answers.
1. Question: Rank the various changes that are occurring in the workplace in terms of their
importance to the growth of the employee rights movement. Briefly explain your ranking.
Answer: Technology and automation and globalization are two of the major forces
impacting the employee rights movement. I rank technology first because it affects every
2. Question: Explain the employment-at-will doctrine, and describe how it is being eroded.
Do you think its existence is leading to a healthy or an unhealthy employment environment
in the United States? Justify your reasoning.
Answer: The employment-at-will doctrine means that either the employer or the employee
can terminate the employment contract at any time, for any reason other than
3. Question: In your own words, explain the right to due process. What are some of the
major ways management is attempting to ensure due process in the workplace?
4. Question: If you could choose only one, which form of alternative dispute resolution
would be your choice as the most effective approach to employee due process? Explain.
Answer: I would institute a peer review panel, making sure that employees from every
level of the company were represented on the panel. There are distinct class and power
5. Question: How do you feel about whistle-blowing now that you have read about it? Are
you now more sympathetic or less sympathetic to whistle-blowers? Explain.
Answer: I have always been sympathetic to whistle-blowers and still am. Organizations
6. Question: What is your assessment of the value of the False Claims Act? What is your
assessment of the value of the whistle-blower protections under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act?
Answer: The False Claims Act revived the Civil war practice of sharing the monies recovered
from reported fraud with the one reporting it, so provides some recompense. Sarbanes-Oxley
7. Question: What other steps can management take to be responsive to potential whistle-
blowing situations?
Answer: As the text states, listening and responding are the best deterrents to whistle–
blowing. There are many initiatives outlined to help prevent whistle-blowing situations,
GROUP ACTIVITY
Divide students into groups of four to five students. Ask students in the class to bring in the
employment manuals from their current jobs. Distribute the manuals among the groups. Each
group should identify what rights workers have under the manual with regards to the following
(1) termination, (2) due process and (3) freedom of speech in the workplace. Specifically,
students should determine whether employees have contractual rights to employment under the
policy, the procedures involved in a due process proceeding, and mechanisms employed by the
company to encourage freedom of speech in the workplace. Students should summarize these
issues in a memo. Instructors may want to attach the memos to the various manuals and allow
Ch 17, Instructor’s Manual, Business & Society, Carroll 10e
INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT
(Note: This Assignment also may be used in conjunction with Chapter 10)
Distribute the following instructions to each student:
Research and describe how U.S. companies have employed the doctrine of employment-at-will