Ethical and legal concerns in an organization may hinder organizational justice, productivity, and job satisfaction among employees. The ethical issues in business include the facilitation of integrity and trust in the working environment. More complex ethical issues include accommodating diversity, empathetic decision making and compliance with organizational rules. Non-conformity to the minor and complex ethics may result in unnecessary sanctions or lawsuits (Syed & Ozbilgin, 2019). The case study depicts how non-compliance with administrative regulations can affect business operations. Therefore, as the ABC Global leader, I would address Marlene’s disregard for the other co-worker’s culture and religious practice by subjecting her to mandatory skill-based diversity training. After training, a new workplace diversity policy addressing diversity issues would be enforced.
Marlene must understand that she has no power to make a private or public objection over a colleague’s religious or cultural preference as long as the code of dressing or reading the holy book does not limit her from working or harm her in any way. ABC Global is an organization that respects diversity in terms of religious and cultural inclusion. As noted, most employees can read their sacred books during their leisure, indicating an admirable organizational culture (Syed & Ozbilgin, 2019). However, some employees lack diversity competence which affects positive relations at work.
Therefore, Marlene and all the other employees must attend skill-based diversity training on working in a diverse environment to ensure ethical issues such as objections to other religious or cultural practices are eradicated. After the training, a new workplace diversity policy must be enacted to ensure that all the employees abide by it to promote competence (Syed & Ozbilgin, 2019). The reason is that the organization seems to have a weak policy because of the behavior exhibited by Marlene. The new policy must promote respect for all religions, cultures, social-economic status, and ethnicity. Additionally, violation of the policy should attract a sanction through fines or termination of employment.
Reference
Syed, J., & Ozbilgin, M. (2019). Managing diversity and inclusion: An international perspective. Sage.