Introduction
Ethical principles set the tone for relationships in every sphere of people’s communication. Whether it is personal or business matters, people should be considerate and honest towards each other. Workplace ethics is of particular importance because it impacts a large number of individuals both within and outside the organization. The intrinsic element of ethics in a place of work deals with the relationships between the company’s staff at all levels. The extrinsic features of ethics include the standard of communication with the customers; they impact the company’s reliability. While there are many laws regulating people’s workplace relationships and responsibilities, ethics is not less crucial than legislation when making business decisions.
Analysis
Business ethics is defined as a structure of relationships between companies, people, industries, communities, and the country. It comprises the methods of performing business projects by every part of the structure: from individual employees to the organizations. Workplace ethics incorporates public and commercial demands of the society (Grace and Cohen 1).
Ethics in the workplace is first of all concerned with the notion of equality. If the employee is not treated equally with the others, the environment is not ethical. The most frequent disputes regarding workplace ethics are connected with employment discrimination, sexual harassment, and disability (Grace and Cohen 144).
Workplace discrimination happens when the employer fails to provide a secure and “non-threatening” atmosphere for the workers (Grace and Cohen 149). It may be connected with gender, race, or religious issues when the majority of the employees create an unfriendly atmosphere for the minority based on the divergences in their statuses. Another kind of workplace bias is pregnancy discrimination. There have often been cases when pregnant women were refused a sick-leave or even their position in the firm (Grace and Cohen 152). Sexual harassment, which is prevalently addressed against women, is the maltreatment of authority.
Mere interest in a co-worker is not regarded as harassment while bothering them either orally or by any actions is (Grace and Cohen 155-156). The ethics of the fair treatment of disabled people is another acute issue. Employers should take care of creating the most suitable working conditions for such people. In case they fail, their behavior is not considered ethical and may cause negative outcomes (Grace and Cohen 156-157).
Another side of workplace ethics is connected with the employees’ and company’s loyalty. If a firm has a bad reputation, no one will purchase its products or use its services. Therefore, the ethical behavior of each worker and of the company, in general, is a vital step on the way to success. “Code of ethics” (Grace and Cohen 239) determines the employees’ conduct towards their coworkers and clients. Also, it explains the stakeholders the methods of managing various situations, so that everyone knows what he or she can expect regarding prices and product quality (Grace and Cohen 239-240). The Code of ethics declares the norms and conditions which are expected from the participants of the working process. It is a means of obligation and liability (Grace and Cohen 240).
Conclusion
Even if ethics in the workplace is not regulated by law, it has power which sometimes equals the legislative one. It is necessary for the companies to conform to ethical regulations if they want to sustain respectable relations with their customers and within an organization.
Work Cited
Grace, Damian, and Stephen Cohen. Business Ethics. Oxford University Press, 2010.