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Ethical Issues and Management Paper

Wendy Lile

XMGT216

University of Phoenix

March 5, 2012

Allan Bardos

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Ethical Issues and Management PaperThere are many different scenarios that could indicate an ethical issue during a hiring

process that a manager of a small or large business might have to encounter. These ethical issues

can be dealt with professionally with efficient education of business ethics and employment law.

In hiring, ethics and law intertwine, and since very seldom is any law unethical, following equal

opportunity employment laws would be the best way to manage any ethical issues that might

arise. There are many different laws prohibiting discrimination which will be listed below.

Many company rules also effect a manager’s hiring process, which is, in some ways, just a

process of elimination. A well-trained and educated manager will only have to abide by simple

rules and regulations to be able to make an ethical choice while hiring employees. “A manager’s

most important responsibility is to bring good people into the organization and then manage in a

way that makes those good people want to stay.” (Trevino & Nelson, 2007, p.155)

Ethical Issues

Many ethical issues can arise for a manager when trying to make the important decision

to hire an employee for the firm that they work for. It is the manager’s most valuable duty to

hire the right people for their company because a bad or unethical employee can have dire

consequences. A manager must also read in between the lines during an interview and the whole

hiring process. For example, if an applicant is being interviewed and is asked if the hiring

company may contact a previous employer for a reference and they say no, but says that they had

no problems or misconduct at the company, there might be an issue here with lying. Why else

would the applicant not want the company to be contacted? It would be understandable if they

were presently employed. Another ethical issue would be if the candidate was unattractive,

obese, worn ethnical clothes, or even had strict religious rules to abide by. Everybody has some

kind of bias opinion, but as a manager, they must overcome all predetermined thoughts of how

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the person may look or dress and base their decision solely on the applicant’s ability to do the job

correctly and with the most ease. These biases extend throughout the company and also into its

customers, but a sensible person, whether it is a worker or customer, would set aside their

problems and handle business appropriately. Since this is not always the case, a manager will

have to realize that they cannot always please everybody at once, not even close.

Employment Law

Like stated before, there are many different employment laws in place although some

may vary from state to state, but most are the same. The main five acts that have been

established are: Equal Pay Act, Civil Rights Act, Age Discrimination in Employment Act,

Pregnancy Discrimination Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Equal Pay Act

states that no matter the gender the pay must be fair and equal for the work that employees do.

The Civil Rights Act is where there can be no discrimination based on race, color, religion,

national origin, or gender. The Age Discrimination Act puts forth that the age of the applicant or

employee cannot matter or make a difference in any business decision. If a woman gets pregnant

or is pregnant when interviewing the Pregnancy Discrimination Act prohibits them from being

seen as disabled or unavailable. According to the Americans with Disabilities Act, no applicant

with a disability can be discriminated against as long as they can do the job duties listed to them

“with or without reasonable accommodation.” (Alder & Gilbert, 2006, p. 450, table 1) As long

as the manager stays within these main regulations of hiring, few other ethical issues can come

up.

Company Rules

When a person is placed as a manager, they might also be given company rules for hiring

individuals. The desirable person might be a certain build or have a specific hair color. From

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personal experience, the company Hooters, a restaurant chain, hires a different number of red,

brunette, and blondes. They must have an assortment at all times. They must also be a certain

weight because they wear scantily clad clothing. Again, from personal experience, at the

company Shasa U.S.A., a teen clothing chain of stores from Mexico, the males or females hired

there had to have a certain “fashion-forward” style to their clothing and accessories. They also

had to have over a specific number of accessories on, this is considered their uniform. Shasa is

actually where I had my hiring experience. I was the hiring and sales manager, so I had to hire

individuals that fit the profile but also had the experience necessary to work and sell retain

clothing. It was certainly an ethical issue when I came across a girl with good and relevant

experience with a sales background but she did dress very homely. I decided to hire her but

instructed her of the dress code and told her about the employee discount so that she could buy

clothes from the store so she could be in uniform. I feel that my company would have missed

out if I did not hire this person because she ended up being in a top sales team.

According to Trevino and Nelson in Managing Business Ethics, if anything other than

talent and ability is used to hire an employee, then the manager could be taking away from the

applicant, themselves, and ,most importantly, the company itself. Having gone on many

interviews myself, I have seen many different ways that managers conduct interviews. Some

have actually slipped and started asking too many personal questions and I have had to ask if

they really needed to know that. Most managers are aware of the questions you can and cannot

ask but some are not. When I was a hiring manager, it was hard to not ask those questions

because you are trying to get to know the person you are hiring. I know now that you shouldn’t

be trying to get to know them on a personal level, but rather on a professional level and that has

strict guideline managers must abide by.

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References

Alder, G., & Gilbert, J. (2006). Achieving Ethics and Fairness in Hiring: Going beyond the Law.

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Journal Of Business Ethics, 68(4), 449-464.

Trevino, L., & Nelson, K. (2007). Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do it

right (4th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.