Ethics: Right and Wrong, Benefits and Obligations - Essay Sample

Introduction

Ethics refers to well-founded standards, comprising the right and wrong, and prescribes what humans are obliged to do (Aguinis, 2011). It is basically in terms of rights, fairness, as well as the societal benefits that it has. These standards are specific virtues which impose obligations that are reasonable and aimed to refrain serious unethical issues like rape, theft, killings, assaults, frauds as well as slanders. Ethics encompasses and enjoin the virtues of being royal, compassionate, and honest. It also includes things that relate to the right to life, the right to privacy, and the right to freedom from any injury.

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Ethics has numerous benefits when it comes to Human Service Organization. Firstly, ethics help the social workers within the organization in their primary goal of helping people as well as addressing various social problems. They are capable of offering pro bono services above their self-interests by drawing from their knowledge and skills. Secondly, the client -worker relationship is greatly improved because many ethical guidelines govern human service workers in these organizations.

These ethics endorse respect, discretion, negotiation, and recognizing the right to self-determination together with knowledgeable consent. Workers can respect the privacy of the client, collecting the information that is needed only in providing services, avoiding intrusive actions as much as possible. Ethical morals include respecting every culture and norms. Through ethics, social workers can know the mission of profession, values, ethical ideologies, and ethical standards and consistently do them. Social workers act with honesty and with integrity promoting ethical activities in organizations they are affiliated to.

Furthermore, ethics helps to satisfy basic human needs. The basic needs of humans include fairness, honesty, as well as being ethical. It is the desire of each employee to be working for such organizations, which is impartial as well as ethical in all of its activities. The other ethical importance is that it unites people with leadership. Any human service organization that is motivated by values has more reverence by its employees. It is the main thread that puts the workforces together with the decision-making team to a shared platform. The act helps to align organizational behaviors in achieving its common goal and mission. Besides, ethics helps to safeguard society.

Ethical Issues in Competitive Pay

Competitive pay refers to the salary offered, which is primarily more than the industry standard for the same job within the same geographical area (Benabou & Tirole, 2016). Competitive pay draws various ethical concerns that can significantly impact the organization. It implies that the organization's payment information is confidential in protecting the employee's privacy policies. Many employees who are not in competitive pay, those within the minimum payment view the competitive salary of not being an incentive pay.

The human service organizations approach some outside individuals intending to hire them with a promise of competitive pay. As a result, ethical considerations of the organization are violated since, in most cases, this pay is only for a short time, and can end before the contracted time. The payment is also not sustainable and deems to overpay, which is against the organizations' economic policy. It is also considered as unfair since it is for a few individuals whose income is already many times more than that of typical workers.

Ethical Issues in Responsible Stewardship

Organizational stewardship is when one sees his or her role as that of caretaker while focusing on the duties owing to others and the organization (Karns, 2011). It helps in creating a cooperative environment focusing on the success of the organization. Responsible stewardship involves seeing every person as precious and essential with great potential capable of solving challenges affecting the society. Though they may face competing responsibilities, they remain committed to the missions of the organization.

Stewardship helps in promoting the well-being of everyone in the organization, ensuring that they are happy in their working environment. They ensure that the employees receive fair and equal treatment in the organization. An ethical issue arises when leaders or even the employees fail to be responsible for their duties. Instead of being careful in what they do or say, they start leading a tough life minding nothing and no one. For instance, they begin showing disrespect to other employees, showing them that they have no value. They also mistreat them in various ways, like overworking them with low salaries.

They do this without caring for their feelings, emotions, and even their health. They go to the extent of firing them without any reason and notice. Again, when an employee takes their complaints to their seniors, they are not given any chance to express their requests. Instead, they receive threats of being fired or worse if they try to bring disturbances to them. They feel less motivated to work with low morale having no trust in their leaders. It is very unethical for leaders and even employees to behave in such a manner to their fellow human beings. They should care for each other, ensuring that they create a pleasant working environment for the interest of the organization.

Ethical Issue in Conflict of Interest

Conflict of interest is a disagreement between the private interests and the professional responsibilities of a person who is in a position of power. The conflict results in personal or financial considerations that can influence the professional judgment in an organization. In some circumstances, it is hard for an expert to separate particular interest from the professional service (Burnes & Oswick, 2012). They may involve financial arrangements in commercial enterprises where the person is involved and benefit. Conflict of interest arises in the organization when clients or maybe their relatives offer gifts or incentives which predisposes the professional to favor them. Involvement in the professional assessment from a friend can lead to a conflict of interest. Policies and measures in the workplace should be evaluated to protect against biases or preferences which are presented into professional judgment. Conflict of interest is suspected when a professional receive gifts or incentives. Preferential treatment in referrals in employee evaluation should be avoided.

Ethical Issues Implicating Confidentiality

There are ethical issues that arise concerning the information handling of the employees (Smith & Xu, 2011). People always have a need and right to privacy that is knowing what to conceal and what to reveal. At the workplace, productivity and health issues involve both the employer and employees as collective and as individuals. In some situations, public interests are also involved where government agencies or even other institutions represent them with a claim of a legitimate need to know. There are ethical conflicts needed to be resolved. If the requirements to know the organization or the employer are not compatible with the needs to protect the employees' privacy, there should be a decision made, making the right to information paramount. The ethical conflict arises since the employer is always responsible for taking preventive action against the health hazards of an occupation.

The employer needs to have information about the health of the employees and their working conditions to exercise that responsibility. The employees hence request some of their information concerning them to be made confidential even while accepting the requirement for preventive actions. There is an ethical issue that happens in an organization when the employer reveals and releases a piece of information that is used in identifying and exposing the employee to unwanted responses from the others. It means that the information the employee provided was not protected from dissemination. Also, there is an issue where essential information meant to prevent or discover health risks at the workplace is not hidden and unrevealed. It then affects the worker later since it was not corrected because the information was not released. The employer should hence ensure that the health of the employee is protected and that they have good working conditions.

Ethical Issues in Selective Donation Acceptance

Organizations may, at a time, run deficit, and they see the need for accepting donations. They ensure that acceptance is detrimental in achieving the required purposes. They should know their donors and beneficiaries. There are ethical issues that arise in selecting donation acceptance. It happens when the organization receives donations leading to staff loss and even inability to recruit others.

Furthermore, they lose volunteers with great and valuable services as a result of accepting donations. Also, they accept knowing that they create conflicts with the organization's missions and values, ignoring the fact that the reputation of the organization may be damaged. The organization also receives it even knowing that it is unlawful to accept, for instance, when the donations contain the proceeds of crime (Reamer, 2013). Sometimes, they use them to facilitate criminal activities like money laundering. It becomes unethical when the company loses its public trust and confidence due to receiving a certain donation. The organization should, therefore, accept donations selectively and lawfully maintain ethics in their exercises.

Ethical Issues in Abuse of Power

There is an ethical issue of harassment and intimidation of the employees by their seniors (Castellano, 2014). Harassment involves one person having power and control over the other, for instance, a manager with power over an employee. The act results in the employees having low morale and motivation in the work they do. Mostly, some threats are attached to harassment like humiliation, getting sacked, or even worse than those (Lee-Chai, 2015). The misuse of power in the place of work by supervisors or even the managers is a serious ethical problem that the employees face. The workers experience physical abuse or even sexual exploitation, which brings real fear into their lives. The behavior should be condemned, and the managers start using their powers to serve and build others. They should work with the employees peacefully and not treating them as mere objects for use while developing their dignity and not damaging them.

Those in power, especially managers, practice and encourages nepotism in the workplace. They do this by influencing the organization to employ them while giving them preferential treatments to their friends and relatives. The act of nepotism leads to hardships where wrong people are given the job even without relevant knowledge and skills required. It denies qualified people to get the opportunity of being employed for their positions. It leads to much prejudice in the workplace and discourages people from applying for employment since they are not known by the leaders who always employ their friends and family members. Relatives, therefore, take advantage of the positions given while retaining a superiority attitude. Nepotism should be stopped since it brings favoritism and unfair promotion.

Managers also engage in discriminative practices and fail to provide equal employment opportunity. They discriminate against the employees basing on the matters of race, gender, ethnicity, and even disability. Some deny qualified persons an opportunity because they are from different backgrounds and do not belong to their tribes. Others may be disabled but very qualified, yet th...