Business Ethics: Fairness in the Hiring Process

Business Ethics: Fairness in the Hiring Process Growth and good performance of any business solely relies on a number of factors ranging from one business to another although most of these factors have turned out to be common. One of these factors is upholding of business ethics within the operational domain of business activities. Business ethics has been described by many business experts as the main pillar of thriving businesses across the globe. Whether this statement is true or false depends on the role of these ethics in carrying business activities. Due to the weight and concern of many people business ethics as a topic has received manifold attention that has led to informative findings in the current business. Most of these revolve the existence of several ethical theories which explain diverse ethical issues. This paper explores some of these theories within the context of the Human resource hiring process. To achieve this objective, this analysis lays special concern on dominant ethical theories like deontology, ethical egoism and utilitarianism. Business ethics What are business ethics? How important are business ethics? The understanding of ethics is quite important in deciding what to. It gives the ability of indentifying that which is acceptable in the society or within the business world. It is of paramount significance to note that personal behavior is key in determining the performance of any business. There are countless businesses in the world which have crumbled as a result of unethical business approach in dealing with issues like personnel hiring. It has been found that an ethical business system has the full potential of affecting every aspect of business (Pojman Fieser, 2008). It therefore follows that any person who dreams to thrive in any form of business must double emphasize the need to upholding business ethics in daily activities. Business ethics are well described using and acceptable behavioral standards. It is very possible to discover that different societies have different business ethics based on the observed ethics. Notably, businesses formulate policies and rules which are aimed at promoting morality as away of enforcing business ethics. These ensure the existence of appropriate conduct amongst managers and even junior employees within the company (Crane Matten, 2007). It is worth mentioning that business ethics is one of the most recommended tools in dealing with ethical problems which may arise in a business setup. Although this has always been considered, the main challenge has been the difficulty to decide specific ethical conduct towards a given commercial task. In deed business covers all aspects of business activities including but not limited to the obligations which a given, business has towards other businesses, customers, the environment and even to customers. This varies since some governm ents may consider setting national business standards or a company designing a customized code of ethics for its employees (Goodpaster, 1991). These ideas are however based on certain theories which define specific moral behavior with regard to various business ethical issues. Ethical issues The contemporary is faced with countless ethical issues which are addressed today. Unfortunately, businesses around the globe have collapsed because of taming some of these issues which mainly cause ethical dilemma. A good example of these issues is the hiring of personnel in any business setup (Ferrell., Fraedrich Ferrell, 2009). How ethical are hiring processes done? There is no doubt very minimal or no fairness at all has been witnessed in the hiring processes of various companies in the world. The most discouraging thing is the fact many people have been considered for employment or lost their jobs because of physical disability, gender, race or even age. These immensely affect the Human Resource sector of any business or company because of its crucial role in determining the growth and performance of the business. Ethical theories These represent the main ideas which give direction in addressing ethical issues like hiring of employees in companies. They aim at give answers to particular questions which determine what and how has to be done. Many ethical principles observed my businesses mainly stem from these theories (Rachels, 1998). These theories are however very important in addressing certain issues even though the principles have always dominated. Utilitarianism This is one of the many business theories which have been applied in setting acceptable business standards and behavior. This theory advocates for maximum utility for the majority when making decisions especially in influential leadership position. It is always governed by actions and rules which have been set up to generate happiness to the majority. Pro utilitarianism believes that any decision which has to be taken must generate satisfaction for the majority and not for individual gain (Mill, 2006). This a key theory especially in dealing with issues of the Human Resource section. This can be used to determine the criterion to be used in say, hiring employees or laying them off. If a decision to be made has to promote fairness to all, a person should not be disqualified on the basis of gender. Nobody ever applied to be male or female. It would therefore unethical to disqualify an applicant because of gender differences. By giving every applicant equal opportunities to be considere d a given job, it is clear that every person would be happy and satisfied. Deontology As describing by research experts, this theory emphasizes on the need for everybody to adhere to his or her specified duties and responsibilities when analyzing any form of ethical dilemma. People who follow this kind of theory are known to produce more consistent results since they carry out their roles in a defined manner (Darwall, 2003). How would a human resource operate under this kind of theory? This would definitely mean that there are defined duties which the manager has to perform as described by the service manual. Although there are many businesses and companies in the world which give the job description of a manager say, for human resource, there are countless unfair practices carried out with regard to the recruitment procedures. There is usually a tendency of managers favoring specific candidates especially during interviews. This is mainly based on factors like gender, race and even physical disability. Although some jobs require physically fit people who are strong, disability ought not to be a key issue hiring employees. There are numerous disabled people who perform far better than fit people. Ethical egoism This has been considered as the root cause of a number unethical issue in business which revolves around setting of personal interests before any other thing. Those who support the theory believe that satisfaction can only be achieved by driving personal interest regardless of its impact on other people especially the minority in the society. Many human resource managers have been found victims of this theory due to their unfair execution of their hiring powers (Hospers, 12). Although there are certain factors and minimum requirements for specific jobs, it is possible to miss an employment opportunity in a bank because of your age, race and gender among other natural factors. How would race determine the performance of an employee? This can not be considered as an elimination criterion factor. Nevertheless, egoistic managers have gone ahead to use it since they lack feelings for other people as long as their needs are mate. Collapse of businesses and booming companies has also been c losely linked to recruitment of incompetent people based on either race or gender. When a person is driven by personal interests, negative consequences of his actions are not an issue as long as he succeeds in his agenda. The issue of women being discriminated at workplace is highly linked to ethical egoism. This is common in areas where those in authority misuse their positions to fulfill personal desires and dreams. In cases where the hiring manager has personal interests in certain candidates, it is very possible for such applicants to secure the job even minus the necessary requirements. Such an egoistic manager does not care whether or the company realizes its goal as long as his interests are met (ÃÆ'-sterberg, 1988). It is important to note personal interests do no promote growth but instead gradually leads to the suffering of many. Rights ethical theory This theory mainly focuses on the rights set by the society and which have to be given the first priority in protecting and serving human beings. This means that the functioning of this theory may differ from one society to another to the variation and diversity in rights (Brady, 1985). However, there are other rights which cut across global boundaries. These include but not limited to gender protection, rights of the disabled, age and even race. Human rights are common in every country and play a major role in protecting minority people in the society like the disabled and more vulnerable groups like women. A lot of discrimination which takes place in the contemporary society can only be curbed by observing the rights theory among others. Is worth noting that a woman, disabled person or a black one can be hired for a specific job as long as the person meets the minimum job requirements. However, the theory can well operate in a society or country which fully protects human rights, l ooks out for the rights of the disabled, aged and even women. The main driving principle of the theory is that everybody has the right work regardless of other factors as long as the minimum qualifications are met (Smithers, 1996). Conclusion Business ethics is a very fundamental concept in dealing with many ethical issues and dilemmas witnessed in out day to day lives. They basically give an understanding of what and how something has to be doe in the most acceptable way. There is no doubt that a clear comprehension and differentiation of what is wrong from what is right can be of significant benefits. Business ethics give the basis of decision making in any society since it determines and sets standards within which certain business activities operate (Brief et al. 2000).These ethics give rise to ethical theories which are mainly applied in deciding ethical conflicts. Although every employee or any other person has to observe business ethics, those in management positions like the human resource managers are expected to fully operate within ethical boundaries in order to promote fairness and good performance. Hiring of personnel on the basis of their race, age, gender and physical disability has to be condemned completely. Unless there are restrictions which limit the recruitment of certain individuals, the entire process has to be done with fairness and open minded. The idea of pushing for personal interests does more harm than good to any business (Machan, 2007). Although every stakeholder in the business world is encouraged to protect the rights of every person in business, laws which protect human rights are also important in augmenting legal protection of these rights. This can go a long way in taking legal actions against those who discriminate others especially in the HR department. It would however be useless without having a transformed Human resource sector which upholds equality, fairness and good for everyone.

The Last Lecture Randy Pausch Reflection

Reflection of Randy Pausch’s â€Å"The Last Lecture† Pennsylvania State University Berks Campus The Last Lecture began as a good-bye speech, made by Randy Pausch, a 47 year old professor diagnosed with terminal cancer. His speech at Carnegie Melon University became an Internet phenomenon. It has also been published as a book. I really thoroughly enjoyed his Last Lecture speech. He had a lot of good talking points and brought up some new perspectives, or ways of looking at life situations that got me thinking. He talked a lot about his dreams when he was a child and was very humorous and inspirational throughout his speech.He also had a lot of quotes that I really enjoyed and they are what I want to focus on. â€Å"When you screw up and no one yells at you about it then they have given up on you. † They yell at you because they care. This is something that applies to my life. I have had presumably some of the worst years of my life my junior and senior year of hig h school through entering college. I always believed my parents never understood where I was coming from, and if I did anything slightly wrong, they would blow the situation out of proportion.This is not exactly the same thing, because I would not say that I have â€Å"screwed up† in my actions, but more, I have done things that my parents disagreed with. My parents would yell at me for reasons that I did not understand, and things that my friends’ parents would never yell at them for. I know that there are individual differences between families and their own beliefs, but at the time, I hated my parents. We would get into the pettiest fights, and my parents never knew how much I did not do to try and please them. I just wanted to run away and leave and or find a way out.These were somewhat dark times for me because my relationship with my parents was just extremely terrible. Our arguments took an emotional toll on me, and it affected all of my relationships outside of my family and my schoolwork; anything that was important to me was not anymore. All this being said, now that I have been in college I have realized that my parents do really care about me and when they ever got angry or would not let me do something, I know now that it was out of love and parental instinct to protect their child and have my best interests in mind.They also were so strict and disciplinary with me because they just wanted a better life for me than they had, and they did not want for me to â€Å"screw up†. I really appreciate all that my parents have done for me to have the life I had, and I am so lucky to have parents who care about me and my future so much. This ties back into another thing Randy Pausch said, which was â€Å"when you do something when you are young, it sticks with you. † My parents are pretty conservative and raised me with strict discipline, placing all their emphasis on my academics.My dad would always make me sit at the dinner tabl e and do all of my homework before I could go play or do anything else. This is something that has stuck with me for a long while. I am not as good at still doing this, but what my dad made me do, helped contribute to my work ethic that would get me good grades, organization, and good time management skills all throughout grade school. Also, like Pausch’s father, my dad taught me humility. I try to live my life as modestly as I possibly can, and I get the most gratification out of the smallest things.Unlike Pausch’s father though, my dad never let me draw and write on the walls, even though that never stopped me from doing it, but rather my dad still let me express my creativity in other ways that would not cause property damage. Having a creative outlet is such an important thing and I was glad I was able explore and let my imagination run. If anything, in today’s society, creativity is something that is being undervalued and sacrificed in the sake of making pr ogress and conforming to an academic standard, where the arts and other areas of study are not looked as highly upon as studying science or business, for example.It also comes down to material goods and earnings when choosing a course of study. A statement that stuck out to me was that â€Å"people are more important than things. † This is an idea that seems to have been innate for me. Since I was young, I always cared a lot about the people in my life, and that has translated to how I am now. I value friendships so much. I believe that yes, you have your family and they should always be there and support you, but having friends creates such more stable foundation in the relationships that you have. You can make a lot of money and buy whatever you want, but money does not equate happiness.I appreciate the people who are in my life and all the experiences we have shared together, which I will continue to reminisce about and keep forever. Money or things could not give me all t hose experiences. Sometimes I feel like people are so driven by their need for a sense of achievement and wealth/power that they push people away and give up any chance of building their friendships and enjoying the fruits of life that you can only get through your interaction with people. These people just end up alone, and that is something I do not want to do.Randy Pausch was very successful at being able to always put people before things. â€Å"Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you want† and â€Å"brick walls are there to show how much people want something,† we two of my most favorite quotes that came out of his speech. The more I reflected on these words, the more I thought about how true they are. I never thought of experience in that way, but I guess that is what results from at least some of my experiences. I feel like I have great experiences, but they are times when I do get exactly what I wanted.No doubt though, many of the best ex periences I have had were ones where things did not go exactly as planned but they ended up being just as great, if not more great, than they would have been if I had gotten my way. Another important thing about experience I think, is that you have to let yourself experience, and not hold yourself back. You could look at something that happened to you and complain and cry about it, but you could look at it from the perspective that you have gained knowledge for future events, and you only grow and learn from your experiences, either good or bad.I know that many times, I feel like only bad things happen to me, and as much as I appreciate gaining experiences from them, it feels like I always have to the route of learning from my mistakes. I got into my first car accident on my way back home from FTCAP at Berks, and clearly that was not something I wanted. But I gained experience from it, and I guess it has made me become a more cautious driver. The other quote about brick walls really struck a nerve with me and that is why it was one of my favorites.I feel like I have come up against many brick walls in my life. Sometimes I cannot break them down, but I guess that means that I did not want something enough. Physically, I know that there are those times where I am in a game, and I am just exhausted. When I feel like I cannot push anymore, something inside me, whether it be my want to be better than someone else, or sense of competition and want to win, I find a whole source of energy and intensity that was not there before. Usually this allows me to overcome my fatigue and perform better.If I looked at every obstacle in my life as a brick wall that I would have to break down or overcome, I feel like I usually come up short and only make maybe a crack in the wall. I believe that when I am really passionate about something, I put literally everything I have into it and hope that it shows how badly I really, truly want something. Most of the time, I will admit, I ge t discourage or frustrated easily. I want to be able to not let these walls stop me from achieving anything.So this is a quote I have up so I can see it everyday, and it is quite motivating to see that I have to put effort into my day to achieve anything. I found the part of his speech where he talked about working on Imagineering inspirational. This was something that was his dream, and once he finally achieved his dream, this forever changed his life. I am not sure if I have an ultimate dream of what I want to be, in the future, but I hope to be like Pausch and enable childhood dreams of others.I do not even know what it would be like to fulfill your own dream or the dreams of others, but I would love to be a part of something bigger than myself and help others. I am realizing that there are so many people out there who are less fortunate than I, and those people work so much harder to achieve their dreams. My parents could even be used as examples. Their dream was to escape commu nism, and lead a better life for themselves and for their children. They worked extremely hard to build themselves up from nothing.I hope to someday have a dream that I want to achieve that badly. Pausch had pancreatic cancer, three kids, and did not want to be an object of pity even though he knew when his life would end. I envy that about him. He continued in his speech to talk about how to live and achieve your childhood dreams. I think that that was very motivational to us, especially as college students, because he is basically saying that we can be whatever we want to be and we should not let anything get in the way of our dreams.Pausch said that you should have a sense of fun and wonder which should never go away. I could not agree more. We are young, and should be curious and enjoy life. Often the flame of life seems to dim until it blows out over time, but like Pausch I hope to be able to have as much fun and fulfillment out of anything that I do. When I get out of school, and begin to work, I hope that I will be able to go to work everyday and be excited about it. I realized that I am basically living out a dream that I laid out for myself, whether I knew it or not.It has taken a lot for me to get to where I am now, and I have worked for â€Å"my dream† for so many years, it has become one of the only things I know how to do and work towards. I guess this dream is become a child psychiatrist, or work with children and help them medically. His conclusion of the lecture gave me a lot to really just think about. Really, his entire speech conveyed that you should never underestimate the value of having fun. You should work and play well with other, tell the truth, and apologize.You should show your gratitude. And not to complain, just work harder. This is such a great way I think to look at life. Life is all about living, and living is having fun and enjoying yourself. That is the only reason for doing anything. I mean it is simple, but why would you want to put all your time and energy into doing anything you do not like? Even those things that are difficult can be made easier if you just look at the situation from a different and more hopeful perspective. I know that I do not show my gratitude enough.I know that I am thankful, but sometimes a simple â€Å"thank you† does go a long way. I know that I do a lot for people and I do it because I want to, but those two words carry a lot of weight. I also know that I tend to complain a lot. His speech definitely was motivational in the fact that so many people, like myself, can spend an excessive amount of time being negative and looking at everything as a long and arduous task, when life is all about just trying to do the best you can and having an optimistic point of view.If you do not complain about things and just force yourself to get them done, you will be so much more satisfied with yourself and the work you accomplished. He went on further to talking about how you should live your life. Pausch said that if you live properly, your dreams will come to you. I am skeptical of this, but maybe if I try to live more â€Å"properly† then things will all fall into place. I realized that I often know what I want, but I do not do anything to help me achieve what I want.Also there are times when I feel like I am trying my best to live â€Å"properly† and make the best of every situation, but sometimes, I just do not want to make myself feel better about myself or any situation I would be in, and I would just rather sulk and pity myself. Randy Pausch definitely had ego integrity as he entered the last stages of his life. His attitude and his approach to facing death was something very awe-inspiring. He is not afraid of death, and he feels as if he has lived a fulfilling life. Even though he is leaving his children and family behind, he knows that they will carry on and live life to its maximum otential because he has shown them how. As upset ting and devastating as it is to lose someone who is very close to you and has made such an impact in your life, I believe that his family will be able to handle his death and have a positive outlook on the future, even without Pausch’s presence there, because he was so positive about his life and what he has contributed and done. I think as much as I would want to be optimistic or realistic about death and accept it, I think I would be more upset and more ego despair than Pausch was.Yes, death is a naturally occurring event and everyone dies. It is just somewhat unfair to me that certain people do not have the chance to live out their life. I also am just more afraid of when my life ends, I will not have accomplished everything that I wanted to, or made any difference in the world. Maybe someday, I will be able to give a â€Å"Last Lecture† speech that is just as motivational and inspirational as Randy Pausch. I also hope to get into the mindset that Pausch talked abo ut in his speech—living life, not worrying about death, having fun, and going after my dreams.

CanGo Corporation Essay

CanGo does not seem to have any legitimate process flow charts, especially for its operations facility. Two floor plan layouts were drawn up. One for the current operation processes and one which shows the operation facility if CanGo invests and implements an ASRS (automated storage and retrieval systems). These two floor plans were referred to as flow charts. Flow charts consist of shapes and connectors which are labeled stating the flow of the processes, the decisions that can be made at specific stages, and outcomes of those decisions. Accompanying a flow chart would be the floor plan and written documentation outlining and explaining the entire process. Recommendation Classes Consulting recommends that CanGo draws up an actual flow chart, as well as the floor plans and written documentation explaining the processes in their operations facility. In addition, costs, financial effects (both current and future), and other details should be included for both the current operations system and the proposed ASRS and barcoding system. Having all of this documentation will show where improvements can be made and where costs can be cut. It will show and explain in detail the actual processes used for receiving, picking, and shipping. A floor plan will not take into account the actual details such as how long it take to pick books, how crowded it is on the operations floor, nor how the employees feel about the possible change. If, after creating this documentation, CanGo decides to go ahead with the new barcode and ASRS the flowchart will help in the creation and setup of the new systems. In addition, if financing is needed to install the new systems, having this documentation will show the lenders that CanGo has thought it through and can give details.

The Flat World And Education - 848 Words

In line with Hammond’s assertion in her book The Flat World and Education that we only spend ten thousand dollars a year per student to educate our students, but we would and have spent in some cases thirty thousand to incarcerate them (2010). What if we took that forty thousand dollar combined total and split it up evenly? So that we spend twenty thousand on our students and twenty thousand on those we convict and sentence to incarceration. Because while education of those not in prison is important, I find that education of those who are institutionalized (to include those in prison) especially if their term of institutionalization or incarceration is to find an end. Whether it is only for things like behavior mitigation (Alcoholics Anonymous, Anger Management, and Al Anon†¦ Etc). If we ever expect to slow down the flow in and out of prison. Flow as it relates to a prison population are the total number of prison admissions and releases, as they relate to the â€Å"sto ck† prison population which is the number of citizens being incarcerated in total at any given point in time. Also, of importance I think to realize is that the time has passed to debate whether or not incarceration works as an absolute as compared to deterrence. If my memory serves me correctly I argued in Dr. Lowery’s week three discussion on the matter that we as a nation could only effect the stock population of inmates if we focus on better application of deterrence and Incarceration as a method to improveShow MoreRelatedThe Flat World And Education1716 Words   |  7 Pages In their novels The Flat World and Education: How America s Commitment to Equity Will Determine Our Future and Education and Opportunity, both Hammond and McShane offer expert insight and solutions to repair America’s broken educational system. 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