Ethical Misconduct

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According to Mello (2015), in January of 2007, the EEOC announced a settlement of $2.5 million to a Lockheed Martin employee that complained about racial discrimination, harassment, and terminated four coworkers and supervisors who had allegedly participated in the act. Not only did they have to provide monetary awards, but the company was required to provide yearly antidiscrimination training to their employees and report to the EEOC on whether any new issues had arrived and what actions had been taken (Mello, 2015). The situation at Lockheed Martin should have never escalated to an EEOC complaint. There should have been measures in place to combat discrimination and harassment. According to Meinert (2014), companies that work to build and maintain ethical workplace cultures are more financially successful and have more motivated, productive employees, studies have shown.

In my observation of ethical misconduct in my previous employment, the first procedure in try to adopt a code of ethics. A code of ethics doctrine can provide guidelines and procedures to address any issue that an employee or employer considers an unethical practice. This will curtail the assumption that someone did not know or understand an unethical act. Provide diversity training to all employees to identify areas where there may be blind spots. The company should also provide yearly training that will give all employees a clear understanding of how important the company treats unethical behavior. A recommendation that should be of priority is a safe and confidential process in which employees can report harassment and not be retaliated against. This process will help to eliminate employees from feeling inferior or ashamed to report issues that they see regardless of the rank in company hierarchy. The company should provide counseling, if needed, to address issues before they become financial problems for the company. In some cases when employers work with employees to provide a solution, it may cost the company less in the long term. Also, ethics needs to be brought up regularly so that it is at the forefront of all employees at the company. Lastly, employees can be given an evaluation semi-yearly of yearly in the form of a survey to determine their understanding of ethical behavior. I’m sure that there will always be better ways to confront unethical behavior. As we consider the future, technology will play a very important part in handling these situations.

References

Meinert, D. (2014, April 01). Creating an Ethical Workplace. Retrieved July 14, 2017, from https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/Pages/0414-ethical-workplace-culture.aspx

Mello, J. A. (2015). Strategic human resource management. 4th edition. Stamford, CT, USA: Cengage Learning.