College of Business Administration

Seminar in Business Ethics and Social Institutions

Discussion Questions for July 29, 2003:

Discussion will center around the employee/employer social contract, rights and obligations, the work/life balance, while touching on specific issues, such as discrimination and whistle blowing.

1) Think of examples of situations in companies that influence the work-life balance. What types of benefits are available to employees? How do these benefits affect the corporation? The employees?

2) What responsibility does the corporation have for helping the home lives of employees by creating family-friendly work environments? Is the employee solely responsible for maintaining a work/life balance? Can a corporation justify spending money on such programs? How is value justified? What would the shareholders’ perspective be on such programs that increase costs?

3) Examine the “Employment at Will Doctrine” (Weiss, p 215-216). Who benefits from this? Who is being protected and how? How does this affect worker morale? What are some alternatives to employment at will?

4) In 2003, working for company XYZ, you expect certain rights to be upheld in the workplace. What are these “expected” rights? Do you believe that these rights are upheld? Who decides the standards? Is that fair and ethical?

5) There are numerous types of discrimination that occur in the workplace, from simple favoritism, to lifestyle choices, to affirmative action. Is there a solution to minimizing or eliminating these occurrences to create an equal environment? What are some ways to rid the workplace of discrimination and meet the needs of a changing workforce?

6) In many cases an employer is responsible for the actions of its employees, whether known or not. In sexual harassment cases, is this fair? Does it encourage management to create a safer, harassment free workplace (including such things as sensitivity training), or does it simply reposition the blame, making one group unfairly responsible for the actions of another?

7) What responsibility does the employee have to the corporation before blowing the whistle to outside agencies? Should they give management the opportunity to fix the problem internally first? If so, does that address the ethical dilemma of the past wrongdoings?

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