Introduction

The performance of any business organization is always affected by various factors that might arise during business operations. There are several domains which the management of every organization should always jeep reviewing and precisely examining to ensure that factors that can slow down the performance of the organizations do not arise from the domains. Such domains include economic, industry, societal, and legal domains each with various possible factors that one arise, they can greatly affect the entire organization. Different legal and ethical considerations have to be made in every organization for effective business operations. Some organizations are unable to apply the legal requirements until they incorporate a legal expert who would help in explaining to all those within the organization the entire legal environment and what benefits arise from them. The whole organization has to be aware of all the consequences that would arise from engagement ion unethical and illegal activities.

Additionally, the management needs to ensure that all their employees are aware of the consequences of engaging in unethical or illegal activities.  The consequences of participating in illegal activities that involve violation of legal requirements are severe and can even result in shutting down of the entire organization through court orders. Each nation has different legal requirements all organization should observe for smooth business operations. However, environmental, ethical issues should be a key concern to the entire organization to ensure that the all-time environmental policies are adhered to.

A description of the business situation

Reports of discrimination in different organizations have become normal news since each now, and then there are reports of witnessed discrimination within various levels in different institutions around the world. Discrimination can be precisely defined as an embracement of inequality in the process of offering any opportunity within any institution. Despite the cultural, economic, political or social differences, human beings need to be equally treated all the time. Hence, discrimination is against the desires of an individual’s hence demotivates them making them perform poorly in their different levels. Various forms of discrimination are usually experienced from one organization to another including social status, sex, religion, age, race among other forms of discrimination. During the offer of employment opportunities as well as during provision of enumerations, discrimination is highly experienced. It is usually known that individuals with the same education level to have equal chances of being employed as we as being given the same levels of enumeration (Schwartz, 2011). This is not the case to different organizations since you find that individuals with similar education level getting different enumerations although working at the same level. Managers need to ensure that no form of discrimination arises when they are communicating with the employees. For a long period, communication has been known to result in discrimination.

Several forms of discrimination that may arise at workplaces are precisely explained in the employment discriminatory practices under the federal regulations. According to the federal regulations, all job advertisements should be structured in a way that they address the various community discrimination may arise in job advertisements when they advertising company structures the advert to encourage a particular group to apply while discouraging another group from applying for the position. In most cases, discrimination in job advertisement results in discrimination during recruitment and other activities within the workplace.

My prior organization has a case of discrimination during hiring. Few days after an interview was done for the position of assistant operational manager, one of the interviewees who was considered unsuccessful for the position filled a case of discrimination during the hiring process. Our management denied the charges until the lady produced and evidence of a recording she was doing ion the interview room. The lady claimed that she was precisely qualified for the position, but it was granted to another applicant. She claimed that one of the interviewers asked her inappropriate question during the interview which distorted her making her fail the entire interview. She claimed that she was asked a question about her children arrangements, her disabilities and health limitations, her age, her religion, her race. She insisted that the question about her health problems and children arrangements made her feel low hence making her unable to answer other questions well. Her lawyer explained that the questions were coined to discriminate her client from the employment position.

After the case hearing, it was declared that our company was involved in the discrimination of applicants during the hiring process. Our company was fined by the United States Department of Labor for discrimination the job applicants. Additionally, the court ruled out that the process of recruitment in the specific position be repeated. As a measure not to repeat the same, the company management outsourced a task force that was to conduct the interview and provide the organization with the best candidate qualified for the position.

Discrimination during recruitment arises in many organization especially when the owners of the organizations are involved in the entire recruitment process. However, most such cases are not reported because most of the discriminated applicants do not know how to report such kinds of discrimination. Additionally, other applicants are not able to differentiate between the legal and illegal question that can be asked during an interview. The organization needs to ensure that their HR department which in most cases forms the interviewing committee is much aware of the legal questions that they should ask the applicants as well as the illegal questions that they should never ask the applicants. Applicants should always be keen on the entire recruitment process and report any form of the act that they may feel to be a form of discrimination (Schwartz, 2011).

Analysis of the Ethical Concerns Raised by the Situation

Discrimination is a vice within the workplace that need to be precisely eliminated to ensure that organizations achieved their desired levels of operations without much hindrance as well as avoiding other costs that arise firm discrimination cases. Discriminatory actions raise several ethical demands. Decimation results in employee dissatisfaction in the workplace. However, this demands that employee’sthe satisfied at all levels of employment as well as get motivated from time to time. Additional, discrimination results in conflicts within the workplace. The conflict is caused by the source of discrimination mostly the management of the organization.

In most cases, the conflict is usually between the employees themselves (Lozano, 2001). Ethics usually oppose conflict may any level since conflict would compromise the overall performance of an organization. Conflict in the workplace needs to be eliminated since conflict will jeopardize the unity of the organization. Also, discrimination leads to lack of appreciation of employees in the workplace. Ethics usually advocate for recognition and appreciation within the workplace. The organization management, the employees and other stakeholders of an organization need to appreciate each other. Recognition should act as a tool of motivating employee hence improving the performance of the entire organization. Ethics demand that all stakeholders of an organization including employees need to be involved in the adoption of any input that would generally affect the organization as a whole (Malachowski, 2001).

Many theories can be used to explain the results of discrimination especially hiring discrimination in our particular business situation. Most of the ethical theories are usually based on ethical principles. People life experiences and current choices usually have an impact on the choice of the most appropriate ethical theory. The ethical theories should be guided to the management of organizations to ensure that they do not engage in any illegal or unethical activities. Utilitarianism and Deontology theories are the two main theories that are closely related to discrimination in the workplace such as the hiring discrimination I witnessed in my previous employment. The two theories have two different outcomes when it comes to discrimination issues in the workplace.

The Utilitarianism theory precisely focuses on the outcome of what is right or wrong. The theory precisely holds for the true accounting of all values including personal justice and rights hence against all circumstances that can lead to discrimination within the workplace. According to this theory, immoral actions within the work pace will result in discrimination cases. Currently, the theory has been adopted by many organizations to help them to conduct ethical business that is acceptable hence ensuring improved organizational performance. As speculated by this theory, anything that is being adopted by the organization especially to enhance business processes should precisely conform to the ethical demands (Yazdani & Murad, 2015). Any alliteration made to the business operations usually affects the performance of the entire organization hence the need for all meeting the ethical demands.

The theory provides an ability for the managers to be able to predict the outcome of any course of actions within the organizations. Before any course of action is precisely implemented, it is the responsibility of the management to ensure that they examine the results of the course of action. Its benefits should be compared to the disadvantages hence the decision of implementing or not implementing be done. As outlined by this theory, theory, apart from the course of action that needs to be implemented abiding by the ethical demands, it should be in support of the organization. When it comes to discrimination within the workplace, the actions towards discrimination are agreement from the majority of the individuals within the workplace hence resulting in poor organization performance. Any discriminative law within the organization can be prudent if and only if it is supported by the majority of the individuals in the organization (Yazdani & Murad, 2015).

Deontology theory on the other hand majorly uses the rule in determining when is right or wrong. The theory is much simpler in application since it precisely requires individuals to apply the rules already in place in performing their duties. This theory depicts that there will not be any instance of discrimination within the workplace if individuals follow all the rules that are put in place. The rules included the federal rules governing all organizations as well as the organization rules. Therefore, the theory emphasizes that an organization need to make precise laws they would help protect t the employees at all means possible (Alexander & Moore, 2007). It is the responsibility of the management of each organization to ensure that all employees understand all the company law to help them avoid any activity that could compromise their actions. Those criticizing the theory try to argue that some actions are not against any rule in the organization by and to discrimination. They insist that self-disciplined could much help in ensuring that all individuals within the organization engage in the right activities that could help spearhead the organization forward.

An Explanation of The Specific Areas of Law under Which the Situation will be Analyzed

The employment laws include discriminative actions. Several regulations have been put in place especially on employment tendencies to help in eliminating the discriminatory tendencies within organizations. For instance, the federal government in 1964 enacted Title VII of the Civil Right which prohibits discrimination within the workplace and specifies legal measures to be taken to any individuals who engages in discriminatory actions. The act described several discriminative tenancies including national origin, sex, race, religion or even color (Anti-Discrimination Laws in the USA – L&E Global Knowledge Centre, 2017).

In 1963, the Equal Pay Act was enacted that precisely described job discrimination. According to this act, all men and women in an organization should be subjected to equal pay opportunities. Employers need to ere that they provide equal pay to all their employees despite the sex, origin or even color. The age discrimination employment act was later enacted in 1967 that ensures that the organization does not discriminate any individuals in terms of their age. The regulation previously ensures that each organization does not consider age as a limiting factor for picking employees. This regulation got implemented to help protect those aged 40 and above to have equal opportunities for being employed. In the past, before the regulation was enacted, individuals aged 40 and above receive much discrimination when they applied for different jobs. Lastly, the American Disabilities Act formed under the Civil Rights Act via Title I and IV help to protect all those with disabilities from being discriminated inexperience (Anti-Discrimination Laws in USA – L&E Global Knowledge Centre, 2017).

Promotion of the desired outlook is essential in the efforts to eliminate all the instances that could lead to discrimination in the workplace; hence, in the long run, compromising the overall organization performance. As regulations speculate, individuals within an organization should be fully involved in all the activities that are carried out in the organization for precise elimination of any cases of discrimination within the organization. Currently, an advocate of democratic space in organizations is being considered by federal government legislation.

Democratic space needs to be promoted in most of the organizations since it is precisely in line with ethical standards.  Democratic space precisely encourages all individuals within the organization to participate in all organizations fully activities hence ion the long run leading to the achievement of organization goals (Seaquist, 2012). Democratic space precisely allows all the persons within the organization to be able to participate in decision making hence reducing the chances of discrimination. The entire organization would perform more effectively with democratic space in place since all the organization employees would be much motivated to engaging any activity that is to be carried out within the organization. Generally, democratic space is in line with the ethical standards of the society since it demands that individuals need to be appreciated so that an organization can be able to achieve its goals precisely. Democratic policies with an organization could lead to respect to human dignity hence elimination any discriminatory actions.

Employment opportunities within organizations are contracts that are binding between the employer and the employee. The employment opportunities need to be binding so as for them to be considered as contracts hence advocating for several factors. These factors must be I agreement between the two involved parties in the contract for the contract to be fully binding in the law. Offer is usually the first thing that is graded marking the first step towards the achievement of the employment contract. The two parties have a chance to bargain with each other to ensure that the contract is strictly biding to the law. During the establishment of the contracts, the employer must be able to offer some benefits to the other party in the form of remuneration while the employee should be able to offer services to the employer as per the job descriptions (Collins, 2009).

Once an offer is granted, all the parties should be in the position of accepting the contract. All parties should willingly enter into the contract without application of any force. Both the parties also need to make some consideration of all the courses of action that could affect the contract. The courses of action may include favors from either of the parties entering the contract hence the need of precise evaluation of the kind of favors that are provided since some can even result to unethical activities such as discrimination (Seaquist, 2012). For better achievement of good terms of the agreement, specific capacities need to be decided. The capacities may be decided about education qualifications as well as experiences gained either from current or previous organizations.  The contract should be embedded on specific legal understandings. For the terms of any agreement to be accepted, they must be stipulated by some legal requirements. Regulations would be of great help in case of any issue that might arise from the employment contract that the two parties (employer and employee) have engaged in. The regulations should be able to counter any form of discrimination that might arise within the organization since discrimination would compromise the employee level of performance hence hurting the entire organization.

Recommendations

Every organization should ensure that the principles of integrity reliability, responsiveness, responsibility, and democracy are put in place in the organization. The management of organizations needs always to be aimed at providing a working environment that is democratic hence allowing every individual within the organization to participate in all organization procedures. In addition to valuing the organization principles, the management of organizations should also ensure that ethical demand s of the organization and the community at large are valued. For instance, the organizations should ensure that al, those ethical standards that advocate for respect of human dignity need to be well integrated. Valuation of organizations principle and ethical standards should lead to the adoption of specific policies within the organization that could ensure that no course of actions that could compromise the organization performance take place within the organization.

The management should always ensure that new policies are made whenever there is a new course of action implemented in place. Additionally, a democratic space is essential in any organization to ensure promoting of human dignity. Democratic space also will be a motivation factor for the employees of an organization. Lastly, the management of any organization should always ensure that critical analysis is done before any appropriate decision is made. This is because instances of discrimination within the workplace usually arise from the decision that the management makes in the organization.

Conclusion

In conclusion, all instances of discrimination within the workplace are highly devastating in terms of organization performance. Additionally, the discriminatory actions are much adverse in compromising the rights of employees within the organization. Due to this, courses of action need to be well evaluated then put in place to help in elimination these discriminatory acts within the organizations. For instance, the management of an organization can precisely adopt specific policies that strictly prohibit any instance of discrimination in the workplace despite the different position that individuals hold within the workplace. The management should ensure that all those involved in discrimination acts within the organization face the consequences. Each organization should also adopt the ethical standards to enable them to carry out business operations more effectively. To be able to meet all the ethical standards, it is the duty of the organization to precisely carry out an extensive analysis of activities within the society. Each organization needs to adopt democratic space which remains to be a motivating factor to the organization employees; hence in the long run leading to improve organization performance. It is essential that all stakeholders within an organization be in one way or the other be involved in the activities of the organization. Lastly, personal motivation should be encouraged via the offering of various capacities.

References

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