In today’s competitive business environment, people try to do all it takes to see what they have gained. This makes it hard to get a person who has maintained a high level of personal integrity and ethics, yet it is supposed that people who observe high levels of ethics are more likely to lead a successful life in the business world. Developing personal integrity and ethics does not entirely depend on the environment that one is brought up in. Personal ethics depends on the state of one’s mind and personal desire to develop it (Smaagaard, 2009, Par. 1-3).
It is the obligation of every employee to be loyal to his or her employer (Robert, 1983, p. 23). Valerie is faced with this moral obligation. To her, she knows that she is responsible for ensuring that there are no irregularities within the company. She also knows that it is her duty to be loyal to her managers. By her reporting the matter, it would arouse the question of her faithfulness to Waters. It would appear as if she has been monitoring the manager’s actions within the organization. She is subjected to a predicament of whether to make the issue known to the company owner with an aim of saving the company or to keep it secret till the right time to safeguard the benefits she has been enjoying from the company. Failing to make the issue known to the company owner would make her feel guilty whenever she is in the company. Valerie believes in her values and ethics. This makes her feel that by not informing the Chief executive officer (CEO), she will have betrayed her principles.
Bearing in mind the circumstances that Valerie was in, I could have opted to keep the matter to myself and report it at the right time. It reaches a time when one decides to safeguard his or her job at the expense of the company. It sounds wise to report some of the irregularities done by organizational managers for the good of the organization and other staff. But with the confidence that the CEO had in Walters’s competency, it would have seemed self-sacrificial to implicate him with matters to do with irregularities within the company. Reporting the matter to the chief executive officer, enmity would crop up between him and Waters. This would compromise the cooperation that previously existed leading to the decline in the working spirit. This would eventually result in one losing his or her job. With an insecure working visa like the one Valerie had, it would be hard for one to easily get a job with another firm. This would then mean that after losing the job, she would have to struggle to look for another job. It would also lead to her facing the risk of being driven out of the United States. With the company reimbursing one’s fee to pursue higher education (in this case, a master’s degree), reporting the issue would mean that he or she ceases to enjoy these privileges. The actions that would be taken after the news would not affect Waters and the reporter alone. By Water losing his job, it would mean that his team would be affected. This would also affect the good rapport that one had established with other workers. If it happens that Water is fired, the other workers would perceive one as the CEO’s watchdog thus declining to continue collaborating with him or her.
Even though it was ethical for Valerie to report her discovery to the chief executive officer, she felt that it would have cost her dearly if she happened to report it at the wrong time. The CEO had significantly trusted in Waters’ competence, having worked with other famous companies. Valerie thought that the CEO would have taken her reports as unfounded and thus fail to trust her. This would result in the decline of the CEO’s trust in her. She feared that this would have lead to her losing her job. At that time, she was not in a position to get another job hence she had to deliberate on the implications of her action before resolving to disclose it. Another issue that stressed her was her education. She was getting some reimbursement from the company and she feared that by disclosing this information, the company would stop sponsoring her education. It is unethical to infringe on other people’s affairs within an organization. For Valerie, making open her findings would have appeared as an infringement into Walters’s line of duty, and this was unacceptable in the company. She also feared that her actions would compromise her relations with other employees, thus reducing the company’s productivity.
Despite being competent, Waters depicted himself as dishonest to the company. His main objective in the company was to gratify his greed for money. This was proved by his tendency to award tenders to those performers who were willing to part with some token in return. He was not determined to raise the standard of Wisson Company as reflected by his rejection to incorporate diverse performers in the production of the company’s perfumes. His wastefulness was portrayed by the way he spent money when various events were being organized by the company. He even went to an extent of using the company’s resources to service personal expenses. For instance, he debited the company an amount of $25000 after renting a one-hour horse ride in Chicago. In handling employees, he proved to be one of the managers who had no intention of instilling ethics among his staff. Being the leader of his team, he never had time to participate in making the team’s decisions. He had no time to meet with the employees and share ideas with them. He could organize for meetings and avail himself late, or fail to turn up for the meeting altogether. His lack of employee motivation made his team perform all the work as well as making decisions without having to rely on him. This led to a decrease in employees’ morale after they perceived him as shortchanging them. To them, he was supposed to be their administrator, instructor as well as team manager.
According to the company’s policies, it was clearly stipulated that personal payments and bribes from suppliers or employees were highly proscribed. This stirred Valerie’s urge to divulge the scandal that Waters had been conducting within the company. By exposing him, she was certain that Waters would lose his work and probably be charged for his misconduct.
Being loyal to corporate cultures is a hard obligation to most of the employees (SlideShare, 2009, par. 2). This is because it demands one to be willing to sacrifice his or her job for the sake of the company and other employees. It needs people who are mindful of other people’s interests and not their personal gain. To nurture these qualities within an organization becomes very difficult and that is why there are many cases of irregularities within organizations. The feasible remedy to this setback is to openly expose these scammers and hold them accountable for their actions.
Reference
Robert, S. C. C.Above the Bottom Line: An Introduction to Business Ethics. Chicago: Harcourt Trade Publishers. 1983.
SlideShare. (2009). Introduction to business ethics. Web.
Smaagaard, C. (2009). Can ethics overcome greed in the 21st century? Web.