Ethics in organizations is an important ingredient of organizational success. Both the employers and employees ought to act ethically to ensure that the goals and objectives of the organization are achieved (Mello, 2006). However, given the different personalities and thinking of human beings, ethical problems in organizations are inevitable.
As such, it is important that the human resource department of each organization puts in place appropriate measures to deal with ethical problems facing them. It is because of this that most organizations have in place a “code of ethics” that shows the expectations of the employer with regard to ethics.
The main ethical consideration affecting my division is the high rate of absenteeism by most of the workers. Upon careful review of the workers’ master roll books and clocking schedule, I have noted with a lot of concern that most of the workers fail to report to work during some days of the week. This is a weighty issue because the production rate in my division has in turn significantly gone down.
Upon further calculation of the hours lost by the absent employees, the Account department has noted a decline in company’s profits in the last quarter of the financial year. This prompted my department to find out the reasons behind the high rate of absenteeism. It has come to my attention that the workers are complaining of long working hours with few breaks which makes the workers very fatigued and opting to allocate themselves off-days by being absent from work.
It is my humble request that a re-schedule is made on the duty rooster of the workers to incorporate more breaks during working hours as well as rotational off-days for the workers. I also request the incorporation of three shifts in my division instead of the current two in order to have workers work for shorter hours.
This will not only reduce the rate of absenteeism but it will boost the morale of the workers thus increasing productivity hence higher organizational profits. In addition, it will also improve the reputation of the company on the basis of corporate social responsibility.
Diversity is yet another significant issue of concern in organizations. It is brought about by the differences in the culture, race, social class, age and gender of different people (Bohlander & Snell, 2007). Given the increase in rate of globalisation where companies are operating in the international market, the issue of diversity is inevitable.
Miscommunication is one of the diversity considerations that are prevalent in my division. Given the fact that the division currently holds people from different cultural backgrounds who speak different languages, the workplace has in the recent past become hostile. This has significantly affected productivity since most of the time is either spent in arguments or resolving disputes instead of doing constructive work as expected.
It is therefore my appeal to the Human Resource Director that proper sensitization and education is done to all the workers in order to make them accustom to different cultures and backgrounds. This will help promote an open and clear atmosphere in the workplace where each individual feels safe and comfortable.
This will in turn increase productivity of the workers hence profits. In addition, the human resource department could make formal communication to all the workers regarding the common language to be used in the company in order to avoid cases of miscommunication.
Reference List
Bohlander, G., & Snell, S. (2007). Managing human resources (14th ed.). Mason, OH: Thomson Higher Education.
Mello, J. (2006). Strategic Human Resource Management. Westford: South-Western Cengage Learning.