It is important to note that managerial ethics exist in the modern-day age, but it is challenging to spot due to the overabundance of superficial marketing campaigns and virtue signaling done by many businesses. Ethical issues are becoming more prominent in the current setting due to information being widely available and the public being more informed than before. A positive example of a company with a high degree of managerial ethics is Starbucks Corporation, which “has been named one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies by the Ethisphere Institute” (Starbucks, 2018, para. 1). One of the recent negative examples of unethical management is Amazon, which is firing and abusing warehouse workers who want to unionize and gain some form of control over their employment (Sainato, 2021). It is evident that Amazon prioritizes efficiency over human decency because warehouse workers are not given basic rights and time to go to the bathrooms, where they are forced to urinate in bottles (BBC News, 2021). Therefore, ethical issues can and do affect all managers because the latter individuals are tasked with finding ways of ensuring stable and satisfactory work for employees alongside superb customer service or products.
In addition, equal opportunity laws truly protect employees despite some believing otherwise. It is unethical and illegal to discriminate against job applicants on factors irrelevant to the position, and such actions can undercut the prestige of organizations (Asgary et al., 2014). These laws protect workers because it is in the best interest of businesses to impose them since an opposite approach worsens the attitudes and behaviors of existing workers (Trevino et al., 1999). Therefore, despite the media mostly covering targeting negative examples, managerial ethics exist, and equal opportunity laws work.
References
Asgary, N., Walle, A., & Saraswat, S. P. (2014). Ethical foundations and managerial challenges: The strategic implications of moral standards. Journal of Leadership, Accountability & Ethics, 11(2), 89-98.
BBC News. (2021). Amazon apologises for wrongly denying drivers need to urinate in bottles. BBC News.
Sainato, M. (2021). US workers continue unionization fight – but will Amazon prevail?The Guardian.
Starbucks. (2018). Starbucks named one of the world’s most ethical companies.Starbucks Stories & News.
Trevino, L. K., Weaver, G. R., Gibson, D. G., & Toffler, B. L. (1999). Managing ethics and legal compliance: What works and what hurts. California Management Review, 41(2), 131.