Slide- CH 12

• Key stakeholders


  • Employees
  • Consumers
  • Competitors
  • Suppliers
• Issues relating to ethics and responsibilities between employees and employers

  • Working conditions
  • Workforce reduction
  • Workplace privacy
  • Fair compensation
  • Employee Engagement
  • Employee loyalties and duties
  • Diversity management
  • Right to due process
  • Opportunity for advancement/training
• Work ethic


  Set of values which holds that work is important to members of society
• Work ethic


  • Work influences the qualities or character of individuals
  • Work is a purposeful activity requiring expenditure of energy with some sacrifice of leisure
  • Some gain is involved (e.g. money)
  • Through work, a person contributes to society and becomes a better individual
• Today, many people are "backing off the fast track" and focusing more on quality of life
• Backing off the fast track

  • Opting out of the labour force (e.g. early retirement)
  • Collecting EI/welfare rather than accepting unattractive jobs
  • Changing careers
  • Refusing to work overtime
  • Feeling alienation caused by pressure in the workplace
  • Questioning traditional authority
• Gig economy


  Persons whose participation in labour force is via short-term, temporary jobs, contracts, an self-employment
• Contemporary implications on the work ethic

  • Workplace stress has increased
  • Increasing use of part-time or temporary workers has raised concerns about how they are treated
  • Moonlighting has increased
  • Challenges presented by the gig economy
  • Fringe benefits are changing in response to employee demands and efforts by some employers to retain highly qualified workers
  • The makeup of compensation is changing, with greater emphasis on pay for performance through cash bonuses, stock purchase, and grant plans
  • Employees are more concerned about being able to balance work and personal life
  • Job insecurity has increased as employers are willing to lay off employees on short notice and even when the corporation is profitable
  • Consensus that Canada is suffering a labour skills shortage and that shortage will become worse
• Employee loyalty


  Commitment by employees to the organization they work
• Employee loyalty


  • Employers can also demonstrate loyalty to employees
  • Measuring loyalty can be difficult
  • Managers should be cautious of extreme loyalty
  • Employees want to be entities unto themselves and seeking challenging opportunities
  • Intelligent HR management helps engender loyalty
• Improving employee loyalty


  1. Managers must communicate persuasive corporate image to employees

  2. Employees who demonstrate loyalty must be appropriately rewarded

  3. Must be a corporate priority and start at top with CEO

  4. Persons at all levels of organization must be involved

  5. Process takes time

  6. Token, one-shot efforts must be avoided

  7. Managers must distinguish between employee loyalty to individuals and to the corporation
• Workplace privacy


  Privacy of employee's personal information
• Workplace privacy


  • Regulated by federal government's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and other provincial legislation
  • Challenged by emergence of electronic technology and social media
  • Appropriate use of electronic technology, particularly in relation to social media
  • Surveillance or monitoring of email and Internet usage
  • Use of cameras
• Discrimination


  Preferential (or less than preferential) treatment on bases not directly related to qualification of the job or job performance
• Grounds for discrimination


  • Race
  • Gender
  • Nationality
  • Age (young and old)
  • Disability
  • Marital status
  • Physical appearance
  • Sexual orientation
  • Health
• Employment equity


  Fair and equal treatment of employees
• Diversity management


  Voluntary initiative beyond what is required by law to eliminate discrimination
• LGBTQ+


  Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning
• Businesses increasingly recognizing LGBTQ+ individuals
• Businesses recognizing LGBTQ+


  • Commitment to inclusiveness at the top of the corporation
  • Need to identify how employees experience inclusiveness
• #MeToo movement


  Raised awareness of sexual harassment in society's institutions
• Management and boards of directors addressing sexual harassment

  1. Implementing procedures for reporting harassment

  2. Establishing independent helplines

  3. Increasing training programs and refreshing training materials

  4. Revising codes of conduct

  5. Including more diverse voices in executive and board positions
• Feminist ethics


  Diverse set of gender-focused approaches to ethical theory and practice
• Objective of feminist ethics

  • Develop non-sexist ethical principles, policies, and practices in society
  • Places emphasis on relationships, responsibility, and experience
  • Greater attention to role of interpersonal relationships in business
• Connection between CSR and employee engagement

  • Employers effectively communicating CSR within the corporation are more likely to attract and retain employees
  • Employees who give money or time to social causes are more committed to their employers
• Students are searching for meaningful work as demonstrated by a prospective employer's involvement in social issues
• Consumer sovereignty


  • Consumers dictate the type, quality and quantity of goods and services to be provided
  • Elements of democracy are present, including the idea of voting through purchase decisions
  • Consumers free to make their own choices and not unduly influenced by producers or governments
  • Economic system operates more efficiently when consumers determine production
• Conditions of consumer sovereignty seldom fulfilled in the marketplace
• Consumerism


  Social movement seeking to protect and augment the rights and powers of buyers in relation to sellers
• Consumer rights


  • To safety
  • To choose
  • To be heard
  • To be informed
  • To consumer education
  • To redress
  • To a healthy environment
• Consumer responsibilities


  • To follow instructions and take precautions
  • To make independent, informed consumption choices
  • To make opinions known and to complain in a constructive manner
  • To search out and use available information
  • To take advantage of education opportunities
  • To minimize environmental damage by careful choice and use of goods and services
• Ethical consumerism


  Form of activism where consumers buy products, goods, and services that are ethically produced and/or not harmful to the environment or society
• Factors motivating ethical/socially responsible purchases

  • CSR information must be available
  • Must be a moral alignment of CSR practices with the consumer on moral values
  • Products must be considered affordable
• Consumer rights and responsibilities

  • To redress
  • To fight for quality and service expected
  • To a healthy environment
  • To minimize environmental damage by careful choice and use of goods and services
• Factors that motivate consumers to make ethical or socially responsible purchases

  • CSR information must be available
  • Must be a moral alignment of CSR practices with the consumer on moral values
  • Products must be considered affordable
• Competition


  • Encourages innovation, productivity, entrepreneurship, and efficiency
• Competition (in business context)

  A struggle or rivalry for supremacy → market share
• Unethical or questionable practices due to increased competition


  • Industrial spying, espionage, and sabotage
  • Copying or counterfeiting of products
• Concerns about the concentration of corporate power


  • Too much influence over the economy
  • Too much influence over government
• Competition Act


  Establishes basic principles for the conduct of business in Canada so that competition is encouraged and maintained