After
watching this week’s videos from business ethics speakers I realize that there
is an unethical slippery slope. In the past weeks we have read about slippery
slope arguments to try identifying them and to avoid falling into the traps of
these false arguments. Now it is clear to me that as employees commit the first
unethical action, there’s a small probability that he or she will continue to
fall down the unethical path.
As Gallagher
explains, the unethical continuum consists of 5 stages. The first stage is the “not
good for customers” action (Gallagher, 2013). This stage consists of doing
actions that may not necessarily harm the customer but it is not beneficial for
him or her, in turn, this action is beneficial to the employee. The second
stage consists of “not good for the company” actions (Gallagher, 2013). Gallagher
used the explanation of using company supplies to complete a personal task (Gallagher,
2013). This action can be classified by the organization as stealing
organizational supplies as it brings the cost of the company supplies up.
The
third stage consists of the “policy violation” (Gallagher, 2013). In other
words, violating organizational rules and policies conveniently. The fourth
stage is “unethical behavior, practices” (Gallagher, 2013). This stage can
consist of sharing private company information with the competition, telling
out of the workplace jokes inside the company, talking bad about other
employees, and so on. The last stage consists of “illegal actions, behaviors, and
practices” (Gallagher, 2013). This may consist of unlawful behavior such as stealing,
hurting people, and so on. In this stage, the behavior or action of the person
can result in jail time.
Reflecting
on this information, I can only discuss how my past organization portrayed its
values. The organization’s values are: service-spirit, team spirit, and the
spirit of progress (Sodexo Core Values, n.d.). In the service spirit, employees
seemed to have a good connection with customers and majority of the employees
always seemed to go the extra mile for customer satisfaction.
In the
team spirit value, employees seemed to connect with each other over the bad
situations of the company. When things were going great for the organization,
employees seemed more focused on the customers and on the tasks. But when
things seemed to be going down for the company, it seems as if employees shared
the same views of the company and would stand against the unethical practices
of the company. Some of these unethical practices consisted of asking employees
to keep food products past the expiration times, requiring employees to
complete small tasks off the clock, and much more. When employees seemed to
voice their concerns about the situation, somehow the managers under some
excuse would cut the hours of the employees complaining by either one or five
hours. Managers would excuse their actions by stating that he or she was only
trying to cut back on labor as the sales were down for the week. As it can be
seen, this would be considered stage 3 and 4 of Gallagher’s unethical
continuum.
In the
spirit of progress, the company seemed to portrayed this value positively by
installing new equipment that would benefit customers and employees during busy
times, giving back to the community by volunteering employees to community
programs, investing back into the gardens of the organization by using used
coffee grounds, and so on. Overall, the organization, in my opinion, is a good
organization but certain actions by management and supervisors done to try and
save the company money seem unethical and against the company own values.
Reference:
Sodexo Core Values. (n.d.).
Sodexo. Retrieved July 17, 2014, from http://www.sodexo.com/en/group/fundamentals/values.aspx
Gallagher, C. (2013).
Business Ethics Keynote Speaker - Chuck Gallagher - shares Straight Talk about
Ethics! YouTube. Retrieved July 17, 2014, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUJ00vNGCPE
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