Ethical Dilemmas in Business
An organization contains different people who come together to form a business which results in a rise of different and numerous issues. These issues are due to the disagreement of personal viewpoint and their personalities. However, the most key thing is how the issues are solved. The issues create an ethical dilemma in the business. This dilemma results in unsatisfactory results in the organization as the workers are unhappy and unmotivated. The dilemmas are as a result of internal organization conflicts, leadership, ethical concerns, and team dynamics among others. Business dilemmas are common in every organization. As a consulting company, Rochette Consulting Company will be analyzing the ethical dilemma identified in your organization and come up with appropriate mitigation strategy.
Ethical Dilemma
The ethical problem identified and experienced in the organization is on supervised curricular internship which is in an integrated curriculum. There is a big problem on training the intern. Every intern has the right to gain maximum knowledge from the organization. However, the organization is less concerned with the needs of the interns which makes it an ethical concern. For example, the organization shares a lot of documents and videos with interns which only pass on a limited quantity of information. There are no formal means of training interns, and they are expected to pretty much train themselves with the programs and processes required in the organization. This results in disorganized interns who feel overawed and unconfident of what is needed. As a result, there is an effect on their results. The main issue is on communication in the company. The new interns are left to track who the manager or the director of the organization is which adds more confusion to the interns. Creating a more conducive, welcoming and free of confusion environment will give the new interns an enhanced chance to be prosperous in the course.
This can be resolved by the managers introducing an orientation process that shows and educates the new interns on the expected activities and results in the organization. For the organization that requires a lot of reading resources, they can be informed on the kind of documents to look for or download and the best sites. The orientation process can also discourse on what they are expected to achieve. This is one of the best ways the issues could be solved and a nice technique to answer intern questions. Additionally, their early anxiety can be avoided. This can boost their confidence which will, in turn, make the organization normally run at a smooth and growing pace. The orientation can also make the first week of the intern run smoothly and organized hence resulting in more production.
The managers of any company represent the business, and therefore, the kind of communication they utilize has an impact on the behaviors of the employees over time (Dasgupta, Suar & Singh, 2014). It is obvious that the organization’s managers represent the company and want their interns to be more confident and industrious. This can be achieved by one manager trying something new by taking one new intern and training him or her for the managerial position. This will in turn progressively have an impact on the way interns receive their training and the way they communicate. A constant alteration in the management makes it seem as if there is no control in the company. Additionally, all the time devoted to training the fresh managers takes away the time that the new interns could be trained. This concern should be looked at deeply and a solution developed or proposed as many interns experience a similar issue.
One of the dilemmas with the processes in which the organization run its activities can be the purpose of many meetings. Many of the department meetings are almost similar. Similar information is addressed in each meeting. The Research and Sales department at times can be researching for the similar establishments by multiple people. It is good to have the high number of intern meetings as long as diverse topics are discussed. The meetings are repetitive which is making the intern less active as they are learning nothing new. Maybe, it would even be better to conduct training or carry out something that can help the interns during their period.
Numerous processes and activities are carried out by the interns. This results in confusion, frustration and finally loss of motivation. Poor policies and procedures are the key contributors to this problem. The issue can be solved by training the interns before starting their internship program. This would assist prevent confusion which can be very frustrating and time-consuming and would affect the productivity of the intern to do their job. Again, everything new face risks and threats. For instance, the organization uses computers which requires software. A student may not know how to access the organization’s store and may not realize they can get a free antivirus program on their computer. This can also be solved, again, by having the student advisors informing the students that the intern may require a lot of downloads, which can cause viruses on their personal computers. They could instruct the student on where to go and what to do to get their free antivirus software. This would help the intern be prepared before having to download these programs which would prevent them accidentally getting a virus. This is a solution aligned with the organization as it wants its intern to be productive without facing many challenges with downloading programs which can lead to lots of frustration and can cost valuable time and money. To implement the solution, the organization should ensure that all the required tools to run the organization are available (Weber, 1994).
In the organization, it is not clear what role the management play to help interns complete the task for the week. Some questions raised are what duties management has in the structure concerning the interns in getting their weekly task. The current structure does not make it clear in what way one performance will be measured and rewarded. In the period of the internship program, the structure variations make it difficult for interns to follow and adopt a different one. At times the leadership may not be skillfully prepared to take such a role. Some lack capability and may not be ready to take such restraint.
The right ethics training and programs can assist to reduce unethical employee behaviors (Henle, Reeve & Pitts, 2010). The issue with the organization demanding all interns to work a certain amount of hours could make them break their ethics. Making them have a feeling of obligation could make them manipulate their time clock to reach the required time. One could decide to not follow their principles to pass their class. Upper management also has a better chance of obtaining more hours every week due to having more meetings. That same opportunity is not afforded to all the interns, which questions the framework for how the organization is operating. In a business whenever one feels cheated or that not everyone is being treated fair, it can bring the moral down. It creates a distraction among the employees. Ultimately it can cause a business to lose money or even worst customers. The same is true for this organization, and unsatisfied interns can be ones that don’t pass the course. Or even worst it can be a result of why students might drop out. Interns are supposed to clock in only for their internship and not the academic side to obtain the required hours; however, people do try to clock in even if they are not working, which leads to the intern not learning to their full potential and is also deceitful and unethical. The main cause of this is ethics. This problem can be solved by putting in place an ethics program that would comprise a code delineating tolerable and intolerable behaviors, how to properly report events and the disciplinary actions that will be taken for any violations organizations can discourage employee time theft.
One of the ways of solving this issue is where the organization develops a set schedule for interns on an individual basis. The manager can get the convenience of every fresh intern and offer them a schedule which they can work best on. The interns will be able to know the days and time they are required to clock in to get their hours. Moreover, the department will know that the interns are working on their internship and not their homework part.
Secondly, the issue can be solved by making the interns see or realize that the academic side does not count for their internship. This can be achieved by having it in bold font on their invitation letters. They require to realize that this is pilfering time, and it is immoral to do.
Press release
Dasgupta & Singh (2014) states that “Human relations skills are necessary for all levels of managers. As a manager, you spend the majority of your time with people and getting work done through people.” Every dilemma can be solved as it results from things that can be controlled by internal conflicts, poor leadership, ethical concerns, and poor team dynamics. From the analysis of the ethical business dilemma, Rochette Consulting Company found that the biggest problem identified to be facing the organization is the training issue. It could be fixed by the managers introducing an orientation process that shows and educates the new interns on the expected activities and results in the organization. The orientation process discourses on what the interns are expected to achieve. This is one of the best ways the issues could be solved and a nice technique to answer intern questions. As stated in the analysis, the early anxiety of the interns can be avoided. This helps to boost their confidence that in turn make the organization run well. The orientation can also make the first week of the intern run smoothly and organized hence resulting in more production.
The career skills are not being taught in the sales and research department. Not every student gains management experience, due to not performing that role. There are no enough roles within the organization to fulfill all interns experiencing in management. Therefore, making internship an online program could limit face to face experience with the workers of the organization. In solving the dilemma, it is good to know that the managers represent the company and want their interns to be more self-assured and productive. This will be achieved by a manager training a new intern for the managerial position. It will increasingly affect the way interns receive their training and the way they converse. A constant alteration in the management makes it seen as if there is no control in the company. Additionally, all the time devoted to training the fresh managers takes away the time that the new interns could be trained. This concern should be looked at deeply and a solution developed or proposed as many interns experience a similar issue. Finally, the management should make sure that the interns feel that they clock in only for their internship and not the academic side.
References
Dasgupta, S., A., Suar, D., & Singh, S. (2014). Managerial communication practices and employees’ attitudes and behaviours. Corporate Communications, 19(3), 287.”
Post, J. E., Lawrence, A. T., Weber, J., & SJ, J. W. (2002). Business and society: Corporate strategy, public policy, ethics. McGraw-Hill.
Henle, C. A., Reeve, C. L., & Pitts, V. E. (2010). Stealing time at work: Attitudes, social pressure, and perceived control as predictors of time theft.Journal of Business Ethics, 94(1), 53-67.
Weber, J. (1994). Ethical Dilemmas in Business. Business and Society, 33(3), 329.
Gercek, G., & Saleem, N. (2005). Securing small business computer networks: An examination of primary security threats and their solutions. Information Systems Security, 14(3), 18 28.
