I found this an informative post. There were things in it I didn’t know. It touches on many ethical issues, many of the critical ones in the lives of employees. Take this for an example –

Companies often pressure employees to get involved in civic activities, such as “running for the local school board or heading up a commission in the arts,” but such pressure must not constitute coercion (ibid.). Employees must not be disciplined or dismissed for a lack of participation, and even public embarrassment could be considered to be a form of coercion. For example, “[m]embers of the Army Band… won a suit claiming that the posting of names of soldiers who had not contributed to the United Way constituted coercion” (245).

Now that coercion is going to become far more intense. The supreme court’s Citizens United decision allows limitless spending on influencing employees.

And how about this?

Some businesses pressure employees to undergo “personal growth” to help people “realize their potential for perceiving, thinking, feeling, creating, and experiencing” (ibid.). There are many different kinds of intensive groups and companies often use “team-building groups to facilitate the attainment of production and related goals as well as to provide opportunities for improved human relations and personal growth” (ibid.). Again, intensive group experience can improve productivity, so it is relevant to job performance. However, employees should not be punished for refusing to participate.

This is one I find particularly loathsome. Chasing around as forced comrades in some strange locale for some strange idea of development inevitably tied in to some bizarre theory like “emotional intelligence,” is pretty close to forcing me to live in a version of a horror movie without hope of escape.

So, please give this writing your attention.

James Pilant

My thanks to Ethical Realism.

I have already discussed various moral implications of the workplace in part 1 of “Moral Implications of the Workplace,” and I will continue the discussion here by considering (a) privacy, (b) work conditions, and (c) job satisfaction. This discussion is based on chapter seven of Business Ethics (Third Edition, 1999) by William Shaw. Privacy We have a right to privacy, and a lack of privacy can endanger our livelyhood. We don’t want people to see … Read More

via Ethical Realism