Ethical Position Paper

This essay focuses on the ethical position in making the decision which might affect other people and their lives. It covers the ethical dilemma from the 14.7 exercise, where I, as a manager, must decide whether to share the news about the potential merger of the consumer products of our company with another organization, which may carry the potential job losses; or not to share this news with the employees. The essay contains ways of handling such a situation.

As a manager at a consumer products company, I must be absolutely sure that the final decision I make is ethical. This means that I must do the right thing even though the wrong thing may seem more attractive. I am aware that the workplace ethics indicates choosing an option that is considered and determined to be the moral choice. According to the ethical principles, I, as a manager and as a human being, must respect other people and their rights. I also believe that integrity must be present in the workplace above the profit (“Work-Place Ethics”, n.d.). Hence, I feel that I have an ethical obligation to share the news about the potential merger as well as possible job losses with my employees.

 

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I realize that revealing all the information to the workers may result in the company losing some of the best staff members, which may experience profits declines because of the poorer performance. However, I am confident that by claiming that our organization operates according to the ethical standards, highly respected and required by the 21st century democratic society, we imply the disclosure of all the information, including important news, which might negatively affect the lifestyle of our employees. By revealing all the important information on the possible changes within the company, we, as leaders, demonstrate respect of the rights of our employees, thus allowing them enough time to find a new job.

The most important implication and strength of the situation like this are that we have an opportunity to show to employees that we value their wellbeing. However, the merger as well as the job losses are still possible. Hence, I must convince our workers not to leave the company until the situation with the merger comes into force, offering them fair incentives, such as various kinds of bonuses and career growth opportunities. It is my primary duty to explain the whole situation to the staff members in a calm argumentative way in order to avoid panic.

Information is power, because the more information a human being possesses – the more effective his decision-making process will be. I believe that by withholding such important news as a potential merger of our company from our employees, I will violate their rights and deprive them of the opportunity to make objective decisions regarding their life plans. I also believe that even if we end up losing some of our best employees because of the layoffs, there will be positive effects from the merger. That is why we made the decision to merge with another organization in the first place. We will manage to create the new operating plan aimed to improve the profits even with the lower number of the best employees.

I genuinely believe that we will be able to handle the situation with minimum losses and maximum gains without violating the ethical standards.

This essay focused on making the right ethical decision with regards to the potential layoffs of the employees due to the merger with another company, and whether it is appropriate to communicate with them about it. The final decision is that it is indeed important to disclose the news to the staff members in order for them to be able to make objective decisions regarding their future plans.