Ethical Challenges 1. Privacy (should the company have access to private e-mails that employees write on company time? or the Web sites they visit during work hours?)
There is a certain level of privacy that an employee should expect from his/her employer. The use of emails and or the internet can greatly increase an employer’s productivity while lowering company expenses. Most companies today have all employees sign a disclosure form as a condition of employment during the hiring process that indicates the position of the company as it relates to accessing employee’s private materials at the workplace. However, there is a thin line between invading an employee’s privacy in order to maintain an effective and efficient work place, and accessing personal materials of the employee with no regard to company matters. Bottom line, employee privacy is a thing of the pass. With the increase in employee theft via embezzlement and selling company trade secrets, it is no wonder that any employer would be looking for ways to control those activities being committed by today’s workers. Because of today’s technology, workers have access to an abundance of materials via internet such as e-mails, chat sites and consumer goods site. Often that companies will establish entire departments to randomly track an employee’s internet usage for signs of abuse. 2. Advertising (desire to present your product or service in the best light)
The advertising manager has the distinction of controlling how his products are viewed by the consumer. He is always living on the preverbal edge in terms of he will sell or will it sell. Achievement however, depends on the ethical decisions that the manager has to make while also being able to put his products in the best position to be a success. He must often travel between product placement and product displacement. It would be convenient if advertising results could be measured strictly by sales, but unfortunately that is not the only benchmark that managers have to take into consideration before determining if his product placement has been a success. In the beginning stages of the advertising process the manager must determine his level of comfort in “walking the line”. This means how far will he push the envelope to get his products or services to the consumer. Will he give a confusing story to sell his products, or will he give a totally inaccurate one to increase his sells right away and handle the backlash when it comes. These complex and often career challenging decisions are made every day by managers who weigh the dilemma of making ethical decisions and being successful. The hard part for managers is meshing these two traits together, that is the recipe for a complete manager. 3. Sourcing of raw materials (does the company buy from a supplier who may be underpaying their people or damaging the environment?) The manufacturing of goods from raw materials does not within self present a problem for today’s manager. The problem however, comes into play when managers find out that the suppliers of his best raw materials may be engaged in unethical practices. An issue that comes to mind is the manufacturing of consumer goods from China and Japan as well as from third world countries with little or no mandate for employee rights. Actions such as this create big concerns for the ethical manager, especially when his company’s only quest is lowering manufacturing cost while increasing company profits. Managers will often be compelled into action regarding environmental issues by environmentalist and animals rights groups. These organizations present a difficult problem for the ethical factory manager. He now has to weight the environmental effects of his actions on the surrounding landscapes. Certainly, but not least is the underage under paid factory worker who works 16 hour days with no health benefits. The ethical manager must assure that workers get a fair wage for a fair days work while still maintaining an outstanding labor to expense record and still protecting the environment. Sounds easily put even the most skilled ethical managers have difficulty meshing those concepts together. 4. Product pricing (variable pricing, discounts)
In my opinion, the number one ethical challenge for mangers is the determination of prices on fixed goods and services. The notion that customers who have been associated with a company for long periods of time will get a better rate on products and services than new customers has often proven to be a slippery slope to walk. Giving discounts and “samples products” to long time customers my not be the text book definition of an unethical practice; however, it is often perceived in just that manner. So often this concept is shielded by variable pricing. Variable pricing it’s self is certainly a great form of marking that managers have at their disposal, but this strategy can lead to a perception of unfair treatment by some customers. The ethical manger now is put into the position of having to make this perfectly good marketing concept seem fair to his entire customer base.