Free Essay

Unethical Behavior in a Workplace

In: Business and Management

Submitted By ethelynweekes
Words 475
Pages 2
The nature of the work carried out by accountants and auditors requires a high level of ethics. Shareholders, potential shareholders, and other users of the financial statements rely heavily on the yearly financial statements of a company as they can use this information to make an informed decision about investment. They rely on the opinion of the accountants who prepared the statements, as well as the auditors that verified it, to present a true and fair view of the company. Knowledge of ethics can help accountants and auditors to overcome ethical dilemmas, allowing for the right choice that, although it may not benefit the company, will benefit the public who relies on the accountant/auditor's reporting
The role of accountants is critical to society. Accountants serve as financial reporters and intermediaries in the capital markets and owe their primary obligation to the public interest. The information they provide is crucial in aiding managers, investors and others in making critical economic decisions. Accordingly, ethical improprieties by accountants can be detrimental to society, resulting in distrust by the public and disruption of efficient capital market operations
Unethical behavior in the workplace can be defined as any action that does not conform with the standards of conduct established by the organization. Unethical behavior can occur in the relationships between employees, in the way an employee goes about his business or how he uses company resources. Unethical behavior can even break the law in some situations.
Inappropriate Computer Use -Employees may use company computers to engage in unethical behavior. For example, an employee who is not permitted to use the Internet for personal reasons commits an unethical act by shopping online while at work. Random Internet surfing takes away from the time she spends on work-related activities. Employees sometimes use company email to spread inappropriate websites or videos to co-workers, some of which could be deemed offensive by the recipients.
Time Misuse-Unethical behavior can include "stealing" time from the company, as the company is compensating employees and receiving no productivity in return. In addition to time spent on aimless Internet surfing, time misuse can consist of extending breaks beyond the allotted time, congregating around the water cooler or engaging in lengthy gossip sessions during working time, falsifying time sheets, coming into work late or leaving early and running personal errands while traveling on company business.
Sexual Harassment and Bullying-An employee could commit unethical behavior by sexually harassing co-workers. This could involve making lewd comments, touching inappropriately or making unwanted sexual advances. Bullying typically involves attempting to intimidate a co-worker by making demeaning comments about him, spreading gossip or even making verbal or physical threats. In general, a bully attempts to make the workplace as uncomfortable as possible for a co-worker. In some cases, ongoing bullying can escalate into violence in the workplace

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Bers

...Nowadays, workplace bullying becomes one of the major unethical issues in organizations. Workplace bullying expressed as unethical behavior or unethical business practice in organizations. Bullying in workplace is unhealthy, mistreatment and unfair supervision for one employee, by one or more employees and employers. The unhealthy, mistreatment and unfair supervision is form as violence that prevents somebody or employee to perform in his / her works. This issues being popular and serious problem among researcher. In addition, it will demonstrate negative impact to categories such as individual, team and organizations as well as to country. In this study, the problem of workplace bullying will be explored by using several of review papers / articles. The purpose of the study is to determine the potential factor or causes of workplace bullying on employees. Other than that, this study also wants to explore what is workplace bullying and unethical behavior as well as its consequences or the effect to individual and organization. Furthermore, the relationship or correlations between workplace bullying and unethical behavior will be identify. The review papers / articles taken between year 2010 and 2015. The conclusion and recommendation for this study are provided as purpose to further study and research. Keywords: Workplace Bullying, Unethical Behaviors 1.0 Introduction This study includes two sections which are background of the study that will explain the unethical behavior...

Words: 2106 - Pages: 9

Premium Essay

Ethics

...I. Introduction In a workplace there is always be a rule or ethics, you must follow that to work in a peaceful way. You have the natural and the individual rights, but you can use it in other way in a workplace. Your right cannot be all execute in a workplace because there is ethics, which unite and bring both of you into successful and enthusiastic work in a workplace; for example, you have the right to eat and no one can remove it from you yet in a workplace you can eat but in exact time which is what we called the “Break Time”. Each individual have their own ethics yet as workers you have to follow the rule where you are working to avoid mislead and incompliance. Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do. On the one hand the standard of right and wrong, on the other the chain of causes and effects, are fastened to their throne. They govern us in all we do, in all we say, in all we think. Every effort we can make to throw off our subjection, will serve but to demonstrate and confirm it. Workplace is not only an economic system, but also, and most importantly, a social system. II. Definition of Terms Workplace – the place where one performs work or exerts effort. Work – is an activity that is necessary for our physical survival and wellbeing. Work is essential in providing us our basic needs of food, clothing and shelter...

Words: 1473 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Leadership

...The Effects of Unethical Leadership in the Workplace Leadership in Organizations A leader’s actions, ethics, behaviors, and values have a huge impact on those that they lead (Span, 2012). The impact can change the whole culture of the organization. Unethical behavior by a leader in the workplace can lower employee’s performance and productivity, lower a company’s credibility, and the possibility of legal issues ("Effects of Unethical Behavior in the Workplace | Cogentys," 2013). Unethical behavior can lower employee’s performance and productivity. By having an unethical leader, an employee may begin to take their job less serious. A leader should be setting an example for their employees to follow. If an employee sees a lack in effort and values from their leader, they will be more likely to reflect the same behaviors. Employee’s performance is determined by the amount of motivation they have; if they have a leader who does not care, they will not care either. By lowering the performance and productivity of the employees, the company will begin to lose money and cash flow (Zeiger, n.d.). Having an unethical leader can lower a company’s credibility. If consumers hear of things a leader has said or done that they do not ethically agree with, they may refuse to shop or spend money on a specific item or service given by the company. Once the public knows the lack of ethics, the company will lose credibility. Although a company can recover, it is hard to rebuild the relationship...

Words: 482 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Research Paper

...Unethical Behavior at Workplace- Company Time Misuse Ethics is based on the recognition of certain human rights. Unethical behavior can occur in the relationships between employees, in the way an employee goes about his business or how s/he uses company resources. Unethical behavior can even break the law in some situations. The problem here is that employees misuse company time. So the dilemma occurs when employees discover other employees are misusing company time. They know this is wrong by the company's standards. The employees own sense of what is right and what is wrong instantly comes into question. That employee needs to consider how she or he feels about that particular activity, as well as informing about that activity, or turning a blind eye. The unethical behavior of company time misuse is a trend because employees can see it occurring constantly within the workplace across multiple organizations. My target audience is all the lower and upper level employees in business areas such as sales and marketing. In order to solve this issue, there are three solutions. The first solution is to establish the implementation of company policy. The second solution is to set-up the implementation of ethical outline conferences. The last but not the least, the third solution is to create an implementation of ethics training program. The best solution is to set-up the implementation of ethical outline conferences, which will provide employees with a patent outline of what is expected...

Words: 3136 - Pages: 13

Premium Essay

Ethical

...Braxton, Yolanda Martin James Johnson and Mary Dampeer Belhaven University October 3, 2013 HIRING AND COMMUNICATION 2 Introduction It is unfortunate that our employees do, however conduct themselves in an unethical behavior in the workplace. Several organizations will occasionally encounter some employees who take part in unethical behaviors. This unscrupulous behavior includes a number of conflicting activities. Some of the most common unethical business behaviors of our employees are making inappropriate use of phone calls on business lines as well as using the organizations software applications for their own personal use. Occasionally, workers will also falsify the number of hours they’ve worked in order to stretch their lunch breaks or even have their co-workers clock in and out for them when they are not there. On a more serious note, there are those employees who will even go as far as to embezzle money from the company by falsifying business records or stealing petty cash funds thinking that no one will notice and try to replace the funds later. This is very serious issue that could lead to the employee being suspended without pay or terminated. Once an employee presumes that another employee is engaging in something that they know is unethical by the organizations values and rules, then their own sense of what is right and wrong should immediately come into question. Hiring Process In the hiring process, with the employment industry being so scarce, it...

Words: 926 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Business Codes Effectiveness

...preventing unethical behavior in the workplace. Business codes are widely used globally to prevent unethical means in the organization, an increasing number of companies have adopted business code ethics, 52.5% of Fortune Global 200 companies in 2004 (Kaptein, 2004) compared to 87% of Fortune Global 200 companies in 2008 (KPMG, 2008). Business codes are a set of official document disclosed by and for a business firm to guide the behavior of managers and employees (Kaptein and Schwartz, 2008). The business code prescribed are related to matters such as human rights, labor conditions, ecological environment, confidential information, conflict of interests, fraud, corruption, product quality, profits, sexual harassment and competitions (Kaptein, 2011). Business codes ethic (BCE) are the fundamentals for corporate social responsibility (CSR) which are used to appraise companies for ethical performances and citizenship. Organizations with excellent CSR are rewarded with fame and reputations (Patick M., 2011), thus leading to better sales and company’s stock price (Ron Robins, 2011). However, business code and CSR appraisal can only prevent unethical behavior in the organization to a certain extent. For example, 15% of Ernst & Young’s executives were prepared to commit unethical conducts to win businesses even though the company implemented business codes (Christopher M., 2012). In this context, business codes without strong implementation cannot prevent unethical behavior in the workplace...

Words: 1750 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Ethics

...workforce. Ethics can have positive or negative outcome, therefore managers must decide on what action to take in various situations. It is important that organizations encourage ethical behavior because it plays a key role to creditability and leads to an increase of support in the workplace. In this essay, it will discuss managing ethics in the workplace, examples of unethical behaviors, and the key roles and responsibilities in ethics management. Managing Ethics in the Workplace In regard to managing ethics in the workplace, managers tend to focus on deliverables with measurements. For example, ethics programs can include deliverables such as codes, policies and procedures, budget items, training, or newsletters, these practices are implemented because they create appropriate behaviors. An important factor to management practice is the outcome of the behavior preferred by the organization. The ingredient for remaining ethical is trying to be ethical. Therefore, in managing ethics in the workplace, managers and employees should continue to reach company goals and operate ethically. Organization leaders play an important role in leading by example. Leaders should always present themselves in the way they want their followers to be. Examples of Unethical behaviors Unethical behaviors can lead to many legal action against organization and cause the organization to spend out tons of unnecessary money for legal fees,...

Words: 797 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Deviant Work Place Behaviour

...INTRODUCTION Workplace issues remains important in organizational behavior research because of their impact on employees and organization. One of the important workplace issues that receive less attention among organizational scholars is workplace deviant behavior. The concept of workplace deviance in recent years has generated high interest among organizational researchers and practitioners because of its pervasiveness in organizations. Some forms of workplace deviance includes absenteeism, abusing sick day privileges, abusing drugs and alcohol, filing fake accident claims, sabotaging, breaking organizations’ rules, withholding effort, stealing, taking long breaks, working slowly, harassing other employees and hiding needed resources. This paper investigates the nature of deviant workplace behaviors and its impact on organizations. The purpose is to broaden the research in organizational studies by focusing not only on deviant behaviors that are negative, but on those that are positive as well. Furthermore, this article examines different types of both positive and negative deviant workplace behaviors, along with some of the reasons why managers/employees engage in such behaviors. Also, some of the reasons why organizations allow negative deviant behaviors to thrive, while discouraging positive deviant behaviors are investigated. Lastly, possible solutions to overcome problems arising from negative deviance in the workplace will be examined, along with how...

Words: 5874 - Pages: 24

Premium Essay

Assignment for Acc 291

...Impact of Unethical Behavior Analysis Name ACC/291 Date Instructor Name The unethical practices & behavior in today’s business accounting often goes unchecked, because the actions directly affect management or executives, since they usually control this accounting hence the results. If someone thinks their job might be in jeopardy they may falsify thinks for these members of management. As it seems obvious, falsifying or altering business documents such as sales receipts, or tampering with reports would be considered unethical practices. According to Anonymous Employee (n.d.), "Among the most common unethical business behaviors of employees are making long-distance calls on business lines, duplicating software for use at home, falsifying the number of hours worked, or much more serious and illegal practices, such as embezzling money from the business, or falsifying business records.” (para. 1). Among those situational examples which include embezzlement of funds by an accountant from their employers for financial gain also include accountants receiving corporate pressure from their client to report false information and having unrealistic objectives and deadlines. “An accountant may decide to work for a company even though a conflict of interest may exist. If the accountant is owed money or has a significant stake in a firm, he or she may not be the ideal individual to prepare certain companies' financial statements.” (Jacobsen, 2008, para. 10). The Sarbanes-Oxley...

Words: 397 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Hw Week 5 Paper

...Effect of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis Ethics can be defined as “that branch of philosophy dealing with values relating to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such actions.” ("Ethics," 2012). In the article Unethical Behavior In The Workplace, If takes a look at what are the things done to promote ethics but also how some situations just can’t be avoided when it comes to being ethical in accounting practices. We all learn at an early age what is right and wrong from our parents to teachers telling us so that when we are adults we can have morals and ethics in the world. Despite these best efforts of many, people and corporations still act unethical and although their crimes do not cause physical harm is does destroy people and companies in a much worse way and that is financially. Some situations I can tell from the article where people act unethical are “An accountant may embezzle funds from his or her employer for financial gain. Or perhaps the CFO of a publicly traded corporation may prepare financial statements to appear as though the company is performing much better than it actually is, because he or she wants their stock portfolio to increase.” (“Unethical Behavior In The Workplace,” 2008, para. ). Another one it shows an example is “failure for an accountant to conduct an in-depth analysis when preparing and revising financial information. There are many individuals...

Words: 445 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Organizational Behaviro

...r Ethical Issues in Organizational Behavior Erin Kelly October 3, 2011 BUS 610: Organizational Behavior Professor Katheryn King-Metter Ethical decisions play a very important role in an organization. Ethics is the concept of good and bad behavior. Ethical behavior is governed by state, federal, and local laws. It is important for an organization to promote good moral choices and do everything in its power to prevent unethical behavior from taking place in the workplace. This can be achieved through continuous training and reinforcement of the desired behavior. Unethical behavior in the workplace can be detrimental to an organization because it is both costly and can ruin a good relationship between business associates. There are several influences on ethical behavior. They can range from the diversity of the workforce to the technology used in the organization to the quality that is now required of the products produced by an organization. Diversity can become an issue when a manager uses personal race related biases in organizational decisions. Technology can be an issue when proper training is not available to the employees in an organization. The fact that the employee is not trained properly makes them more likely to make a mistake or incapable of performing job duties. Quality can become an issue when an organization does provide its employee with the tools necessary to provide products within the specifications of their customers’ requirements. An employee...

Words: 630 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Ethical Issues

...ETHICAL 1 Ethical Issues Organizational Behavior/BUS610 April 30, 2012 ETHICAL 2 An ethical decision is made up of moral issues and choices. The choices a person makes are ones he or she has to live with despite the moral implications or consequences. There are several reasons that a person decides whether they will choose the positive or negative way. These different ways will be discussed in this paper. The best way to influence positive ethical decision making is to be a positive influence. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 was established with harsh penalties and higher accountability standards. Criminal Acts from the CEO’s from Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, Aldelphia Communications and Computer Associates along with several other executives have led to imprisonment for them all for unethical decisions that were made (Kinicki, Kreitner, 2009). No one is immune to unethical decision making. Making an unethical decision can cost a corporation or organization profits. It is estimated that $600 billion a year is lost in United States Companies from criminal behavior and unethical decisions (Kinicki, Kreitner 2009). The more ethical a corporation is the better chance it has to hire the best employees. I do not think anyone wants to start out by saying; I work for an unethical company. Ethical conduct is influenced by several factors, with the individual...

Words: 757 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Harris Vs Forklift Sys Summary

...that might have been prejudiced in a decisive decision, specifically given the court instituted that this to be a closed case (Harris vs. Forklift Sys. Inc,2009). A written standard of operations procedures make available to both employees and executives with a synopsis of the type of behavior and performances the company expects. It summaries what actions are undesirable and what procedures are reserved for if an employee encroaches upon the standard of operations procedures code of comportment. Employees look to supervisors and administrators for direction on how they ought to conduct themselves. Any executive should be cognizant of and make ethics-based pronouncements and screen the persons that are placed into management roles in that organization for the identical principles. Organizations essentially must hold their employees answerable when they display unethical actions. I would begin this by apprising all new employees of the instructions during their orientation conferences. Faithful employees feel that a business values the hard work they put into achieving responsibilities every day. A devoted worker is less likely to entertain the idea of being unethical. I would recommend that a business show...

Words: 1377 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Money, Attitude, and Unethical Behavior

...| Money, Attitude, and Unethical Behavior | Business Research Methods | | | December 11, 2013 | This research paper focuses on the relationship between money, attitude, and unethical behavior. Comparing the data found in regards to gender and major according to a study by Dr. Chen and Dr. Tang. | Introduction Many believe that the success of a business is determined by they amount of money they generate on an annual basis. Because of this widespread belief, we often see a lack of morals, values, and ethics incorporated into the business. Many businesses feel as if there is no room for ethics in the business world and that the relationships built should focus solely on the generation of revenue. According to Merriam Webster dictionary, we can define ethics as, “the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation.” Every company has a code of ethics in order to determine the company’s culture and values. It also acts a driving force behind any decisions made by top executives. In market where there are so many profit-based businesses, often times we see the many difficulties in balancing the pursuit of profits while staying true to their code of ethics. The balance of ethical practice and profit maximization causes companies to face difficult decisions and many times businesses choose profit maximization. Business-to-Business and Business-to-Consumer transactions require frequent interaction. In every type of business transaction...

Words: 6528 - Pages: 27

Premium Essay

Unethical Behavior Article Analysis

...Unethical Behavior Analysis ACC/291 Unethical Behavior Analysis “The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 was intended to improve corporate governance and increase the transparency of financial audits” (Cosgrove, 2006). This was an effort to help curb unethical behavior in the corporate world. The effort was worth it, considering that “that 18% of employees perceived their companies as having a strong ethical culture - more than double the 2007 rate” (Bannon, 2010). This still does not stop all unethical behavior in the workplace. There are several reasons that unethical behavior takes place, but today we will focus on one…following your superior’s example. Superiors Behavior Employees will look to their immediate supervisor to determine what behaviors are allowable. If the supervisor is a no nonsense by the book leader, then the associates will know that they better do the same or face the consequences. And on the other hand if the supervisor is known to work around the rules, then their example is showing that it is acceptable to not follow all the rules. If a supervisor tells an employee that they don’t care how a task is done as long as it is done in the allotted amount of time or as long as the company or section looks good. It opens doors for unethical behavior, such as manipulating the numbers on financial reports to show better figures than are actually there. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 By having guidelines for proper auditing set by...

Words: 391 - Pages: 2