Lm009: Applying Ethical Standards
By: gpaxson • April 24, 2019 • Research Paper • 9,832 Words (40 Pages) • 1,246 Views
LM009: Applying Ethical Standards
Short Answer Submission Form
Instructions
This Competency includes a Short-Answer Response Assessment. Write your response to each prompt below in the space provided. The Rubric, which will be used by the Competency Assessor to evaluate your responses, is beneath the prompts. Carefully review the Rubric rows associated with each prompt to provide a complete response.
When writing your response, begin typing where it reads “Enter Your Response Here.” Write as much as needed to satisfy the requirements of the prompt (as defined in the Rubric). Be sure to support your responses with connections to professional sources.
Your Assessment responses require references (in APA style) to support your thinking. You will list your references at the end of this template where “References” are noted. If you need additional information regarding how to correctly cite, and/or reference sources, please visit the Walden Writing Center at http://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/apa/citations
To learn more about effective paraphrasing strategies, visit the Walden Writing Center at http://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/evidence/paraphrase/effective
Review the following example item and response for a sample that meets expectations.
Sample Prompt: Choose a definition of organizational culture, and explain whether you agree or disagree with the definition. Use examples from your own professional experience to support your response. Response: Whitehurst (2016) explained “organizational culture is defined by how people in an organization interact with each other” (para. 2). While I agree that this is one aspect of organizational culture, the definition does not capture the complex factors that contribute to organizational culture. When I started my first job after finishing my undergraduate degree in business, I worked for an organization whose main headquarters were in Dubai. When I traveled to Dubai for the first time, I realized that the culture of the Dubai office was largely influenced by the society’s culture in Dubai. I found that the organization lacked one cohesive culture and that, depending on regional locations, each office had its own culture. International organizations often face many challenges in maintaining a cohesive organizational culture (Watkins, 2013). I found this observation to be true in my experience. For example, the Dubai office seemed to endow their employees with more allowance for self-direction when compared with our domestic offices. Although people’s interactions with one another contributed to the organization’s culture, there were other factors like location, management style, and societal norms that impacted a business culture as well. References Watkins, M. D. (2013, May 15). What is organizational culture? And why should we care. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2013/05/what-is-organizational-culture Whitehurst, J. (2016, October 13). Leaders can shape company culture through their behaviors. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2016/10/leaders-can-shape-company-culture-through-their-behaviors Note: References are included at the end of a Short-Answer Assessment but are included here as an example of an accurate APA reference list. |
To help guide employees toward ethical and legal conduct, many companies provide their employees with a Code of Ethics or a Code of Conduct, much like the samples provided with this Assessment. In addition to stating the company’s principles, its mission, and its values, and codes of conduct often articulate attitudes or behaviors that are expected of employees, such as trust, honesty, integrity, and transparent communication. Read the “Sample Code of Ethics and Business Conduct” document and review any codes of ethics/conduct provided by your employer. With these codes in mind, read the scenarios below and respond to each item.
Note: Sub-Competencies 1 and 2 are assessed multiple times.
Scenario 1: The Community Members
A hypothetical Spanish-language classified advertisements website, Vivos.com, attracts its users with sections like community, housing, personals, for sale, and events where anyone can upload posts at no charge. Vivos.com only generates revenue when client companies pay to post employment opportunities in the jobs section. One day, an employee assigned to proctor the community section notices that a new topic targeting Vivos.com’s biggest corporate client is generating a long thread of negative comments. The discussion thread reads a lot like a petition and states that Vivos.com’s biggest client is guilty of a disingenuous and cynical attempt to paper over hiring practices that exclude minorities, particularly Latinos. The discussion states that the client has seldom, if ever, hired a single applicant who has applied through the Vivos.com website even though the client advertises high-paying career opportunities there. The petition is calling on Vivos.com and the client for greater transparency.
Vivos.com’s mission statement says that the website strives to connect and empower an often underserved Spanish-speaking community. The client pays to post several job advertisements every quarter and has recently been in the news for questionable hiring practices.
Imagine that you will be the one to decide Vivos.com’s response.
- Describe your ethical and legal business solution and provide three sound reasons in support of your solution.
- Describe three actions that you will take to implement your solution.
- Does the situation make it essential to work with the human resources department? Provide two reasons to support your decision.
- Does the situation make it essential to seek legal advice? State your decision and provide two reasons to support your decision.
(3–4 paragraphs)
Your Response
There are multiple opportunities for disgruntled individuals to expose and attempt to disparage an organization regardless of positive or negative business practices. In each of these situations, the company has an opportunity to exercise optimal ethical practices and demonstrate their commitment to excellence. Vivos.com and their respective partners are no exclusion. Notably, the main objective for Vivos.com is to build communities focused on serving the undeserved Spanish-speaking population. The discussion found in the chat thread is live and could currently affect business operations. Responding immediately with a statement acknowledging the issue, assuring further review to assess quality decisions, and fortifying a commitment to aid the underserved will assist in defusing rampant negativity. Internally, conducting an audit will help to assure the partner’s business strategies align with Vivos.com mission. Conducting this self-assessment will also challenge Vivos.com to review processes and assure that all actions are linked to organizational objectives (National Council of Nonprofits, nd). Finally, a third benefit to this internal review is to encourage all hiring and direct supervisors to assure their decisions coincide with human resource policies. It must be noted that conducted this audit could also help with anticipating employment needs or filling potential deficits with partners.
Implementing this internal audit will require precision and extensive collaborative efforts for the partner and Vivos.com. First, it is important to determine if the audit will be conducted in-house or from an outside agency (Monson-Rosen, 2019). Whoever conducts the audit must be aware of current employment guidelines enforceable by the Department of Labor. A review of this caliber should be conducted by an outside agency in order to prevent future problems. After determining who will conduct this audit, executives must determine the specific information that should be reviewed (Monson-Rosen, 2019). While the review should include demographic information, there are additional benefits to tracking hiring dates, terminations and reasons, as well as compensation schedules. Finally, it is important to document the findings and presented to the partner’s executive team as well as Vivos.com (Lotich, 2019). In accordance with this, the executive team from both agencies must determine what information, if any, should be made available to the public.
Integrating the human resources department for the partner as well as Vivos.com is imperative but only to provide specific information as requested by the auditors. There are several important reasons not to include Human Resources in this audit directly. First, due to the nature of the complaint and potential manipulated reports, it is important for the findings to be developed from an unbiased source (Lauby, 2017). This will support valid and accurate discoveries. Another reason not to directly include the Human Resources department is due to time requirements (Lauby, 2017). Completing the review may be a lengthy process and could hinder standard operations. It is important to assess the situation immediately and without internal bias to ensure operations are conducted fairly and appropriately.
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