Ethics in Business Setting

Defend or critique the finding of the Nevada Supreme Court using a deontological or teleological approach.

The case brought about by Yvette framer against the university on the issue of equal pay irrespective of one gender or race as stipulated in the Equal Pay Act was successful in the lower court, and the university was ordered to pay Farmer $40,000 (Crane & Mattens, 2016). However, the Nevada Supreme Court overruled this ruling; the court stated that the university had the right and the duty to make decisions that are aimed at resolving the racial imbalances in the worker’s composition in the university. The fact that the black employee was being paid a higher amount than the farmer was also attributed to the fact that the university wanted to empower the black people under the employment of the university (Daft & Marcic, 2009). The deontology ethics can be used to explain the Nevada Supreme Court decision that sided with the university against the defendant. The deontology is an approach to ethics that gives more credence to the motive behind a certain decision that has been taken without giving much thought to the result.

 In this case, the deontology ethical perspective can be used to explain the decision made by the Nevada Supreme Court. The court overruled the lower court decision that had ruled against the university by stating that, the university had the duty to ensure that perceived discrimination issues in society are resolved even if the rights of a few people would be infringed in the process (Crane & Mattens, 2016). When making the decision to give the black employee the job and offering her a higher salary, black people only made about 1% of all employees in the university. Many of the black employees were working as subordinate staffs who received low pay. For this reason, the university had the duty to give affirmative action to any black person applying for a senior position at the university (Daft & Marcic, 2009). 

Based on this knowledge, examine the outsourcing actions taken by Watchmark-Comnitel from the deontological and teleological perspectives.

Watchmark-comnitel was an organization that was taken over by IBM through a successful merger. Watchmark-comnitel was a very successful organization operating in the information technology industry specializing in the development of software (Crane & Mattens, 2016). The competition in the industry forced the organization to outsource employees from India and other Asian nations. The reason for this was to make the organization more competitive by lowering its operating costs by reducing its costs in wages and salaries, as outsourced employees are paid less than the pay given to employees from the United States. This move was unpopular because many Americans lost their jobs.

 This decision can be explained from both the deontological and teleological perspectives. The deontological perspective is the perspective that looks at the main reason as to why a certain decision was made. In this case, the organization was operating in a very competitive industry, and to stay afloat, the management team had to make hard decisions that may see some of its employees lose their jobs. From this perspective, this was a necessary decision that had to be prepared for the greater survival of the organization.  

 Teleological perspective, on the other hand, is a strict ethical view where everything is seen as either right or wrong. In the case of Watchmark-comnitel, the organizations’ management team was wrong to outsource for employees from India to reduce its wage bill. This was a bad decision that saw many employees; some who had worked in the organization for many years lose their jobs just because they were Americans (Crane & Mattens, 2016). The teleological ethical theory states people should always strive to make the right decision at all times. All decisions that are made should also not negatively affect any party.

Present an argument that it is easier for employers to comply with diversity legislation in Canada than it is in the United States.

Both the United States and Canada have employment laws that each employer should adhere to avoid litigations. There is a sense that it is easier for employers in Canada to adhere to the country’s employment laws than employers in the United States. One of the primary reasons for this is that employment laws in the United States are made and enforced by the federal government (Collins, 2012). These laws are complex for ordinary employers to comprehend, which makes it harder for them to comply with them. In Canada, on the other hand, employment laws are based on provinces. Each province has the jurisdiction to make its laws with consultation with the local population. This makes it easy for employers to understand and comply with to avoid penalties that come with noncompliance.

 Another primary reason why employers can comply with Canadian employment laws, as opposed to the laws in the United States, is that there are mechanisms that can help resolve employment issues between employees and employers (Fredrickson, 2015). This helps them resolve issues before they have snowballed to become significant employment issues that have to be resolved in a court of law. In the United States, on the other hand, every simple disagreement between employee and employers find itself in the court of law (Collins, 2012). Juries that give different or conflicting rulings resolve these cases. These conflicting rulings make it hard for employers to understand the laws hence making it hard for them to comply with the laws.    

Select a source of media as outlined in Exercises in Media Diversity. Comment on the questions listed in the textbook for the media option you selected

The elite schools in New York State are losing their black and Latino students. The numbers of students that have been enrolling in the elite schools in the state have shown that Latinos and blacks have been reducing significantly. There are several reasons that this might be the case. The first reason is that this may be because the elite schools in the state are costly to enroll in and many blacks and Latinos are not very rich making it hard for them to afford the high tuition fees charged in these schools (Collins, 2012). Another reason might be the number of students joining schools from the two racial groups has decreased across the board and not just in the elite schools. For this reason, it is important for policymakers to look at this issue keenly to come up with the main reason why the number of blacks and Latinos has reduced in elite schools in the state (Daft & Marcic, 2009).

References

Crane, A., & Matten, D. (2016). Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and

sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.

Collins, D. (2012). Business ethics: How to design and manage ethical organizations. Hoboken,

NJ: Wiley.

Daft, D & Marcic, (2009). Understanding Management. New York, NY: Cengage Learning

Fredrickson, B (2015). Positive Emotions and Upward Spirals in Organizations. Cengage

Learning.