Chapter 8: Manager’s Ethics: Getting, Promoting, and Firing Workers from The Business Ethics

Workshop was adapted by Saylor Academy and is available under a Creative Commons

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license without attribution as requested by

the work’s original creator or licensor. UMGC has modified this work and it is available under the original license.

http://www.saylor.org/site/textbooks/The%20Business%20Ethics%20Workshop.pdf
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
Saylor URL: http://www.saylor.org/books Saylor.org 327

Chapter 8

Manager’s Ethics: Getting, Promoting, and Firing Workers

Chapter Overview

Chapter 8 “Manager’s Ethics: Getting, Promoting, and Firing Workers” examines some ethical decisions

facing managers. It considers the values that underlie and guide the hiring, promoting, and firing of

workers.

Saylor URL: http://www.saylor.org/books Saylor.org 328

8.1 Hiring

L E A R N I N G O B JE C T I V E S

1. Locate ethical tensions affecting the breadth of a hiring search.

2. Define applicant screening and mark its ethical boundaries.

3. Define applicant testing and consider what makes an appropriate test.

4. Draw the lines of an ethical interview process.

Help Wanted, but from Whom?

The Central Intelligence Agency’s hiring practices are widely known and well depicted in the movie The

Recruit. After discretely scouting the special capabilities of a young bartender played by Colin Ferrell, Al

Pacino catches him at work, orders a drink, carries on a one-sided and cryptic conversation, performs a

magic trick with a ripped newspaper, announces that “things are never quite as they appear,” and finally

admits that he’s actually a job recruiter.

Ferrell seems annoyed by the man’s presence.

Pacino returns to the newspaper, pulls out a page covered by an ad announcing “Two Day Specials.” He

circles the letters c, i, and a in “Specials” and walks out. Colin Ferrell follows. [1]

Actually, that’s not true. The CIA doesn’t hire that way. They advertise on CareerBuilder just like any

other company. You can understand, though, why they wouldn’t mind scouting out their applicants even

before allowing people to apply; they don’t want to end up hiring double agents.

Something like that happened soon after Procter & Gamble grew jealous of a competitor’s hair-care

products. Salon Selective, Finesse, and Thermasilk were all doing so well for Unilever that P&G contracted

people to get hired over at Unilever and bring back secrets of their success. The corporate espionage—

which P&G executives characterized as a “rogue operation”—led to a multimillion-dollar settlement

between the companies and left behind the lesson that when you’re the boss and you’re hiring, you’ve got

to make sure that the people you bring in will be loyal to the company. [2]

The problem is you’ve also got to make sure that they’re going to do good work, the best work possible.Employee Bill of Rights

Recent events of employee dissatisfaction and general staff upheaval are threatening the continued operations of Giggle, Inc., a large internet search company, and management believes that a strong employee bill of rights would be a positive step to address the turmoil. I.M. Reale, the new senior executive vice-president for human resources for the Company has been tasked with the responsibility of developing a new employee bill of rights. Because he is rather clueless as to how to approach this assignment, he has called you in as a consultant (actually he wants you to do all the drafting but be sure he gets the credit).

Please develop the employee bill of rights. What would such a document look like? I.M. Reale, the consummate professional that he is, has left you with the following instructions:

1) make sure the bill of rights is clear and practical and not theoretical;

2) it should use negative injunctions that are more precise than you should statements;

3) it should be written in lay language (none of that legal mumbo jumbo”I think he has a strong dislike for lawyers”imagine that);

4) it should be succinct; and

5) it needs to be enforceable and not dependent on good will to work.

Learning Activity #2

A legal way for companies to summarily screen inappropriate applicants is by having a bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ). BFOQ acts as a form of legalized discrimination, in which applicants can be legitimately screened for reasons that would normally be considered unfair. Using only one paragraph, identify a specific job and provide an example of an applicant that can be legitimately screened for that position. Be sure to clearly identify the BFOQ(s) and explain why the applicant should be screened.