practice case 3

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Chapter 9

The Workplace (2): Today’s Challenges

I. Introduction (NIB-p.434) A. Opening Case Comments (NIB-p.434)

1. As stated in Chapter 8, issues between employers and employees in the workplace are extremely complex.

a. As an illustration, Shaw and Barry give an example of how two companies, Eastern Airlines and Hewlett-Packard, dealt with privacy issues in their

respective organizations.

b. They give Justice Louise Brandeis 1928 U.S. Supreme Court definition of privacy as “the right to be let alone.”

c. They also explain how privacy is considered to be one of the most comprehensive and valued rights of U.S. citizens.

d. This results in two fundamental questions facing organizations: 1) What moral issues arise in the workplace regarding privacy? 2) What are a company’s responsibilities regarding employee privacy?

2. Chapter 9 examines the following topics: a. Privacy and organizational issues over private decisions. b. Moral issues and polygraphs, personality tests, employee monitoring, and

workplace drug testing.

c. Working conditions, safety, and management style. d. Job satisfaction and dissatisfaction and the prospects for enhancing the quality of

work life.

B. Chapter Learning Objectives (NIB-p.435) – After completing this chapter students should be able to:

1. Have a clear sense of workers’ rights in general and the demarcation of the zone of privacy.

2. Consider some of the moral issues raised by the ways in which employers seek to examine, influence, and judge the private lives of their employees and prospective

employees.

3. Understand the responsibilities of employers with regard to workplace safety and OSHA.

4. Appreciate the ways in which different management styles and theories of management affect the working environment.

5. Examine and evaluate some of the ways that companies are seeking to improve the quality of work life while improving worker satisfaction and productivity.

II. Organizational Influence in Private Lives (p.435) A. Overview (NIB-p.435)

1. Privacy is widely acknowledged to be a fundamental human right. a. Chapter 2: Human rights, also called moral rights or inalienable rights, are

considered to be self-evident and universal.

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2. Yet corporate behavior and policies often threaten privacy, especially in the case of employees.

a. This can happen through the release or exchange of personal (or “privileged”) information about employees.

b. It also occurs when imposing employer values upon employees. B. The Importance of Privacy (p.437)

1. The concern for privacy has three aspects: a. First, a person wants to control intimate or personal information about oneself

and not permit it to be freely available to everyone.

b. Second, a person does not want his/her private selves to be on public display. c. Third, a person values being able to make certain personal decisions

autonomously.

2. However, there is no consensus among philosophers or lawyers about the following: a. How to define the concept of privacy. b. How far to extend the right to privacy. c. How to balance a concern for privacy against other moral considerations.

3. Even when a genuine privacy right is identified, the strength of that right depends on circumstances—in particular, on competing rights and interests.

a. Like all rights, the right to privacy is not absolute. 4. However, as a general rule, whenever an organization infringes on what would

normally be considered a personal sphere of an individual, it bears the burden of

establishing the legitimacy of that infringement.

a. The firm must show both that it has some legitimate interest at stake and that the steps it is taking to protect that interest are reasonable and morally permissible.

C. Legitimate and Illegitimate Influence (p.437) 1. A firm is legitimately interested in whatever significantly influences work

performance, both on- and off-the-job.

a. However, what constitutes a significant influence on work performance eludes precise definition.

b. But that does not prevent us from being able to judge that in many cases organizations step beyond legitimate boundaries and interfere with what should

properly be personal decisions by their employees.

c. That interference can take many forms, but two are worth looking at more closely: involvement in civic activities and wellness programs.

2. Involvement in Civic Activities – To enhance their image in the community, businesses and other organizations have long prodded employees to donate to

charitable causes during company-led fundraising drives, or encouraged them to

participate in civic activities off the job. Two basic types of employer behavior in this

context would be deemed illegitimate influence:

a. First, requiring involvement in civic activities that results in too much of a personal and/or financial commitment by the employee (e.g., commitments that

require the employee to take too much time away from his/her family or requiring

too high of a financial contribution to an organization’s or boss’s charity).

b. Second, requiring involvement in civic activities contrary to the employee’s

personal values or beliefs (e.g., requiring an employee to volunteer time or donate

to a political candidate the employee does not support).

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3. Wellness Programs – Sometimes organizations pressure employees in certain directions for “their own good”such as participating in wellness programs.

a. A wellness program can be defined as a comprehensive health program designed to maintain a high level of well-being through proper diet, exercise, stress

management, and illness prevention.

b. The main area of concern centers around employers requiring employees to participate in such programs or pay higher health care benefits.

1) Critics charge that this is a kind of “privacy tax.” 2) Those with good salaries have enough money to pay it, but what about

janitors or other low-wage workers? Can they afford to protect their privacy

by refusing to participate?

III. Obtaining Information (NIB-p.440) A. Overview (NIB-p.440)

1. Businesses often obtain information about their employees. a. The acquisition of some of this information is legally required (e.g., providing

documentation such as birth certificates, driver’s license, or work visas to show

that the person is legally able to work in the United States).

b. Therefore, the main concern is when businesses gather information they are not otherwise legally required to do such as through certain types of tests and/or the

monitoring of employees.

2. However, before one can truly assess this information, the concept of informed consent and how it relates to these topics must first be discussed.

B. Informed Consent (p.440) 1. Informed consent implies deliberation and free choice.

a. In this context, deliberation means that employees must be provided all key facts concerning the information gathering procedure and understand its consequences.

b. Likewise, free choice means that the decision to participate must be voluntary and uncoerced.

2. The presence or absence of informed consent is the main ethical issue in testing and monitoring.

C. Polygraph Tests (p.440) 1. A polygraph (popularly referred to as a lie detector) is an instrument that measures

and records several physiological indices such as blood pressure, pulse, respiration, and

skin conductivity while the subject is asked and answers a series of questions, in the

belief that deceptive answers will produce physiological responses that can be

differentiated from those associated with non-deceptive answers.

2. Businesses/proponents cite several reasons for using polygraph tests: a. First, the polygraph is a fast and economical way to verify information provided

by a job applicant and to screen candidates for employment.

b. Second, the polygraph allows employers to identify dishonest employees or job candidates, at a time when many companies are suffering staggering annual losses

through in-house theft.

c. Third, companies argue that the use of polygraphs permits business to abolish audits and oppressive controls which increases workers’ freedom.

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3. Critics cite several reasons against using polygraph tests: a. First, the assumption is that lying triggers an involuntary, distinctive response that

truth telling does not. But this is not necessarily the case.

b. Second, it is assumed that polygraphs are extraordinarily accurate: the American Polygraph Association claims the tests are more than 90% accurate. Even if this is

so, it cannot reveal with certainty whether a person is or is not telling the truth.

c. Third, a major assumption about polygraphs is that they cannot be beaten. Evidence shows that there are numerous ways to “beat” polygraph exams and,

even if the polygraph generally catches the guilty, it also generates a disturbing

number of false positives—that is, it will also identify as liars people who are

telling the truth.

4. In addition to these considerations, polygraphs infringe on privacy. a. Christopher Pyle says, they violate “the privacy of beliefs and associations, the

freedom from unreasonable searches, the privilege against self-accusation, and

the presumption of innocence.”

b. That is not to say employers never have the right to abridge privacy or employees never have an obligation to reveal themselves. In important cases of in-house

theft or corporate espionage, employers may be justified in using a polygraph as a

last resort.

5. The moral concerns embedded in the use of polygraphs suggest three points—in addition to the question of informed consent—to consider in evaluating their use in the

workplace:

a. Information the organization seeks should be clearly and significantly related to the job.

b. There must be compelling grounds for using the polygraph to justify violating the individual’s privacy and psychic freedom (e.g., the organization has no viable

alternative way of getting the information or it has exhausted all other legitimate

means).

c. The information gathered by the polygraph and the fact the person is undergoing a polygraph must be kept confidential, and that person must be treated

respectfully.

6. The Employee Polygraph Protection Act of 1988: a. It prohibits most private employers from using lie detectors in most employment

decisions (not just preemployment testing).

b. Exceptions apply for the following: 1) Government employers; 2) Consultants for federal intelligence agencies; 3) Contractors for the Department of Energy; 4) Security firms; and 5) Controlled substance manufacturers.

c. A private employer may use a lie detector test if it has incurred economic loss or injury to its business.

1) The employer must have cause to suspect the individual tested regarding a specific incident, and the individual must have had access to the relevant

property.

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2) Tested individuals have a right to review all questions in advance and to terminate the test at any time. They may not be asked degrading questions

and must be given a copy of the test results.

3) Employment decisions (e.g., termination) may not be based solely on the tests.

D. Personality Tests (p.442) 1. Companies often wish to determine whether prospective employees are emotionally

mature, get along well with others, have a good work ethic, and whether they would fit

in with the organization.

a. A personality test aims to describe aspects of a person’s character that remain stable throughout that person’s lifetime, the individual’s character pattern of

behavior, thoughts, and feelings.

b. One of the most popular, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, is used by 89 of the Fortune 100 companies, and is taken by more than 2.5 million Americans every

year.

2. Such tests help businesses both screen candidates and match individuals to appropriate jobs.

a. But they involve questionable psychological premises (that individuals fit into a small number of personality types), may invade privacy, and may reinforce

conformity.

E. Monitoring Employees on the Job (p.444) 1. Many major employers routinely monitor the performance of their employees through

the computers and telephones they use.

2. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986: a. It restricts the government or unauthorized parties from eavesdropping on e-mail,

fax transmissions, and cell phone conversations.

b. The law applies to private employers, but it allows exceptions when the consent of employees has been obtained, when the organization owns or maintains the

system, or when there is a legitimate business purpose for the surveillance.

3. Like testing, it often gathers personal information about workers without their informed consent.

a. Organizations frequently confuse notification of such practices with employee consent, but notification does not constitute informed consent.

b. Even more serious moral questions arise when monitoring devices are used not exclusively for the purposes intended but also for cajoling, harassing, or snooping

on employees.

F. Drug Testing (p.443) 1. In principle, testing employees to determine whether they are using illegal drugs raises

the same questions that other tests raise:

a. Is their informed consent? b. How reliable are the tests? c. Is testing really pertinent to the job in question? d. Are the interests of the firm significant enough to justify encroaching on the

privacy of the individual?

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2. Additional considerations regarding drug testing: a. Excessive media attention and political posturing can lead to extreme or

unnecessary measures.

b. Drugs differ, so one must carefully consider which drugs one is testing for, and why.

c. Companies must determine how to respond appropriately to individuals who fail the test.

d. Any warranted tests must be careful to respect the dignity and rights of the persons to be tested.

IV. Working Conditions (p.445) A. Overview (NIB-p.445)

1. In a broad sense, the conditions under which people work include human resource management policies and procedures, as well as the extent to which an organization is

committed to respecting the rights and privacy of its employees.

2. This section, however, examines three other aspects of working conditions: health and safety on the job, styles of management, and an organization’s maternity and day-care

arrangements.

B. Health and Safety (p.445) 1. The scope of occupational hazards remains awesome and generally unrecognized.

a. The U.S. Census Bureau indicates that about 5000 workers are killed on the job each year.

b. The director of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) says 32 workers are killed on the job each day, more than doubling the Census figure.

c. Census Bureau statistics also reveal that while the rate of industrial injury has been declining since 1960, the absolute number of workers disabled at work

every year is ever increasing—about 3.7 million men and women.

d. Job-related injuries and illnesses cost the nation $65 billion a year—$171 billion when indirect costs such as lost wages are included.

2. Employers clearly have a moral obligation not to expose workers to needless risks or to negligently or recklessly endanger their lives or health; however, employers are not

morally responsible for all workplace accidents.

a. Some accidents are caused by coworkers’ negligence or failure to exercise due care.

b. Sometimes the victims themselves may have behaved stupidly or failed to exercise due care.

c. In some circumstances or in certain occupations, an injured worker can reasonably be said to have voluntarily assumed the risk.

3. Problems with Voluntary Assumption of Risk – It presupposes informed consent, which requires the worker to have been fully informed of the danger and to have freely

chosen to assume it.

a. Informed consent entails that employees have a moral right to refuse work when it exposes them to imminent danger and that employers are wrong to reprimand

or otherwise retaliate against them for doing so.

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b. Since the U.S. Supreme Court has acknowledged the right to refuse dangerous work to be a legal right, the problem then becomes determining what is

imminently dangerous and how employees should exercise this right.

c. Moral Obligations of Employees: The key is that employees should always behave reasonably and, when trying to avoid a perceived danger, take the least

disruptive course of action open to them.

d. Moral Obligations of Employers: They should inform workers of any short-term hazards especially those that might be life-threatening, and any known or

suspected long-term hazards.

4. Problems with the Causes of Workplace Accidents – Industrial accidents are caused more often than not by inadequate worker training, sloppy procedures, lack of

understanding of the job, improper tools and equipment, hazardous work environments,

poor equipment maintenance, and overly tight scheduling.

a. Since these reasons are all within the purview of the employer, it is the employer’s moral responsibility to adopt a culture that is proactively oriented

toward safety.

5. OSHA – With the 1970 Occupational Safety and Health Act, regulation of working conditions passed from the states to the federal government.

a. The thrust of the Act was to ensure safe and healthy working conditions and impose a duty on employers to provide those conditions.

b. The main two factors preventing OSHA from fully meeting its obligations has been limited resources and too close of a relationship with the businesses and

industries it regulates.

6. New Health Challenges: a. One problem that both OSHA and business will have to address in the future is

the epidemic of occupational injury and illness known as musculoskeletal

disorders.

1) Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) can affect the body’s muscles, joints, tendons, ligaments and nerves. Most work-related MSDs develop over time

and are caused either by the work itself or by the employees’ working

environment. Typically, MSDs affect the back, neck, shoulders and upper

limbs; less often they affect the lower limbs.

2) Musculoskeletal disorders account for one-third of all serious workplace injuries and cause more than 640,000 workers a year to miss time on the

job.

b. A second aspect of work life over which OSHA exercises little direct control is the shifts people work.

1) This is particularly important given that sleep deprivation and fatigue are prime causes of industrial accidents.

2) According to one expert, they cost Americans $100 billion a year in lost production, illnesses, absences, accidents, and death.

c. A third area related to fatigue is the health implications of job/workplace stress. 1) Job/workplace stress is the harmful physical and emotional response that

occurs when there is a poor match between job demands and the

capabilities, resources, or needs of the worker.

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2) It is estimated that workplace stress costs the nation more than $300 billion each year in health costs and missed work.

C. Management Styles (p.449) 1. How managers conduct themselves on the job—management styles—can do more to

enhance or diminish the work environment than any other facet of employer-employee

relations.

a. “Management creates the conditions in which most adults spend half their working lives,” writes Thomas Stewart. “Bad management makes life

miserable.”

b. In survey after survey, employees ranked honest communication, personal recognition, and respectful treatment is more important than good pay.

c. Unfortunately, millions of workers suffer from bosses who are abusive, dictatorial, devious, dishonest, manipulative, and inhumane.

2. This workplace reality runs contrary to the teachings of almost all management theorists.

a. In The Human Side of Enterprise, Douglas McGregor described two management styles:

1) Theory X managers believe that workers dislike work and try to avoid it; therefore, it is common to see these types of managers coercing workers

into conformity with organizational objectives.

2) Theory Y managers assume that employees basically like work and view it as something natural and potentially enjoyable; therefore, it is common to

see these types of managers simply setting goals for their subordinates to

accomplish and allowing worker autonomy in meeting these goals.

b. Other Management Styles: 1) Theory Z managers, who hold Japanese-style respect for workers. 2) One management style eschews a traditionally masculine approach

(hierarchical, aggressive, winner-take-all) in favor of one more congenial to

women (personal, empathetic, and collaborative).

3. Moral Management: a. From a moral standpoint, this brief look at varying management styles tells

managers that they must not make implicit or explicit assumptions about human

nature.

b. Instead, managers must carefully examine their preconceptions when determining the most appropriate leadership style to adopt in their workplace.

4. Bureaucracies – A different problem of management style, which also has moral overtones, stems from the bureaucratic character of many American corporations.

a. Corporate bureaucracies often create an environment in which managers and other executives must pay excessive attention to hierarchy—often hoarding

information and keeping subordinates in the dark—and in which they are tempted

to put personal ambition ahead of other things to spend their energy trying to

move up the company ladder.

b. Although beyond the scope of this course, there are numerous management techniques to eliminate or minimize the negative aspects of corporate

bureaucracies.

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D. Day Care and Maternity Leave (p.451) 1. One area often overlooked in discussions of working conditions is the provision of

maternity/paternity leave and childcare services for workers with children.

a. Women still bear the primary responsibility for child rearing. b. So their increased participation in the paid workforce has led to a growing

demand for maternity-leave policies and child-care services.

2. In its research of 168 countries, a Harvard School of Public Heath study found that more than 160 guarantee paid maternity leave, whereas at the federal level the U.S.

mandates only unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of

1993 if certain conditions are met.

a. The FMLA applies to employers having 50 or more employees during 20 or more calendar workweeks in the current or preceding year.

1) In addition, there must be 50 or more employees within a 75 mile radius of the leave granting worksite.

b. A covered employer must grant an eligible employee (i.e., an employee who has worked at least 1250 hours in the preceding year) up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave

in a 12 month period for one or more of the following reasons:

1) Birth of and care for a newborn child; 2) Adoption or foster care placement of a child; 3) Care for an immediate family member (spouse, child, or parent) with a

serious medical condition;

4) To take medical leave when the employee is unable to work because of a serious health condition; or

5) For qualifying exigencies arising out of the fact that the employee’s spouse, son, daughter, or parent is on active duty or call to active duty status as a

member of the National Guard or Reserves in support of a contingency

operation.

c. Covered employees who have accrued paid sick leave and/or vacation leave can use this leave toward their up to 12 weeks of leave under the Act.

3. Business and Child Care – Some argue that offering child care as a fringe benefit, and dealing flexibly with employees’ family needs, can prove advantageous for most

employers.

a. Such policies can be cost-effective in the narrower sense by decreasing absenteeism, boosting morale and loyalty, enhancing productivity, and attracting

new recruits.

4. Three Moral Concerns – Even more important than its cost effectiveness are the underlying moral issues:

a. First, women have a right to compete on equal terrain with men, and paid leave can reinforce that right.

b. Second, development of potential capacities is a moral ideal, and perhaps a human right, so women should not be forced to choose between childbearing and

pursuing careers.

c. Third, the work world often reproduces the traditional male-female division of labor within the family thereby disproportionately harming men who have taken

off time from work for family purposes.

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V. Redesigning Work (p.453) A. Dissatisfaction on the Job (p.453)

1. The Work in America Report (1970) identified three chief sources of worker dissatisfaction:

a. Industry’s preoccupation with quantity, not quality; rigid rules and regulations; and the monotonous repetition of small, fragmented tasks.

b. Lack of opportunities to be one’s own boss. c. “Bigness” – More people work for large corporations now than ever before.

2. Studies since the 1970s have cited workers’ feelings of powerlessness, meaninglessness, isolation, and self-estrangement or depersonalization as other sources

of dissatisfaction on the job.

a. Self-estrangement in this context means to be engaged in activities that are not intrinsically rewarding.

b. Depersonalization in this context means the action of divesting someone or something of human characteristics or individuality.

3. Factors Affecting Job Satisfaction – Employees at all occupational levels value interesting work, enough support and information to accomplish the job, enough

authority to carry out the work, good pay, the opportunity to develop special skills, job

security, and a chance to see results of their work.

a. Human Relations Management (1920s) – The basis of Human Relations Management is the study of the behavior of people in groups, in particular

workplace groups.

1) Elton Mayo is credited with being the father of Human Relations Management. Another important person at the beginning of this movement

is Fritz Roethlisberger.

2) Hawthorne Effect: It is a form of reactivity whereby subjects improve an aspect of their behavior being experimentally measured simply in response

to the fact that they are being studied, not in response to any particular

experimental manipulation

3) Rather than thinking of employees as machines, the human relations school suggests that human beings are complex creatures whose behavior is tied to

a larger social environment.

b. Frederick Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory (NIB) 1) According to Herzberg, man is not content with the satisfaction of lower-

order needs at work, for example, those associated with minimum salary

levels or safe and pleasant working conditions.

2) Rather, he looks for the gratification of higher-level psychological needs having to do with achievement, recognition, responsibility, advancement,

and the nature of the work itself.

3) This theory suggests that to improve job attitudes and productivity, administrators must recognize and attend to both sets of characteristics and

not assume that an increase in satisfaction leads to a commensurate decrease

in dissatisfaction. If an employee feels dissatisfied or does not feel satisfied,

then that employee is more likely to act unethically than ethically.

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4. Importance of Job Satisfaction – Work content and job satisfaction are paramount moral and economic concerns.

a. The design of work materially affects the total well-being of workers. b. Satisfied workers are not only more productive but less likely to act unethically. c. Therefore, business has economic reasons as well as a moral obligation to

improve work quality.

B. Improving Work Life (p.455) 1. For some firms, this means providing workers with less supervision and more

autonomy.

2. For others, it means providing work opportunities to develop and refine skills. 3. For still others, it means providing for greater participation in the conception, design,

and execution of their work—that is, with greater responsibility and a deeper sense of

achievement.

VI. Study Corner (p.457)