Business Ethics & Social Responsibility
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Chaper8BusinessEthicsPromotingHiringandFiring.pptxChapter 8 Manager’s Ethics: Getting, Promoting, and Firing Workers
Three Strategies for Announcing a Job Opening
There are different strategies of job announcement with each having a fair share of advantages and disadvantages.
Examples of these strategies include nepotism, internal announcement and mass public announcement.
It is from the advantages and disadvantages presented by each where the ethical issues stems from.
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Nepotism
Internal Public Announcement
Mass Public Announcement
NEPOTISM
Nepotism encompasses hiring, announcing an open position only to members of the extended family (Brusseau, 2011).
This happens mostly in small businesses.
Nepotism hiring involves circulation of the recruitment information to family members and relatives (Brusseau, 2011).
It is a norm in most small organizations.
Its disadvantages include lack of success because of the insufficiency in diverse thinking (Brusseau, 2011).
However, nepotism hiring has an advantage because it can help in job positions that require more trust such as top management (Brusseau, 2011).
Additionally, nepotism can help in bolstering productivity because family members and relatives work hard to promote their own (Brusseau, 2011).
Nevertheless, nepotism is unethical practice because deserving employees do not get a chance to work for the organization (Brusseau, 2011).
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Internal Public Job Announcements
This is an announcement strategy that only targets a selected group of individuals in the population (Brusseau, 2011).
The strategy encompasses announcing job opening to those people who are closely linked to an organization.
Its main aim is to get loyal members who are qualified for the post that is being advertised.
This strategy allows the recruiting company to get application from anyone who might get the information.
The advantage of the internal public announcement is that a company gets many applications and therefore it is possible to get the right talent (Brusseau, 2011).
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MASS PUBLIC JOB ANNOUNCEMENT
This encompasses a job announcement strategy whereby an open position in a firm is advertised widely and indiscriminately (Brusseau, 2011).
It is an essential strategy of maximizing the knowledge available in the population (Brusseau, 2011).
The strategy has an advantage of allowing the advertiser to get as many applications as possible (Brusseau, 2011).
Additionally, the strategy can allow a company to get the right talent (Brusseau, 2011).
Moreover, it is an essential strategy in enhancing a company reputation in the market and allows a company to sell it products to diverse population (Brusseau, 2011).
More importantly, it gives an employment opportunity to all members of the population (Brusseau, 2011).
Nevertheless, the strategy comes at a cost as it opens a chance for spies to be employed which is detrimental to the company strategies (Brusseau, 2011).
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ETHICAL PERILS OF JOB ANNOUNCEMENTS
Exaggerating position description such that it does not conform to reality (Brusseau, 2011).
Announcing to the population that have zero chances of qualification (Brusseau, 2011).
Ethics of Job Announcement
Giving inappropriate information in job announcements is unethical because it paints a picture of what is not there.
It is also insincere to advertise to the wrong population who do not qualify (Brusseau, 2011).
However, it becomes difficult for managers to put the right description of the person they need in job adverts because they can be accused of discriminatory practices as the rule is to offer greatest good to the greatest number (Brusseau, 2011).
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Job Screening Methods
Screening/filtering encompasses reduction of a large pool of applicants to form a short list for more serious consideration.
Methods of screening: job announcement screening, appealing to bona fide occupation qualifications, education levels screening, high-risk lifestyle screening, criminal record screening, social media screening (Brusseau, 2011).
The number of applicants selected through the screening process should be manageable.
Job announcement is part of the filtering process because the requirements provided helps to eliminate some of the applicants.
The screening should conform to the employment law of the land or otherwise attract a lawsuit.
However, by adhering to the bona fide occupation qualifications (BFOQs) that is provided under the equal employment opportunity the manager can do screening during job advertisement.
An example of high-risk lifestyle screening is eliminating smokers because they may suffer from ill health that will eliminate then from the job in most cases: however, this may spark an ethical debate.
For, the safety of a company it can be vital to screen applicants depending on criminal records. For example, a person with record of shoplifting cannot be recruited as a cashier.
The social media screening majorly depends on what one share or posts in his social media account. However, this attracts ethical concern because the post in one’s social media does not have a relationship with his or her job (Brusseau, 2011).
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Job announcement screening
Appealing to bona fide occupation qualifications
Education levels screening
High-risk lifestyle screening
Criminal record screening
Social media screening
JOB APLICANT TESTING
Skills tests
Psychological Personality tests
Medical tests
Intelligent quotient testing
Job Applicant Testing Methods
Getting the right candidate from a pool of applicants is an uphill task and therefore testing is necessary.
Various tests are used in the selection process and they should have the following characteristics: valid, constant and normalized (Brusseau, 2011).
Examples of tests used include: skills tests, psychological and personality tests, medical tests and intelligent quotient testing.
Skills test is the simplest as it determines whether a job applicant has the requisite skills.
The psychological and personality tests are used in determination of the person with the best qualities and attitudes for the work: however, linking personality with job performance may be difficult (Brusseau, 2011).
Medical tests are appropriate for the labor intensive jobs.
Intelligent quotient testing is highly banned in many situations because it limits racial minorities (Brusseau, 2011).
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Principles of ethically appropriate Interview questions
Fairness
Pertinence
Job Interviewing
Interviewing encompasses asking the applicants questions
For the questions to be ethically appropriate they should be guided by the principles of fairness and pertinence (Brusseau, 2011).
The fairness ethical principle demands that all applicants to be asked similar questions.
The pertinence principle involves asking applicants questions that are related to the job roles.
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Wage confidentiality
WAGE ETHICS
Equal pay for equal job
Wage Incentives
Workers pay amount should be kept confidential according to law (Brusseau, 2011).
Employees in the same job positions and roles should be paid equally according to the Equal Pay Act (Brusseau, 2011).
Provision of wage incentives is also an ethical issue because sometimes it does not reflect the job performances (Brusseau, 2011).
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Promoting Employees
The main considerations for employee promotions include the following: work performance, seniority and projected work performance (Brusseau, 2011).
Job performance is a major consideration when promoting employees because the one who meets his or her responsibilities deserves recognition and new challenge involving more responsibilities.
However, the ethics of work performance promotion comes in choosing the best when most employees have achieved in different perspectives such as higher sales, developing the best reports and having the right attitude among others (Brusseau, 2011).
Promotion on seniority is based on giving preference to long serving employees.
The employee who has served in the company for long is promoted.
The seniority promotion is effective in rewarding loyalty to company and controls loss of talent and employee turnover (Brusseau, 2011).
However, the best performing employees are not recognized in promotions.
Lastly, promotion based on the projected performance is depended on the anticipated future capability of an individual.
The projected performance promotion does not consider one’s achievement in the company but the future potential and as such it may hurt high performing employees (Brusseau, 2011).
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Work Performance
Seniority
Projected Work Performance
Firing philosophies
Inverted seniority
Workload
Recovery Preparations
Firing
Ethics of firing
Fired employees should leave with positive impression of a company
Firing should be done at minimum costs
Firing should not affect the operations of a company
The American laws are not strong on firing of employees and therefore the issue should be considered from ethical perspectives (Brusseau, 2011).
Circumstances forces managers to fire employees.
Examples of the common firing philosophies are: inverted seniority, workload and recovery preparations (Brusseau, 2011).
Inverted seniority involves firing the recently hired employee.
Workload firing is based on dismissing employees from the non-performing departments.
The recovery preparation firing is based on the anticipated future economic conditions that may affect the business (Brusseau, 2011).
Despite the philosophy of firing the practice is affected by various ethical issues such as: fired employees should leave with positive impression of a company, firing should be done at minimum costs and the firing should not affect the operations of a company (Brusseau, 2011).
It is upon the firing manager to balance all these.
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