Business Ethics unit 2

Running head: DRUG TEST IN THE WORKPLACE

DRUG TESTING IN THE WORKPLACE 2

Drug Testing in the Workplace

Author

Institution

The article I read on ethics of drug testing in the work place is Christie’s 2015 ‘A discussion of the ethical implications of random drug testing in the workplace’. The author’s focus is on the concept of drug free work programs, which are usually aimed at promoting safety in the work place. Many employers consider drug testing an import tool for regulating accidents in the workplace. Christie makes to arguments about drug testing, which is usually random and involuntary. The first argument that the author makes is that many employers’ claims that drug testing improves safety in the workplace is not supported by evidence. The second claim the author makes is that drug testing in the workplace DFWPs are not ethical.

The main argument of the author is that scientific claims should be backed by evidence. If such a claim is not backed by evidence, a claim is then said to be based on values and values are not necessarily truth. Evidence makes scientific claims justifiable truth, but without such evidence, claims become mere claims that cannot be substantiated. This supports the main aims by the author that there is no correlation between drug tests in the work place and the rate of workplace accidents. On the same note, the random drug tests on employees are unethical.

The evidence that the author presents include court rulings from the Supreme Court of Canada in which the court ruled that involuntary and random workplace drug tests are unethical because they involve the intrusion of privacy. The author makes valid claims because he argues that the tests only show historical information and may not show future behavior as far as drug use goes. As a result, drug tests in the work place do not help in reducing workplace accidents. This follows that although there maybe correlation between

This topic applies in my life as a leader because it helps me understand the impact of employment policies such as drug free workplace programs. Understanding, the ethical implications and the underlying assumption that drug tests improve safety in the workplace but in the real sense there is no evidence of a causal relationship between drug use and safety in the workplace. As a leader, this article also informs me to be objective in dealing with workers who have drug problems and to help them get better so that they can recover from the problem of drug abuse.

The topic applies to many organizations in the manufacturing industry because these companies are constantly preoccupied with occupational safety. The reason is that accidents in the workplace increase the liability for these organizations.

The role of an organization’s leadership in the workplace is to set the example through the leadership style. If the leaders are unethical, the organizational culture will also be unethical. On the same note, leadership styles in organizations influence decision making by setting up the right environment for decision making. An example is authoritative leadership where leaders do not consider the input of others in the decision making leading to unethical decision making.

Technically random drug tests are unethical because they involve the violation of a person’s privacy. Some drug tests such as alcohol breathalyzers have no ethical implication because they do not involve drawing of blood for tests. Blood tests can reveal genetic information hence making them unethical.

My conclusion is that leaders are supposed to be ethical in their leadership approaches. Their decision making must be informed by evidence rather than values that could lead to injustice on other people in the organization. Leaders have a responsibility to establish an ethical culture in the organization.

References

Christie, T. (2015, July). A discussion of the ethical implications of random drug testing in the workplace. In Healthcare management forum (Vol. 28, No. 4, pp. 172-174). Sage CA: Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications.