Please Give a full answer. Plagirism is Prohibited Subject: Business Ethics and
ID: 387523 • Letter: P
Question
Please Give a full answer. Plagirism is Prohibited Subject: Business Ethics and Corporate Governance Required: 1500 words A secretary who has worked for your corporation for fifteen years is involved in a car accident in which she permanently loses the use of her right hand. Thus, she can no longer effectively type, file, or perform many of the other functions that she previously had performed and that are included in her job description. Your corporation has a very tight budget and does not have sufficient funds to pay for an additional secretary without reallocating budget items. The injured secretary has been very loyal to your corporation, and you have been very satisfied with her work and dedication. She wants to stay at her job. Moreover, she does not believe that she could find other employment at this time Question: Should your corporation fire her, lay her off with compensation, or find a way to retain her? Required: 1500 words Note in resolving this delimma apply: 1. Utilitarianism 2.The Rights Model 3. Your personal opinionExplanation / Answer
The lady has served as a secretary for last 15 years and recently lost her right hand. The dilemma is whether to fire her, lay her off with a compensation or find a way to retain her. Let’s have a look at the factors that can be taken into consideration while resolving this dilemma:
a. Financial Conditions of the Corporation -
The corporation runs on a tight budget and does not have sufficient funds to pay for an additional secretary without re-allocating budget items.
b. Utilitarianism -
It is an ethical theory that states that an action is the best action if it maximizes utility. Jeremy Bentham, the founder of utilitarianism, described utility as:
‘The sum of all pleasure that results from an action, minus the suffering of anyone involved in the action’.
As per the utilitarianism theory, it needs to be taken into consideration that even though the secretary had been employed since the last 15 years and has been very loyal & dedicated to her work, her utility has decreased to a large extent because she can no longer perform various tasks as mentioned in her Job Description.
It needs to be taken into high regards that the Organization must respect their Job Descriptions and abide by them. There might be several situations wherein the Job Description gets changed as per the requirements of the hour, but it needs to be questioned that whether changing a Job Description as per the medical condition of an employee is correct? If changed, then to what extent? What image of the company do we portray if we do so? Whether importance needs to be given to the Job or the Person?
Clearly, in the Job vs. Person dilemma the lady is lagging with respect to the Job expected by her Job Role. There are a lot of tasks like typing, filing, etc which are the regular mundane tasks of a secretary which can not be performed by the lady further. More importantly, these tasks neither can be delegated to some other official in the Corporation nor the financial conditions support hiring a new secretary while retaining the lady as well. Thus, as per Utilitarianism Theory, it won’t be the best action to retain the lady without hiring a new secretary as it does not maximize utility.
c. The Rights Model –
The rights model is ‘a fight for access to the privileges people would otherwise have had if they were not disabled’. It focuses on and strives to make positive changes within the existing society. In combination with the Rights Model, we first need to take a look on the facts stated in The Americans with Disabilities Act :
As per the Rights Model, the lady should fight for staying in the company. As per The Americans with Disabilities Act, if an employee becomes disabled, then the employer must make reasonable accommodations for him such that the reasonable accommodations do not pose undue hardships. In the dilemma we are dealing with, the reasonable accommodations for the lady would be something that aids her in the daily work of a secretary while not causing losses to the Corporation, else it can be counted for providing undue hardship. It also needs to be highlighted that the company cannot afford any extra expenditure on hiring a new secretary without laying off the existing lady or making changes in the allocated budget. At the same time, the rights of the lady also need to be taken into consideration.
Conclusion –
Taking into consideration all the points mentioned above,
a.It won’t be justified to fire the lady
b.The reasonable accommodations that might be done to help the lady (like getting an artificial arm or helping her get trained to work with one hand) are not feasible and efficient enough and may cause undue hardships to the firm financially
c.Simultaneously, the work can not be done by the lady single handed
Thus, following can be the way out to resolve the dilemma:
This would ensure justice to the lady, efficiency of the work to be carried out as well as would portray a good image of the Corporation.