Course: Business Ethics and Corporate Governance Required: 1500 words A secretar
ID: 400034 • Letter: C
Question
Course: 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 opinion
Explanation / Answer
A loyal employee is very tough to get these days. Especially, in this fast moving world where most of the people want to switch jobs and increase their income. They are right from an employee or individual perspective. But, an employer or an organisation would love to have 99% of their employees to be with them for the longest time. This would give them the added benefit of having a good team that has developed into a great team. Thus, in the case above, I would definitely not loose any employee who has been loyal to the organisation and has worked hard to keep the organisation going. Moreover, at a time when she needs the support of the organsiation the most, she cannot be betrayed by the organsiation. There will be two major impacts that would happen:
a. We would loose faith of the affected employee and also of the other employees who would want the organisation also to be as loyal to them as they are to the organisation.
b. It would deeply affect the values and reputation of the organisation.
Now, coming back to the above mentioned case, the secretary has unfortunately lost her right hand and is left out with only the left hand. Here, the organsiation should first of all bear a part of full of the expenses for her treatment. Secondly, she should be positioned for a task which would be easier and doable for her where she would be a part of the organisation and also make her living. This would bring a lot of respect to the organisation and cover up the above mentioned side effects.
Thus, the bottom line here is that an organisation should always find ways of utilising the right talent in the individuals that they hire and not make blind decisions based on their qualification and experience. By doing this, they can encourage individuals to bring out their hidden talents and also contribute their best towards the organisation.