Ethical Dilemma 5
Use of Corporate Resources
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Ethical Dilemmas in Business
There are many areas where ethical dilemmas arise. Here are five categories of common
ethical dilemmas in business:
1. Human resource issues
2. Employee safety issues
3. Conflicts of interest
4. Customer confidence
5. Use of corporate resources
We shall discuss ethical dilemmas related to use of corporate here.
Use of corporate resources
Ethical use of corporate resources requires that employees be fair and honest to their
employers. Here are three considerations that fall under this category:
• Using company letterhead. Employees should not use company letterhead for personal
reasons because such use can imply that the information contained in the personal
document is supported by the organization. Examples include a letter of recommendation
for a former employee written by an unauthorized employee, as well as personal
messages that reflect the opinion of the employee and not the company.
• Using supplies. Unauthorized use of supplies is unethical because it costs your
organization money, regardless of the quantity of supplies used. Although taking a box of
pens home from the office might not appear to be an ethical issue, it is.
Suppose that the box of pens costs the company five dollars. Now consider, that instead
of taking the box of pens, you took five dollars out of the petty cash box. Ethically, the two
actions are the same.
• Skewed financial data. Sometimes, an employee’s compensation is linked to the company’
s financial performance. One major problem with this approach is the temptation of such
employees to skew financial data. It is sometimes possible for an employee to accomplish
this in a way that is unethical, although not illegal. Besides being unethical, such behavior
can lead to serious consequences when future decisions are made based on the skewed
data.
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Here are some of the useful courses on Ethics that you may wish to consider signing up
for:
Corporate Governance and Ethics
This online course on Corporate Control and Governance employs a stakeholder
management framework, emphasizing business' social and ethical responsibilities to both
internal and external stakeholders. A twin theme of business ethics demonstrates how
ethical or moral considerations have to be included when dealing with the public issues
facing organizations and during the decision-making process. This novel and innovative
program teaches companies and professionals how to lessen fraud losses as well as how
to effectively eliminate future frauds. This ethics course offers comprehensive coverage of
fraud detection, fraud warning signs, technological fraud detection tools, investigation
techniques (especially useful to auditors, security personnel, and managers), financial
statement screening, fraud risk in e-commerce, pro-active fraud risk and much more.
Ethics and Values - for Social Workers
There are questions of values and ethics everywhere in life. Each of us has his or her
views of what is right or wrong, or what is of greater inportance, hence having higher
priority. We usually do not consider ourselves as beginners when we deal with this topic
of what we consider as right or wrong. This course is an introduction to the topic, but new
questions and dilemmas related to ethics and values will arise in every piece of work you
undertake as a social worker.
Business Ethics
The functions of an ethics program are stated, ethics defined, and general characteristics
of the ethics program listed. Identify ethical standards for fairness and honesty, precise
record keeping, and complying with antitrust regulations. Identify ethical standards for
giving and receiving gifts, gratuities, and entertainment with customers and suppliers,
government and non-government personnel, and foreign officials. Identify standards for
managing conflicts of interest, financial standards, including preservation of assets,
restrictive trade practices, intellectual properties, and employee relations. Recognize the
duty to comply with and report suspected ethical violations, what disciplinary action could
result from failure to comply with or report violations, and how to raise ethical concerns
and seek additional counsel. Recognize the relevanc of ethics principles through learning
from case studies.
Ethical Issues for Bankers
Ethical Issues for Bankers prepares students to meet the ethical standards expected of
financial services professionals. Students will learn the general guidelines that determine
banking ethics, gain the knowledge and skills needed to perform ethical decision-making,
and be prepared to observe their institution's code of conduct and Federal laws. Students
will also explore typical ethical dilemmas that tend to occur in financial institutions, and
learn how to apply a thoughtful three-step approach to such dilemmas."
Ethics - Standards of Professional Conduct : Especially suitable for Engineers.
Many organizations, particularly smaller businesses, do not have a written set of
standards to provide guidance to their employees on ethical matters related to their job
duties. While each job title, company and industry deals with unique circumstances, there
are some standards of professional conduct for engineers that are considered the norm
across a broad range of job titles, companies and even industries. In matters such as
conflicts of interest, use and protection of employer's assets, and disclosure of proprietary
information, there are universal standards of accepted conduct for engineers working for
employers based in developed countries (although the detailed policies may vary between
companies).
The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has developed a document titled
"Standards of Professional Conduct" for its members. In addition to the aforementioned
examples of ethical issues, the ASCE's standards cover issues such as maintaining
accurate and complete records, outside employment/activities, acceptance of bribes or
kickbacks and whistle blowing. The ASCE's standards serve as an excellent model for
companies seeking to provide guidance to engineers on ethical matters related to their
position and the performance of their work tasks. It also provides a universal set of
principles to guide individual engineers on ethical matters in the absence of an employer
policy.
In this course, the student will be directed to ASCE's website to review the ASCE
document titled "Standards of Professional Conduct".
The student must take a multiple-choice quiz consisting of fifteen questions at the end of
this course to earn PDH credits.
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Brought to you by Jacob Gan, PhD (Michigan)
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