Unethical Behavior in Business

The sad truth is there are people who part take in unethical behavior within the workplace. Unethical behavior includes a variety of activities. Some unethical business behavior may include lying and changing the number of hours they have worked, making a long distance phone call on the business phones, and copying business software so they can use it at home. There can be more serious unethical behavior such as altering business records. There are also behaviors which are deemed as unethical and behavior that is illegal but ultimately is up to the business to decide if the behavior is illegal or not.

When a employee discovers someone that is being unethical, it can sometimes test what their own ethical values are. Sometimes behavior that is unethical and not illegal can fall under a grey area such as, what is right or wrong and can make it difficult to know what to do when they encounter it. However, people will also have different opinions on what is ethical and what isn't. An example could be saying that it okay to say a white lie, and they make it okay because they can justify it their mind.

The employees own sense of what is right or wrong, comes into play when they witness someone else doing something that isn't part of the companies standards. The employee will need to address how they are feeling about the activity and will they inform on the activity or do they turn a blind eye.

When the employee witness the employee doing something unethical a decision is made in what to do about it and so they are presented with a number of difficult options. Should they go and talk to the person or do they go and speak to the supervisor.

There are techniques that are put in place to make it easier to help with the decision and manage unethical behaviors. The company needs to create a policy for the company, that is signed by each employee so, they are aware on what to do. This will minimize the awakened feeling of what to do when seeing someone act unethically.

The second part is to show a outline of what will be expected of the person when they discover someone doing something unethical. It should also have the person that needs to be contacted and what the process is involved in doing so. Having a clear set instructions, will have a more proactive way on reporting on someone who is doing something unethical. So, by having this it can deal with this issue easily and quickly before it becomes a big issue.

The consequences should be clearly stated of what the unethical behavior is. That way, the person who witness the activity is aware of what to do which lessens the risk of someone not reporting something that is unethical.

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Source: Articlealley, Marek Salzman