Discussions

There are 3 posts at 100 words or more. Ensure to respond to each post and use references. Must be complete by Noon PST tomorrow and NO Plagarism.

POST 1:

Forum: M6D1: What Does Culture Have to Do With It?

COLLAPSE

The success of my present employer has always been based on one very important asset, our people. Our commitment has always been "doing what's right!" Overall, the company is an excellent company to work for. Like all companies though I see ethical and unethical situations and decisions made. We strive to take care of our employees to the best of our ability. One of our strongest beliefs are treating one another with dignity and respect. This is preached each and every day, to our team members. With this being said, I have witnessed a few of the supervisors talking to team members in an unprofessional manner. This is unacceptable behavior and is not tolerated when HR is notified of an incident involving dignity and respect. Supervisor are taught to show respect to each other and all the team members. Management understandably is pushed to the test at times with team members who have attitude problems or are constantly causing issues or problems. Being in a management position though requires you to always act professional and not let the team member or atmosphere they may be in get the best of them.

Over time, I think team members and management should be reeducated on our policies and guidelines here. When you catch yourself in a heated moment with someone or things begin to escalate, you need to remember it only takes a second to say the wrong thing or do the wrong thing. That one second could be the difference between having your job, being suspended, or being terminated.

POST 2:

Between co - workers there should be some accountability, but also working together. Sometimes in a predominantly female centered job that just does not happen. I believe the perceived culture of nursing is that we all stick together, that is not the case. The most noticed unethical behavior in my current job is one of favoritism. Promoting someone just because you like them more than another and not based on skill. This has occurred just recently, and the rules were not followed. When it was brought to the manager's attention, that the young lady she promoted did not meet the requirements nor did she have the most seniority. The manager stated that "seniority does not matter". After speaking with the Director, we found that seniority does play a part.

There are goals and objectives in place, the problem is no one knows what they are. This includes management who should know. The director at our facility is new so she is not totally aware of what has really been going on. Also, there has been 3 directors in the last two years, making the culture of the units unknown. The manager pretty much does whatever she wants and she really has had no one to answer to.

My recommendation would be to make the goals and objectives known to all employees, especially management. The other main thing would be to figure out how to retain a director. It says something about the company that they cannot keep someone in that position. It is also imperative that employees are aware of the goals and objectives of the company.

POST 3:

Ethics in Emails?

Ethics is defined as the study of social or interpersonal values and the rules of conduct that follow from these values (Gilbert, 2012). With that said, an issue I have seen in my company is a breakdown in ethical behavior via digital means of communication. As I have mentioned in the past I work at a Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing facility but what I have not mentioned is that we have 24-hour operations and have employees on the clock at all times to keep the facility running. As of current we have four shifts, a dayshift and a nightshift that work on half of the week and the same on the opposite side of the week. This creates a situation where the majority of communication is via email as there is little to no face time between employees.

As previously stated, ethical interpersonal interactions seem to breakdown when communicating through email. Recently, as situation arose where a piece of equipment was not functioning properly. A troubleshooting effort was launched and the equipment was eventually fixed. The problem started when the person who last did corrective maintenance on the equipment got work of the equipment breakdown. Even though the equipment had been repaired, he did not want to be blamed for making a mistake during his maintenance and launched an effort, via private email, to discount my troubleshooting effort and tell me that my knowledge of system operation was lacking. Some may even call his behavior bullying.

My recommendation to correct this unethical behavior was my actual response to this situation. All responses I made back to him through the email chain, I made public by cc'ing my entire work team. Our organization believes in ethical operations and this encourages ethical behaviors (Gilbert, 2012). By choosing to bring this private unethical behavior public, he was forced correct his behavior and issue a public apology. Perhaps I embarrassed him but his behavior was in conflict with my moral code.

Gilbert, J. (2012). Ethics for managers: philosophical foundations and business realities. New York: Routledge.