Business ethics are as essential as virtue or duty-based ethics. Every employee, despite their job position, has to respect the organization’s policies, practices, standards, CSR, among others. In some instances, unethical issues are raised in the workplace, just as highlighted in Situation III of the Propmore Corporation Case. In the section, the ethical issues presented include the violation of company policy by Don and the sexual harassment of Jane by Bill in the previous section. The most prevalent ethical issue is the fact that Don does not comply with his duty to his fellow employees and investigate the case as required by company policies (Madsen, 1991). He goes ahead to listen to Joe, who convinces him otherwise, and he does not investigate the ‘sexual harassment’ case for fair treatment of Jane and Bill. This becomes an ethical issue because it shows the compromise of character-based ethics and one’s responsibility to the company and employees (CSR). Secondly, since Don cannot decide to investigate the case, his morality and character are compromised over the telephone.

The decision by Don to forego investigations and use Joe’s information to close the case is a weak and unacceptable solution. If the team were dealing with this case, they would employ a better decision-making process where they acquire information from both Jane and Bill and conduct extensive investigations of what exactly happened during the luncheon. Upon obtaining adequate information, the team would follow company rules and policies to make the most appropriate and right decision (Madsen, 1991). Even if the phone call from Joe were received, the team would not succumb to his pleas, instead focus on the facts.

Upon using the ethical decision-making process, the solution identified was interviewing Jane and Bill separately. If the team determines the presence of sexual assault, the company would halt the contract and charge Bill with sexual assault. If the outcome were just mare flirtation and friendly, the two companies would solve the situation amicably (Bowie, 2017). As a manager, I would adopt this process to the latter in Verizon Company when handling such ethical issues. Issues such as sexual harassment, abusive behavior, theft among employees, and violating company policies are prevalent ethical issues in the workplace. Hence, when solving these issues, I would ensure my team, and I follow the process to the latter to ensure fairness, effectiveness, and promotion of ethics (Bowie, 2017).

References

Bowie, N. E. (2017). Business Ethics: A Kantian Perspective 2nd Edition. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Madsen, P. &. (1991). The Propmore Corporation case management. Retrieved from http://ba.tepper.cmu.edu/ethics/AA/propmore.pdf