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Introduction
Some employee behaviors may be considered ethically dubious. However, they may have no adverse impact on the company, and could even be viewed as entitlements. This paper considers several examples of such behaviors, as provided in the case study of Brenda Franklin (Shaw, 2014, pp. 388-389).
From the Kantian (deontic) perspective, most items condemned in Brenda’s list are morally wrong (Bowie, 2013), because the employees take what formally belongs to the company. However, staying at the most expensive hotel or using the company’s car for personal purposes may not be deontically wrong, if the employees were not asked not to do so. From the utilitarian perspective, the items on Brenda’s list are not morally wrong unless they cause harm (that is at least noticeable) to the company (Bowie, 2013).
Discussion
Some of the items listed as ethically dubious might indeed be considered as employee entitlements. For instance, using company’s computers to send personal emails costs nothing to the company, and employees cannot stay completely focused on the work 100% of the time because human brains do not work in such a way; some breaks are necessary. Companies need to take that into account and provide some ways for employees to briefly relax; sending personal emails may be one of such ways.
Arguments against some of the items on Brenda’s list include, e.g., that the employees usually do not gain an explicit permission to do these things, therefore, they take what belongs to the company without asking. Also, some of these items (staying in an expensive hotel) cost much to the company. Arguments for some of these items (e.g., sending emails, using a photocopier) are that they cost next to nothing to the company; in addition, it is very likely that employees do some work for the company for free (e.g., they help other employees when they do not have to, etc.), so it is only fair to let them utilize a photocopier for personal purposes.
The rightness/wrongness of some items is a matter of degree. Staying at a good hotel on a business trip for a multi-million business is part of decent working conditions; staying at the most expensive and luxurious hotel at the company’s expense is using the company’s resources for personal gain.
An action such as taking a pad of paper can both be trivial and wrong, e.g., if one promised that they would not take any pads of paper, or were strictly forbidden to do so. However, forbidding employees to take a piece of paper and punishing them for doing so would also be ethically questionable.
Employees have certain obligations to their employers. These include doing the job they are supposed to do according to the terms of employment; doing it well; not harming the company; fulfilling the terms of their contract; etc. However, employers also have obligations to their employees – such as providing adequate working conditions, paying for all the work that the employees do, etc. Importantly, to a considerable degree, employees are that which earns the company its profits.
It is difficult to consider companies entities that have “moral rights” that can be violated by employees. Rather, an employee violates the rights of some persons involved in that company, if that employee engages in some misconduct.
The moral difference between taking something that belongs to an individual and something that belongs to a company may be in degree; something taken from a person may not even be noticeable when take from a company. Another difference is that when something is taken from an individual, it is taken from them personally; when something is taken from a company, it is taken from a collective. It is also noteworthy that is some cases, something taken from a company may be result of one’s own work.
Conclusion
Thus, some items on Brenda’s list (e.g., staying at the most expensive hotel) should be a cause of concern. However, other items (such as sending personal emails from work) should cause concern, because they cost the company virtually nothing, and can even be viewed as employee entitlements.
References
Bowie, N. (2013). Business ethics in the 21st century. New York, NY: Springer.
Shaw, W. H. (2014). Business ethics: A textbook with cases (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
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