Business Research Ethics
Luis Wiley
RES/351
May 18, 2015
Roxanna Allison
Business Research Ethics
When people think of ethics or morals, they tend to think of rules that might distinguish between right and wrong, like such rules called the “Golden Rule” (do unto others as you would have then do unto you). From a business perspective, there is no difference. The common way of defining ethics or norms for conduct is distinguishing between acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Most of us learn these ethics at home, school or other social settings that we find ourselves in.
A issue that my company has encountered in the past is the drug testing of employees, in the eyes of the business, this is mandatory and is a way of protecting the employer, employee and society in general from possible accidents that might occur if an drug impaired employee were to be under the influence and caused a series of events to take place. Others feel that this type of testing is highly controversial and deem it unnecessary. Some employees feel that the testing has no relation to their specific job performance, and because of the outcome can result in job loss and termination. Even though there are people that feel this might not be right or unethical, I have seen firsthand that this is not an unnecessary expense to the company or the employee.
This type of behavior effects everyone. The company has an obligation to keep their workplace safe and free from substances that could impact the employee’s performance. And on the other hand it already seems unethical that the employee would take that risk, using substances and then carrying out their job duties. One argument that I have had with others who are opposed to workplace drug screening, is for example, there is a truck driver that has normally had a few drinks before going to work. Because of his choice and unethical judgement, he or she is now putting innocent people at risk because he chose to drive after a few...