Wednesday, January 09, 2013

Moral and Ethical Issues in Management

Moral and Ethical Issues in Management
Companies operate and sustain through their fair practicing policies, bringing in discipline, honesty, integrity, loyalty and open communication, are a few examples. Managers, on the other hand, are hired to ensure that everything goes as planned. Managers, to practice corporate policies, face moral and ethical issues on daily bases. Businesses face serious consequences when managers fail to incorporate these practices.  There are a number of organizations which have been audited and turned in cases such as corporate embezzlement, price fixing, quality cuttings, annual reports falsification, infringements and piracy which namely are RadioShack, Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Marsh & McLnnan, WorldCom and the list goes on, only because managers were not competent enough to incorporate ethical practices.(Stephen P. Robbins, Management, 9e)

Moral and Ethical Issues Faced By Managers
What is a moral obligation of a manager? What ethical issues are needed to be resolved? These questions are in everyday practice of a manager which they learn to understand first and incorporate afterwards. Managers are the role models. Whether it is related to the workplace environment, employee rewards or society itself, their role is vital to perform and strongly bound up with moral and ethical responsibilities on daily bases. A few issues are as under:
Discipline
Most crucial of all is discipline and it is not only about the time to enter and leave the premises but also about conducting the routine business activities religiously.
Integrity
A manager can only be a good example and evoke subordinates for same if he discourages mischievous and fraudulent activities. Decisions on merit, no personal use of office property and secrecy on corporate issues are a few practical examples.
Open Communication
In management, one of the key successful elements is open communication. Manager who encourages it gets the top performance from their teams.

Relationship between Social Issues and Ethically Responsible Management Practices

At large, there are two management views, classic and socioeconomic. Classic view is purely economic and focuses to maximize profits only, whereas, socioeconomic view differs by putting social responsibility as an integral part of management responsibilities, Responsibilities, which are indeed the focus of a new age business.
Business earns profit by performing efficiently only when employees perform in high spirits, which cannot be done without a moral boost not just by a better salary but also with a healthy work environment and culture. An ethically enriched culture, which dictates principles of honesty, integrity, discipline, open communication and team work, can only provide the motivation and a sense of social responsibility and consequently reduces the chances of misconducts.


Work Place Example
Big or small, every business organization faces the ethical issues on daily bases. Organizations were saved if they handled such issues in appropriate manner or otherwise. But still there are a number of companies, namely tobacco and armament industry, existence of which is still debatable. Then there is another publically known issue of piracy.
It is not just about the multinational organizations but even if we move down on to a managerial level of any other industry, such as chemical, bottling, shipping, printing, rubber or food, they all face the same ethical dilemma in terms of pollution, toxic waste and global warming. Hence they face the legalities in shape of penalties and in some cases complete operations’ seizure.

Conclusion

Moral and ethics standards are hardly global. A cigarette bud, a plastic bag and bottle, a smoking hot bullet case and piracy are more likely to find in third world countries than the developed countries. Interestingly, the operating companies are the franchises of international brands who actively participate in social causes. Is it only about a new market venture or just the lesser value of life in third world countries which attracts the socially challenged businesses? It is a burning question which still stands tall.




REFERENCES
Stephen P. Robins and Mary Coulter. (2012). Management. Eleventh Edition. Pearson Education, Inc.
Stephen P. Robins and Timothy A. Judge. (2012). Essentials of Organizational Behaviors. Eleventh Edition. Pearson Education, Inc.
Businessballs.com. (2012, 11, Friday). Ethical Leadership, Decision Making and Organizations. (2012, 11, Friday).

Top 5 Password Hacking Places for Workplace Passwords

It has been proven right that workplaces and public computers are more likely to be a reason of password hacking than personal computers. How you may get hacked is what we will talk about here and how can you prevent your account from getting hacked. Configure firewalls, make sure the physical security is right up and running, do not crash onto pop ups but still you get hacked. That might have the result of, very basic but, followings:

Index Finger Typing
Yes it is true that many of us when they type they use only their index fingers and the thumb. This in reality does not just reduce your typing speed but also make you very predictable every time you type any word. Especially when you type your password make sure that you type in right fashion by using more than just index fingers. There are different typing practices and speed building exercises over the web you can also take some help through those exercises to improve your typing.

Alphanumeric
Always use long and complex password which contain more than eleven letters or characters. Alphanumeric is the best type to make a strong password. Never use your birthday or phone numbers and make it as vague as possible.

Hide Your Keyboard
Another easiest way to hack password at your workplace is simply just hover a head a little and see your keyboard while you are typing. Yes it works and it works perfectly. To avoid this always make sure that you hide your hand and the keyboard properly before typing the password. You can easily do that by moving a little over to the top of your keyboard or laptop but this easy practice can save you billion.

Change Passwords Often
When using a workplace computer make sure that you do not try to open personal web accounts and if you do change the passwords and the secret questions often. When, you change your password or the secret question, do not use your birthday or phone number because that is the cliché for getting hacked. Instead change it with something unpredictable and change it often. Easiest way to it is change it weekly. Make different passwords for your personal accounts than your workplace accounts because it becomes very easy to place your password right at your workplace and to hack if you type and keep the same password repeatedly.

Firefox Settings Precaution
Many of us still do not know the password security for windows explorers and especially how it works for the famous Firefox. As you may know that Firefox has the feature of saving the passwords for every time you try to login and it makes a list of passwords in plain words which can be seen easily. To avoid it you can simply click Options then click Security and uncheck the box where it says remembers passwords for sites.


Picture Courtesy: www.bbb.org