Question

1.            You are head of sales for a large company with operations around the country. The top-performing saleswoman in your western region has come to you with a sexual harassment complaint. She says her immediate boss, a 20-year veteran with the company who is well liked and in line for a promotion to regional vice president, has made improper comments and touched her inappropriately. He denies everything and says she is upset because her performance has been slipping over the last two years. What do you do?

                                         

2.            You travel a lot for your company and fly at least twice a month, accumulating thousands of frequent flyer miles with your airline of choice. Is it ethical to keep the miles even though you earned them traveling on business for your company?

                                         

3.   How would you create an ethical business climate?

Answer 1

Answer 1:- In case of any sexual harassment case, it is always advisable to contact the HR department related to the incidence. I would suggest that lady to approach the sexual harassment committee (if any) in the organization and also file a written complaint against the accused in the HR department and the senior management.

If there is no action taken by the organization then I would suggest her to contact the government agency especially designated for the situations of workplace sexual harassment.

Answer 2:- It is not ethical to use the air mileage earned from the official trips for the personal uses as these mileages were earned from the official rips and thus these will be treated as the organizational property. The main logic is that, when the employee is on job, all the benefits and rewards received are not the personal benefits as the expenses are paid by the organization and thus using it for personal usages is not ethical.

Answer 3:- providing proper training to the employees, upholding the ethical norms and treating all with equal and fairgrounds will help the creating of ethical climate in the organization. The ethical environment can be created when the top management is proactively looking for it The initiatives taken by the top management have an impact on the entire organization.

Proper training and ethical decision making will help the employees to uphold the ethical norms and practices in the organization.