Case Study – Contemporary Issues in the Workplace
Description of the Scenario
In a workplace, one is expected to be productive and give their all when carrying out their duties. When a person signs a work contract to work a certain number of hours a week, it is assumed that such a person will be productive during those hours. A person is then paid for the hours and effort that one puts at work. A study by Duke & Montag (2017) showed the use of Smartphones in the workplace negatively affected employee productivity.
Several years back, while working in a certain company (name withheld) in the fast-food industry, an ethical issue arose that brought much debate. One of my colleagues was addicted to online gambling and would spend close to 3-4 hours gambling while at work. He would walk around with his earphones in his ears while streaming live bets on his phone. The other staff working on the floor would request that he would put his phone away while working so that he could better attend to the clients. He would respond by saying that unlike every one of us, he was able to multi-task. On several occasions, we had to correct avoidable mistakes he made, such as forgetting to give clients the correct order, packaging the wrong amount of ordered goods, and forgetting to record some of the customers’ details when dispatching goods, among others. This colleague was struggling financially; his mother was on cancer treatment, and his wife had left him with their two children, who were 3 and 5 years old. He had committed to gambling to make some extra money to meet his ever-mounting bills. However, in the last incident, he wrongfully dispatched a food order to a client that ended up causing a serious allergic reaction; the customer was admitted to a local healthcare facility for emergency care.
The Five I Format of Decision Making (Johnson, 2018)
Identify the problem: My workmate was having divided attention in the workplace. He made mistakes, though infrequently, but which were all because of his divided attention to his addiction. In the last case, he almost cost a customer’s life by packaging a wrong food order that the customer was adversely allergic to.
Investigate the Problem: Addiction to gambling is an issue that any addict will almost always deny (Pickard, 2016). My colleague argued that he was seeking to meet his insurmountable bills. He did not want his kids or mother to suffer, and that justified his addiction. He never admitted to it as an addiction but instead said that it was a ‘side hustle that brought him a good amount of dollars. The ethics of accountability holds that a person should take responsibility for actions one does (Tesone, 2012). My colleague refused to take responsibility for his addiction.
Innovate by Generating a Variety of Solutions: The first solution would’ve been to report my colleague to the supervisor about his addictive behaviour. Doing so will result in disciplinary action taken against my colleague. The second option would be to have my colleagues form an intervention for him and have him sign up with an addiction counsellor, failure to which we would report him to the supervisor. The third option would be for us, his colleagues, to make contributions that would ease the big financial burden that he had to bear.
Isolate the Solution: The ideal solution would be to report my colleague to the supervisor. This was likely to bring two outcomes. The first was that my colleague would receive a disciplinary warning letter, and hopefully, this would shock him into the reality of losing his job and, therefore, make him keener when performing his duties. The second would be that HR would expect him to go for mandatory addiction counselling. My colleague needed his job, and in the event he made a drastic mistake, it would end his career. Hence, resolving his addiction issues at this time was the best possible solution. If he got sober to the reality of losing his job and possible lawsuits from the company or clients for negligence, he would have a clear mind to look for other money solutions rather than settling for gambling.
Implement the Solution: After consulting with the other colleagues, we wrote an official communication to the head of the department. In the communication, we highlighted the customer’s allergic reaction as the most serious mistake that he had made and that was linked directly to his divided attention. The official communication also pointed out that we were aware of his reasons for gambling and thus were requesting, as his colleagues, leniency from the disciplinary committee as our intention was not to get him fired. Additionally, we added that he was a hardworking man who, with the right guidance and help, would get back on the right path. The head of the department took our concerns into consideration. My colleague wrote a disciplinary warning and mandatory addiction counselling. He was also advised to seek free assistance from the organization’s financial team. In addition, willing staff members contributed a tidy amount of money to help offset his bills.
Reflection
Organizational policies are written to ensure that all employees are treated fairly and that any deviation from them is quickly and justly corrected. The decision to write to the head of the department was founded on the five-Is format, and this was deemed as the best possible direction to take. My colleague got the help he needed because stern action was taken. I came to learn that when making an ethical decision, other factors beyond what the facts present should be considered. In this scenario, the facts showed that my colleague was deserving of a job termination, yet the circumstances that drove him to make poor judgments showed that another option, seeking counselling and financial advisory, would be more effective for his career and family life.
References
Duke, É., & Montag, C. (2017). Smartphone addiction, daily interruptions and self-reported productivity. Addictive behaviors reports, 6, 90-95.
Johnson, C. E. (2018). Organizational ethics: A practical approach. Sage Publications.
Pickard, H. (2016). Denial in addiction. Mind & Language, 31(3), 277-299.
Tesone, D. V. (2012). Principles of management for the hospitality industry. Routledge.
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Question 
In this exercise, you will identify and analyze two contemporary ethical issues in the workplace. Each issue should be drawn from your personal experience or from news reports. (Be sure to protect the privacy of others if you choose a personal case.) Provide a description: Describe the situation in enough detail for the reader to understand the background and the issues. Write this description in paragraph form.
Case Study – Contemporary Issues in the Workplace
- Apply a decision-making format: Resolve the issue using Kidder’s Ethical Checkpoints or the Five “I” format from Chapter 3. You may use lists for some steps, such as when specifying possible solutions.
- Reflect: Evaluate your decision and the format you followed. Identify what you learned from your analysis.
(Objective 3.3, 3.4, 3.5)
Description
In each contemporary case, you will identify and analyze a contemporary ethical issue in the workplace drawn from your personal experience or news reports. (Be sure to protect the privacy of others if you choose a personal case).
- Target Length: 3 to 4 pages (750 to 1000 words)