Managers in today’s work place have a lot of dilemmas to deal with when they have to evaluate employees. The main problem is to remain unbiased when looking at an employee’s record, and performance. “Ethical handling of employee evaluations has a critical nature within an organization. Most organizations take employee evaluation into account for such decisions as retention, advancement potential, assignment to special projects and eligibility for temporary duty positions that may qualify the employee for future permanent advances. In a well-handled circumstance, evaluations can even help in the identification and implementation of training geared to improve the employee's value to the organization. Hence, employees have a major stake in management conducting evaluations ethically.” When a manager sees a file they generally only see what’s in the file and not the person or what the person can contribute to the company. This can cause many ethical and moral issues within a company. Many times a company uses employee evaluations to help with firing undesirable employees. This works with companies located in states that are considered right-to-work states. This means that these states give the right to employers to let employees go without giving employees sufficient reason. Other states tend to follow a pro union stance on employment. This is where the evaluations on employees come into play. This allows employers to give reason to let certain employees go. The first problem with this is that the company does not give a good look at the employees, and tends to go on rumors about the employee. The manager does not look at the employee objectively, and only sees what others are saying about the employee, and what the employee has said about the job in the past. If the manager looks at the big picture, and sees the employee on what they have done for the company instead of what they have said about the company then the employee can become a valuable. Most problems with employees can be worked out by just talking with them. Many times though evaluations are used as a tool not only to get rid of employees, but also to make them decide whether to stay with the company or to quit the company.” If an employee consistently receives positive performance appraisals, then managerial bias can cause her supervisor to look the other way during times of poor performance. On the other hand, an employee with the reputation of receiving poor appraisal marks might never be given the chance to improve in the eyes of his supervisor. This kind of bias tends to make top performing employees complacent and can begin to have a negative effect on their productivity. In some cases, employees are not given the chance to improve may leave the company.” The next problem with employee evaluations is that many times it does done through a buddy system. Many times when a manager does an evaluation they see friends, and not employees. They tend to keep those employees that they are closest to, and do not generally keep those they feel comfortable with, and not those who are the most qualified for the job. “Professional objective analysis should always be part of every employee performance evaluation. But, on occasion, the manager may bring personal feelings into an evaluation in an attempt to besmirch the employee's performance record, and prevent the employee from advancing in the company. The moral issue of allowing personal feelings to corrupt performance appraisals can lead to conflict between manager and employee, and possibly legal action with a basis in discrimination.” These conflicts can be expressed in social and economic issues also. These issues can be expressed by how the manager feels about a person or a group from certain area. Many managers can be considered to be members of the upper middle class, or members of what is known as one per centers. These people generally make 1 million dollars a year or more. While there employees tend to be of the lower middle class. This would mean that these employees tend to make around $100,000 or less. These employees belong to what is known as the 99%. The social issue faced by managers can be derived from this. Most managers want to promote or give special treatment to those who are exactly like them. This means that these people either grew up with same challenges that the manager did, or are from the same background as the manager. This can cause conflict within a department of the company. Many times managers tend to promote those they know more about, and see every day. This can cause a problem because the manager does not give the others a chance to either move up in the department, or to stay with the company for long periods of time. The best example that can be given is a long one, and can be very personal for many reading this. An employee starts a job, and is told that in 60 to 90 day’s they will come up for review. This review is to decide if the company wants to keep the employee. The employee is also told that after this review is done, and the employee starts as a full time member of the company they will receive a .50 cent raise. At the same time the manager hires another employee, and this employee is someone either the employer is related to or they know. Now both employees have come up for review at the same time. The first employee has more qualifications, and has done a better job than the employee that the manager knows. So now the manager has a decision to make, and in some cases it can be considered an easy one, but most of the time the manager will choose the employee he or she knows on a personal level. This tends to be a mistake, and most of the time the employee that the manager knows tends to turn out to be a bust. This can cause many problems within the company. The first being that the manager hired an employee who cannot do the job properly. This means that the work of the company suffers, and the second would be that other employees or the manager’s boss does not trust the manager’s judgment from this point on. In order for managers to avoid moral and ethical problems that can occur when evaluating an employee they should first be unbiased. Then they should make sure that what they are deciding to do will benefit the company. This will show other employees that the manager is fair minded, and this will help morale in the long run. The manager should also make an informed decision about employees, and not rely on the here say of other employees. By making informed decisions on evaluating employees the manager or management team will make the company a better place.

References: http://www.ehow.com/info_8320406_moral-ethical-challenges-performance-evaluation.html Trevino, L., & Nelson, K. (2011). Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do it right (5th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.