OB Chapter 3 Ethical Dilemma: Bounty Hunters
February 5, 2015Uncategorized
3-12. If you had reason to believe someone was lying about an absence from work, do you think it would be appropriate to investigate? If so, by what methods? Employees’ privacy is an issue that seems to never have a solution. I agree that there are times when employees abuse their use of sick leave and have a rise in absenteeism, but I do not agree that hiring a private investigator is the answer to the problem. As Robbins states on page 76 of the text, “…job satisfaction is positively correlated with life satisfaction”, which means that the root of the problem more than likely has to do with the employee’s satisfaction on the job. It is the manager’s responsibility to “manage” his employees and I believe that means it is his job to be in tune with their attitude and satisfaction. Since satifaction has a negative relationship with absenteeism, the first step is to evaluate the troublesome employee and review his/her productivity (Robbins, pg. 80). If the manager decides to hire an investigator as a first step instead, that will simply cause a higher level of distrust and result in an even lower level of job satisfaction. The employee evaluation would determine the next line of action for me if I were the manager. If the employee seemed to have a negative attitude at work and was sliding under the radar by having a low level of productivity then I would let them go. With an abnormal number of absences, plus a lack of contribution to the company I would choose to fire them over any other sort of investigation because I would want to keep a good name for my company. I would much rather put in a little extra work by paying better attention to my employees than having the company get a bad reputation for possibly intruding on privacy.
3-13. If excessive absenteeism is a real problem in an