The Importance of Ethics in Business
Ethics mainly refers to the moral conduction of an activity or the behaviour of an individual. This essentially suggests that ethics lays reference to moral principles that every individual must adhere to in order to live their lives morally and honestly (Vazquez 2018). It is also imperative to note that ethical conduction is one of the most important parts of an individual’s life. This evidently lays emphasis on the fact that people should practise ethical conduction in their daily lives. In regards to the business world, it is the responsibility of every company to ensure that it conducts its business in an ethical manner (Brenkert 2016). This means that companies should not only follow ethics in the way they deal with their customers in their designated industries but should also maintain it within their workspace. This suggests that it is the responsibility of a company to ensure that it treats its workforce in an ethical and honest manner. The following people presents an article which describes an ethical issue that took place in H&M.
The issue that the company is currently facing is that of invading the privacy of its employees. This means that the company as an employer has failed to maintain confidentiality and has essentially taken the trust of its employees for granted. This mainly brings to light the fact that the company has unethically dealt with its employees and has hence broken the promise of ethical conduct. This misconduct has been discussed at length in the article. It is also imperative to note that the company’s struggle with ethical conduction of business has not only affected its workforce negatively but has also risked the trust that the employees had upon their employers within the company. This has also destroyed the entire work environment within the company which is bound to poorly affect the work of every employee.
The case study mainly focuses on the unethical misconduct that the company has chosen to practise when it comes to dealing with their employees. The article clearly presents how the company refrains from choosing the moral high ground when dealing with their workforce. It is also pivotal to note that the case study belongs to ethical deontology. This means that the article presents not only a case of unfairness and injustice but also a case of dishonesty. The following paper will not only discuss the case study but will also shed light upon the ethical decision making approach and theory that can be applied to the issue presented in the case study.
H&M is a multinational clothing company with its headquarters in Stockholm. The company evidently focuses on fast fashion clothing that can be both for men and women. It is also important to note that the company was founded in the year 1947 and has been in business for the past 75 years. In current times the company has around 126,376 employees. This evidently lays emphasis on the fact that the company has a wide range of employees who are responsible for the overall success of the company.
H&M: An Overview
It is also pivotal to note that since the company has since developed into a global brand, it conducts its business all around the world. This brings to light the fact that H&M as a company conducted business in Sweden as well as other international markets. This also elaborates the fact that the company thus, has a vast group of employees who work for them (Trevino and Nelson 2021). In order to successfully run the company, H&M has the responsibility of not only looking after the overall aesthetic of its brand but also ensuring that it can retain its employees. This means that H&M as an employer must ensure that they value their employees so as to become an ethical company that believes in practising morality and honesty.
H&M as an employer have taken the trust factor of their employees for granted. The case study elaborates how the company has breached confidentiality by recording conversations that they have with their employees. This mainly suggests that H&M in its Germany branch had made a practise out of calling employees for meetings by labelling them as “Welcome Back Talks”. The case study elaborates how the team leaders within H&M Germany conducted these meetings to speak to their employees after long absences which may include vacations, leaves, sick days etc. The unethical aspect of this practise included the team leaders recording details of the conversations that they had with their employees in these meetings (Heinzelmann 2018). This is unethical because these meetings not only consist details about the holiday experiences that the employees had but also contained confidential information such as the employees having any symptoms of illness, medical diagnosis etc. The unethical factor does not only include the fact that the team leaders chose to record this conversation but also include the fact that the team leaders decided to have these conversations as a mandatory practise within the company. This mainly suggests that the team leaders’ interest in any recent medical diagnosis of the employee in light of their vacation illuminates the fact that the company failed to maintain any boundaries. This also lays emphasis on the fact that the team leaders at H&M Germany were not only reckless and obtrusive but also unethically used the power of their position. These meetings were not only pointless but were also an obvious invasion of privacy by the team leaders of the company. The article expresses this case of unethical practise within the company and hence elaborates how H&M had been dishonest with their employees and had done wrong by them (Jaeger and Jaeger 2022).
The unethical actions committed by H&M Germany is in no way excusable as it is a direct breach of an individual’s privacy as well as their right to confidentiality. Every organization, no matter its size or market dominance is liable to abide by their ethical code of conduct and are responsible for introducing an organizational culture and behaviour that promotes smooth development and growth of the organization in terms of increased productivity and performance which can only happen when the employees are satisfied and motivated to work for the company (Ferrell and Fraedrich 2021). In the case study, the team leaders of H&M conduct “welcome back talks” with their employees after their leave of absence which may be for a number of reasons such as sick leave or vacations; the unethical act that is taking place in these meetings is to do with the nature of confidential data shared within, that is recorded and stored without the proper informed consent of the employees (Iphofen 2016). I believe that the act is a complete injustice on the part of the employees who shared personal and perhaps intimate data on some occasions in terms of health or wellness issues or vacation details and experiences. The content therefore clearly crosses a line which can only promote negative things such as distrust, conflict, legal and ethical issues and so on. Thus, I believe that the fine or penalty that was charged on them was justified as this can teach the organizational leaders and management a lesson (Benlahcene et al 2018).
H&M’s Unethical Conduct towards Its Employees
The ethical decision making approach that has been relied upon for the analysis of this case study and for reaching a proper and justified solution mainly includes the justice or fairness approach. The justice approach is underpinned with the teachings of Aristotle a renowned Greek philosopher. The basis of the approach can be understood with the saying, “equals must be treated equally and the unequals unequally”. The justice approach can be leveraged for this case study as it involves breach of ethics in the form of not respecting confidential and privacy boundaries of employees and justice from the part of the H&M leaders towards the employees.
The ethical theory that has been used to analyse the case study of H&M Germany is the deontological class of ethical theories (Chen et al 2020). The primary belief held by this theory is to do with individuals and how they should adhere to their personal duties and obligations when it comes to decision making with clear ethical boundaries. The theory essentially holds the belief that an individual will most definitely follow their obligations to a different society or another individual, as successfully upholding self duties is widely considered to be ethically right. In this context, the deontological theory can be applied to reach a conclusion for this case as the leaders of H&M are clearly violating their duties as well as obligations when it comes to maintaining the privacy as well as confidential rights of an employee. The employees initially were not even aware that these personal data and medical experiences have been recorded as well as stored for future reference which is downright irresponsible and obtrusive as well as extremely reckless (Singh and Mishra 2018). The act is unethical and can have several effects within the organization as employees after knowing will never be satisfied to work for such leaders and frequent conflicts will take place which will only harm the growth of the organization as well as the overall employees. The failure of the H&M leaders in upholding their obligations and adhering to their duties can have serious legal implications later on if the act is repeated again.
Conclusion
Thus, in conclusion it can be said that the above paper describes how H&M Germany has been unethically conducting its business when it comes to dealing with their employees. In addition to this, the above paper also presents the relevant ethical issue within the article. Moreover, the paper also takes help from ethical theories and ethical decision making approaches that can be applied to solve the issue presented in the case study. Finally, the paper also elaborates how important such ethical issues are as they help in understanding the bigger picture. This mainly illuminates the fact that without ethical conduction of businesses, companies all around the world will not only practise unethically but will also turn themselves away from the moral path of honesty. This would not only be unfair for the employees that work within the company but will also be unfair to the customer base of the company. The above paper through, the case study, presents a detailed assessment of why ethical conduction is extremely important in the world and must be followed at all times.
References
Benlahcene, A., Zainuddin, R.B., Syakiran, N. and Ismail, A.B., 2018. A narrative review of ethics theories: Teleological & deontological Ethics. Journal of Humanities and Social Science (IOSR-JHSS), 23(1), pp.31-32.
Brenkert, G.G., 2016. Business ethics and human rights: An overview. Business and Human Rights Journal, 1(2), pp.277-306.
Chen, A., Treviño, L.K. and Humphrey, S.E., 2020. Ethical champions, emotions, framing, and team ethical decision making. Journal of Applied Psychology, 105(3), p.245.
Ferrell, O.C. and Fraedrich, J., 2021. Business ethics: Ethical decision making and cases. Cengage learning.
Heinzelmann, N., 2018. Deontology defended. Synthese, 195(12), pp.5197-5216.
Iphofen, R., 2016. Ethical decision making in social research: A practical guide. Springer.
Jaeger, J. and Jaeger, J., 2022. Top ethics and compliance failures of 2020. [online] Compliance Week. Available at: https://www.complianceweek.com/opinion/top-ethics-and-compliance-failures-of-2020/29797.article
Singh, A.K. and Mishra, N.K., 2018. Ethical Theory & Business. International Journal of Humanities and Social Development Research, 2(1), pp.97-113.
Trevino, L.K. and Nelson, K.A., 2021. Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do it right. John Wiley & Sons.
Vazquez, P., 2018. Family business ethics: At the crossroads of business ethics and family business. Journal of Business Ethics, 150(3), pp.691-709.
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