Summary Paper

Summary Paper

Lawanda M. Bishop

BUS 670 Legal Environment

Professor Michael Burton

August 11, 2012

Summary Paper

There have been many ethical and legal issues with companies in the past. Enron, Arthur

Anderson, Countrywide and healthcare networks are just some of the companies that have faced

legal issues within the past. Legal and ethical issues occur in the workplace on a daily basis.

There have been sexual harassment, company scandals, political resignations, and company

settlements. Many of these lawsuits have resulted in career loss, devastated families, large cash

settlements and even suicide deaths. When working with other people, you might encounter

conflicts with other employee’s or maybe even workplace harassment. Workplace harassment

can be defined as, “any type of unwelcome action toward an employee that leads to difficulty in

performing assigned tasks or causes the employee to feel he or she is working in a hostile

environment. The harassment may be based on such factors as age, race, gender, culture, or

religion. Laws has also changed because of legal and ethical issues in current and former

workplaces. What was acceptable twenty years ago is not acceptable in the workplace today.

The workforce has also changed. There has been an increase in the number of minorities and

women working. The salaries of women have also changed. More women are in higher

positions than men.

Companies should think about their organizations culture really careful because

companies culture will have either a negative or positive impact on decisions of employees and

employers when legal dilemmas are being faced. Companies should also build a healthy

corporate culture relationship. The mishandling of any ethical issue in the workplace can

damage a business and its accountability of the individual’s working at the company. One of the...