Keeping Your Colleagues Honest

Keeping Your Colleagues Honest

Currently, business people are facing several challenges in their daily life, and these challenges may result in negative consequences; for instance, if employees disclose companies’ internal information to others, no one can predict what things will happen. On the other hand, people should discuss the ultimate reason why employees are doing these unethical or unacceptable things. Here is a case that is talking about honesty in companies. Being honest is an important subject in the real business world. Also, if employees can be honest to deal with everything, companies may not face so many problems.

A Brief Case Analysis

This case is talking about Jonathan who has a new job as a controller for a regional sales team of a consumer electronics company. He is trying to establish good relationships with his new colleagues, but he has found something wrong. His colleagues try to keep silent when certain reports need to be reported. Although he does not understand why his colleagues want to do so, he assumes that similar situations may have happened before. Therefore, how to challenge unethical behavior at work is an important subject for managers.

Gentile (2010) states that there are four reasons that people keep silent when they encounter unethical circumstances. The majority of people think that (1) it is standard practice, (2) it is not a big deal, (3) it is not their responsibility, and (4) they want to be loyal. These reasons give managers a good picture that helps them understand what their colleagues think; however, they should come up with appropriate solutions to deal with this circumstance.

I found there are several managerial issues in this case. First, Jonathan’s colleagues try to keep silent on certain reports. They may hide some negative problems which they do not want their company to know; therefore, these colleagues’ behavior is unethical. Second, Jonathan knows the same situation may...