Ethics in Hiring

In this week’s discussion board, situations that present ethical questions in a business are presented.  The class will be separated into three groups.  For the situation that you have been assigned to, discuss the situation

a. from the strictly legal viewpoint,

b. from a moral and ethical viewpoint, and

c. from the point of view of what is best in the long run for the company.

Be sure to consider both short‑ and long‑range consequences. Also look at each situation from the perspective of all groups concerned: customers, stockholders, employees, government, and community.  Provide your initial post and respond to two peers within that same group.  You are free to read the other group postings, but not required to respond.

Situation:  You have the opportunity to offer a job to a friend who really needs it. Although you believe that the friend could perform adequately, there are more qualified applicants. What would you do?

This is a difficult situation to be in and one that would require a business owner to really weigh all three areas of concern. 

Legally: In many cases one may be legally able to hire a friend for a position. This varies depending on the type of business that you are running, and if there are any contracts in place, etc. If a company is receiving government funding for any reason, there may be different hiring requirements associated with that. Additionally, hiring of friends and relatives could be an issue with an entity like the EEOC if it can be shown that friends and relatives were hired to the point that minorities were excluded. If a more qualified candidate were looked over a case could be made that discrimination was used against a protected class which would be illegal. That being said, in most cases for a small business - it would not be illegal to hire a friend in this situation. But as we discuss in chapter 4, ethical behavior comes down to more than simply making a legal decision. So while legal, this may...