Benefit Offerings and Unethical Leadership

ACSI 2015 Health Benefit Plan

Pauline Cotterall

Wilmington University

Abstract

This paper focuses on the unethical decision of the company’s leadership to offer only one medical insurance plan. This decision had negative effects on the majority of the employees and damaged the organizational culture. A strong organizational culture and ethical climate are vital to the success of a company. Employee morale is down. Turnover is high. Productivity decreased. Leadership showed concern for only the bottom line and demonstrated little concern for the employees and their welfare. Little thought was put into the consequences of their decision. The employee/employer relationship suffered. Possible solutions are reviewed to hopefully undo the implications and repair the organizational culture and ethical climate. Foremost of these solutions is the recommendation to offer more than one plan. The other solutions are better communication, education, and change in leadership style.

ACSI 2015 Health Benefit Plan

Introduction

In October 2014, our company announced the 2015 benefits that were going to be offered. Amongst the benefits were: short and long term disability insurance, dental insurance, vision care, flexible spending account for childcare and life insurance, and the medical plan. However, due to major changes anticipated to the 2015 medical portion of the plan, an employee information session had to be held to explain the differences.

There were many negative impacts from the decision the company’s leadership was putting forth. The negative effects of the decisions would impact the organization’s cultural and ethical climate. For example, there was damage to the employees’ moral, loyalty, satisfaction, and engagement. Since human and social capital are so important to the success of an organization, I believe it is necessary for ethical leaders to make decisions on behalf of its employees for the betterment of organization’s culture....