Module IV

Hello Everyone,

I thought this week's case on gender discrimination was very interesting. This is because it's not blatant sexual or gender discrimination but somewhere in between. Which I suppose is what ethics is all about. In this case a CEO works with an attractive woman in a fellowship for the company where they work long hours and take trips to conventions in ideal locales. Is this ethical for a married CEO? I think not. If I were the board I would be more concerned about his actions leading up to the fellow being denied a job since there is never a guarantee for a job for fellowships.

I think the CEO crossed the line by working so closely with the fellow to begin with. In normal circumstances the fellow would have mostly worked with other staff and presented her findings on a regular basis and met with the CEO occasionally to discuss certain options. Having a person of power continuously having a subordinates of another sex work late hours by themselves is unprofessional and should raise suspicion to other staff. Also, why was it only the CEO and the fellow going to these conferences? Surely other staff could have benefited and deserved going to conferences in prime locations. From the story it seems that the CEO intentionally found conferences in romantic settings to bring the fellow on purpose and the fact that they were educational was a plus. Even if nothing happened it is still not behavior suiting an ethical CEO. The fellow was in a vulnerable situation since she was very ambitious, anxious to learn and grateful to a mentor. Although no explicit sexual coercion occurred implicit coercion to spend time with him did.

As far as sexual harassment goes, if she was a man she would have gotten a job due to her accomplishments in her fellowship. Couldn't the CEO simply have placed her in another department or another location of the hospital? Should employees be punished because managers are attracted to them? On an organizational scale I'm afraid this CEO may lose a lot of trust from their employees, especially female employees.

This case brings up a great lesson however. The best way to avoid unethical temptation is simply to not allow yourself to be put in that kind of situation. One must identify ethical slippery slopes ahead of time and place boundaries and rules to allow all employees to be treated equally and be rewarded on unbiased merit. A couple of weeks ago I heard of one employer that refused to have a couch in his office or in the work area. Why? To not let himself or his staff be put into a kind of situation that could facilitate unprofessional behavior. In an office a majority of staff are either married or in a relationship and most companies have policies on inter-office dating. In my opinion the couch policy is a prime example of the lesson learned in this case.