Question

1. What is an ethical issue? Describe four categories of ethical issues and provide examples of specific situations that may occur within each category.

Answer 1

What is an ethical issue? Describe four categories of ethical issues and provide examples of specific situations that may occur within each category.

An ethical issue is a situation, issue, or opportunity that requires someone, a group, or even an organization to decide between multiple actions that need to be evaluated as right or wrong, or even ethical or unethical. The four categories of ethical issues are privacy issues, accuracy issues, property issues, and accessibility issues. Privacy issues include collecting, storing, or getting rid of information relevant to employees. An example would be to keep documents such as employee write-ups stored in a filing cabinet not accessible to other employees. Accuracy issues deal with authenticity and accurate information that is collected and processed. All correct information in regards to that employee’s write up should be accurate from the date of the infraction to the actual circumstances or actions that led to the write-up. Property issues deal with the ownership and value of the information that is collected. All of this information should be made available to that employee but is not to be shared with those outside the real of human resources or management. Accessibility issues pertain to who can have access to information and whether or not they should pay for such information.