Question

These questions are based a course in accounting called, corporate governance and ethics.

What are the obligations of the employer and the employee towards ensuring the workplace is a safe environment?

Are employees expected to show loyalty to their employer? If so, are there limits to that loyalty?

What are Kaptein's dimensions of an ethical culture?

If an employee wanted to "blow the whistle" on the company's management, what should he or she do first to ensure that blowing the whistle is ethically justified? Explain your answer.

Answer 1

Obligations of an employee towards ensuring the workplace is a safe environment are as following:

• to take reasonable care of your own health and safety
• if possible to avoid wearing jewellery or loose clothing if operating machinery
• if you have long hair, or wear a headscarf, make sure it's tucked out of the way as it could get caught in machinery
• to take reasonable care not to put other people - fellow employees and members of the public - at risk by what you do or don't do in the course of your work
• to co-operate with your employer, making sure you get proper training and you understand and follow the company's health and safety policies
• not to interfere with or misuse anything that's been provided for your health, safety or welfare
• to report any injuries, strains or illnesses you suffer as a result of doing your job, your employer may need to change the way you work
• to tell your employer if something happens that might affect your ability to work, like becoming pregnant or suffering an injury - because your employer has a legal responsibility for your health and safety, they may need to suspend you while they find a solution to the issue or problem, but you will normally be paid if this happens
• if you drive or operate machinery, you have a responsibility to tell your employer if you take medication that makes you drowsy - if you have, they should temporarily move you to another job if they have one for you to do.

Obligations of an employer towards ensuring the workplace is a safe environment are as following:

• make sure that are properly ventilated, with clean and fresh air.
• keep temperatures at a comfortable level (a minimum of 13 degrees Centigrade where the work involves physical activity; 16 degrees Centigrade for 'stinter' like offices - there's no maximum limit.
• light premises so that employees can work and move about safely.
• keep the workplace and equipment clean.
• ensure that areas are big enough to allow easy movement (at least 11 cubic metres per person).
• provide workstations to suit the employees and the work.
• keep the equipment in good working order.
• make floors, walkways, stairs, roadways safe to use.
• protect people from falling from height or into dangerous substances.
• store things so they're unlikely to fall and cause injuries.
• fit openable windows, doors and gates with safety devices if needed.
• provide suitable washing facilities and clean drinking water.
• if necessary, provide somewhere for employees to get changed and to store their own clothes.
• set aside areas for rest breaks and to eat meals, including suitable facilities for pregnant women and nursing mothers.
• let employees take appropriate rest breaks and the right holiday entitlement.
• make sure that employees who work alone, or off-site, can do so safely and healthily.
• Rest breaks
• Holiday entitlements

A loyal employee to an organization is just like a healthy fruit to the body. The more you have, the more you will benefit! Just like consuming healthy fruits keep the internal structure of the body fine and promote its development, employee loyalty is helpful in maintaining positive work culture and always work towards betterment of the company.

If you are thinking that a loyal employee is one who is working for a longer tenure in the company, then probably you are assuming it in the wrong sense. Long employee tenure does not provide enough sense of being loyal.

An employee working for longer years in a company is not a certificate for his unquestionable loyalty. Even if an employee has worked for a short tenure, but has always work harder for growth of the organization, and that is measurable in his daily actions, then definitely he is a loyal employee.

To comprehend better, you may read on to the precise definition of employee loyalty and understand what is employee loyalty.

Kaptein's dimensions of an ethical culture

One of the main objectives of an ethics program is to improve the ethical culture of an organization. To date, empirical research treats at least one of these concepts as a one-dimensional construct. This paper demonstrates that by conceptualizing both constructs as multi-dimensional, a more in-depth understanding of the relationship between the two concepts can be achieved. Through the employment of the Corporate Ethical Virtues Model, eight dimensions of ethical culture are distinguished. Nine components of an ethics program are identified. To assess the relationship between ethics programs and ethical culture, a survey was conducted of 4,056 members of the U.S. working population. The results show that the relationships between the components of an ethics program and the dimensions of ethical culture differ in strength, nature, and significance. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Whistleblowing is where an employee makes a protected disclosure to their employer or the relevant regulator regarding specific concerns that they have discovered through their work.

To qualify as a genuine protected disclosure, the employee has to believe there is wrongful conduct by the employer, colleagues, clients or third parties which usually have danger or illegality that affects others - such as the public - and disclose the information in good faith. Examples include failure to comply with legal obligations/criminal offences, risks to health and safety, environmental damage and miscarriages of justice.

As well as the usual Employment Rights Act protections, employees and workers who make a protected disclosure are covered by the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 with additional employer requirements under the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013. These regulations govern the criteria and process that has to be followed in order for an employee to be protected from unfavourable treatment based on the fact they have made a protected disclosure.

Under the Employment Rights Act it is automatically unfair to dismiss someone for making a protected disclosure and you do not need the two years service normally required to make an unfair dismissal claim.