3.

1
The
Responsibilities
of an Employee
A. Ethical Concerns in
Transactions with the Boss
My mother used to tell me that
every manager has a
manager. Being an active
church member, she would
even expound this concept by
saying, for every group or
priests,there is a bishop.
To pursue the bests interests
of their organization, the
two must frequently interact
with each other. The issues,
problems, and solutions
they are involved with are
numerous, varied and often
complex.
Often ethical considerations
are involved. In some cases,
managers will address and
resolve ethical issues
together. In other instances,
they will disagree on what to
do. Sometimes a manager
and his or her boss will assign
widely differing degree
B. The Employees Obligations
to the Firm
The contract of employment
creates obligations for an
employee as well as the
employer. The employee is
bound to give an honest
day’s work for an honest
day’s wages.
C. Conflicts of Interest
You don’t have to work for an
organization very long, either
at a management or non-
management level before
realizing that your interests
often collide with those of the
organization.
You want to dress one way,
the organization wants you to
wear another way; you’d
prefer to show up for work at
9:00 AM. The company
expects you to be present at 8
AM; you’d like to receive P
50,000.00 per month for salary,
the company gives you a
fraction of that figure.
Whatever the value in
question, attitudes toward it
can differ. Thus the reward,
autonomy, and self- fulfillment
that workers seek are not
always compatible with the
worker productivity that the
organization desires.
Sometimes this clash of values
can take a serious form as in
what is termed a conflict of
interest. In business, a conflict
of interest arises when
employees, at any level , have
an interest in or are parties to
an interest in a transaction
substanial enough that it does
or reasonably might
Affect their independent
judgement in acts for the
organization. The organization
has to expect employees to
use independent judgement
on its behalf at another way
around. Conflicts of interest
arise when employees
jeopardize this independent
judgement.
Conflicts of Interest can arise
in all sorts of ways and take
many forms. The most
expressions, however, involve
actions related to bribery and
kickbacks, exortion, gifts and
entertainment, financial
investments and use of official
position.
1. Bribes and Kickbacks
A bribe is a consideration for
the performance of an act
that is inconsistent with the
work contract or the nature of
the work one has been hired
to perform. The consideration
can be money, gifts,
entertainment, or prefential
treatment.
Bribery sometimes takes the
form of kickbacks, a practice
which involves a percentage
payment to a person able to
influence or control a source of
income.
The money the committee
member receives for the
preferred consideration is a
kickback.
2. Extortion . We heard stories
(of which may not be true) of
purchasing agent who would
not even consider a
salesperson’s offer unless he
has received a substantial gift
beforehand.
3.Gifts and entertainment.
In determining the morality
of gift giving and gift
receiving in a business
situation and in deciding
whether a conflict of
interest exists, some factors
must be considered.
3.1 What is the value of the gift?
Is the gift of nominal and
substantial enough to influence
a business decision?
Undoubtedly definitions of
nominal and substantial are
open to interpretation and are
often influenced by situational
and cultural variables.
3.2 What is the purpose of the gift?
Vigyan Moco, a department store
Manager accepts small gift, like
power bank, from an electronics
firm.
He insists that the transactions
areharmless and that he does not
intend
to give the firm any preferred
treatment regarding advertising
displays in the store.
3.3 What are the circumstances of
the gift?
A gift received during the holiday
season, for a store opening, or to
signal other special events is
circumstantially different from one
unattached to any particular event.
Whether the gift was given openly
or secretly should also be
considered.
 A gift with the donor’s
name embossed on it
usually constitutes an
open gift, whereas one
known only to the donor
and recipient would not.
3.4 What are the position and
sensitivity of influence of the person
receiving the gift?
Is the person in a position to affect a
business decision on behalf of the
gift giver materially? In other words,
could the recipient’s opinion
influence, or decision of itself result
in preferential treatment for the
donor? Another important point is
Whether the recipients
have made It abundantly
clear to the donors that
they do not intend to
allow the gift to influence
their action one way or
the other.
3.5 What is the accepted
business practice in the area? Is
this the general way of
conducting this kind of business?
Monetary gifts and tips are
standard practice in numerous
service industries. Their purpose is
not only to reward good service
but to ensure it again.
3.6 What is the company’s
policy?
Many firms explicity forbid
the practice of giving and
receiving gifts to minimize
even the suspicion that a
conflict may exist.
3.6 What is the company’s policy?
Where such a system exists, the
giving or receiving of a gift would
constitute a conflict of interest. Our
question 5- what options does one
have when one receives gifts?
Options may include returning the
gift, paying for it or donating it to
charity.
3.7 What is the law? This
consideration is implicit in all facets
of conflict of interest. Some laws, for
example, forbid all gift giving and
receiving among employees and
firms connected with government
contracts. Again, where the gift
transaction violates a law, a conflict
of interest is always present.
Ethical Issues in Pharmaceutical Sales
In health care industry,
pharmaceutical sales representatives
play a significant role by educating
physicians about their employer’s
products and offering insights into
new and emergent therapies, they
help doctors provide quality care to
the patients- and patients maintain
good health.
New Ethical Guidelines
Ethics is a complex and multi-faced
subject, and one that applies to all
aspects of health care
management delivery(the
existence of master’s healthcare
ethics degree programs points to
the field’s growing importance),
including the sales of medications,
medical devices, and services.
Implications for Sales Forces
Tasking away the ability to sway
the doctors toward one product
or another via perks begs the
question of how drugs reps can
promote their products and
protect the bottom line,
especially in an era of distrust
among doctors.
4. Financial Investments .
Conflicts of interest can be
present when employees
have financial investments in
suppliers, customers, or
distributors with whom their
organizations do business.
5. Use of official position. A major
area of conflict of interest involves
the use of one’s official position
for personal gain. Cases in this
field can range from using
subordinates for organizational-
related work using one’s
prominent position within an
organization to enhance one’s
own financial leverage and
holdings.
D. Obligations to Third
Parties
Truthfulness ,nonjury, and
fairness are the general
categories of obligaions that
employees have to third
parties but we can still ask:
How the workers to reconcile the
obligations to employer or
organization and others? Should the
employee ensure the welfare of the
group by reporting the fellow working
using drugs, or should be loyal to the
fellow worker say nothing? Should
the secretary carry out her boss’s
instructions or she tell his wife the
truth? Should the accountant say
nothing about the building code
violations or should she inform the
authorities?
In each case , the employee
experienced divided loyalties.
Resolving such conflict calls for
a careful weighing of the
obligations to the employer or
firm, on the one hand , and of
those to the third party , on the
other. This process is never
easy, but, at least, one author
has suggested a helpful,
though imperfect procedure.
 The procedure proposed by
Michael Bayles (1981) of the
Westminster Institute for Ethics
and Human Values , although
applying directly to
professionals (physicians,
lawyers, engineers,
accountants . etc.) is
nevertheless relevant to any
worker . It consists three steps:
1.First, the worker must identify
weigh the values(ideals) of the firm
against those of others to be
affected.
2. Second, the worker must
consider the overallprobality of
being either position- firm or
affected the third party.
3. Third, the worker must realize that
he or she is developing a rule to be
applied to all similar cases.
E. Following Orders and Directives
from Above
Managers are expected to follow
orders from above and frequently
do so with a minimum of questions
or concerns. They usually have an
opportunity to explore alternatives,
and comment on any aspect of the
directive they feel may be
inappropriate or improper.
E. Following Orders and
Directives from Above
When they can demostrate the
merits of their concern, they are
often successful in obtaining
changes or modifications.
Thank you for listening! God Bless!