Justice in the Workplace

Justice in the Workplace

Globalization, or increase economic cooperation and communications between countries has opened up a number of opportunities for employment, trade, and cultural and technological development between nations. One of these effects is the diversification of the human resource pool within organizations. In fact, the more global society becomes, the less geographic boundaries matter when hiring employees. This is particularly evident when hiring a new workforce in developing countries -- moving the so-called "have nots" into the working world of global organizations (Mittleman, 2002). Ethnic and cultural demographics play into this by adding another spectrum and layer of variety in income, education, housing issues, population trends, etc. (Trebing and Estabrooks, 2005).

Justice in the Workplace and Globalization- Increasing diversity, particularly globally, in the workplace, however, brings a number of issues to the forefront that accentuate the need for organizational justice and ethical decision making. An organization is far stronger once they identify and understand how unique differences impact relationships between employees and customers alike. In fact, any company that hopes to compete on a global scale will need to do three things: 1) Hire multilingual employees; 2) Provide intensive language and cultural courses when sending employees abroad, and 3) Utilize new managerial techniques that are culturally sensitive to diversity and global markets (Nilsen, 2005).

Case Study- Standard Oil and Texaco proposed a joint venture with Caltex in South Africa. However, the management of the South African location still embraced the philosophy of apartheid in which Blacks were treated far different than whites in the workforce, management, salary, and benefits. Once this plan was announced, the oil companies were bombarded with criticisms from stakeholders, religious leaders, and civil rights organizations. In the case of this organization there were several issues: 1) The Oil Companies had a clear responsibility to develop income for their stakeholders; 2) The Oil Companies also have a moral and ethical responsibility to the greater good of global society. 3) If Standard and Texaco did not build this plant, someone else would; and might be a company with less of an ethical standard. 4) The Oil Companies would provide income and could affect change from within to improve the lot of the working population; 5) With their economic power and international reputation, Standard and Texaco can bring international attention to South Africa's problems and focus an argument on slow change (Velasquez, 2011).

Role of Administrators in Ethical Decision Making- There were two levels of administrative decisions directly impacting this issue; executive management's decision and local management's rules. It was up to the company to decide on wages and benefits, and to slowly work a model into the workplace that disavowed apartheid while not openly criticizing the government at the time. Locally, the management could hire and retain only those supervisors who would act ethically within the framework of the needs of the organization and human resource base. This is actually the responsibility of social equity expected from a multi-national corporation in the modern world (Frederickson, 1990).