Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Chapter 6
Chapter 6
Chapter 6
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Chapter Objectives
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Chapter Objectives
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
Decision-Making @ Work
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Decision-Making @ Work
(insert obj. 1)
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Decision-Making @ Work
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In legal contexts, due process refers to the procedures that police and
courts must follow in exercising their authority over citizens.
Few dispute that the state, through its police and courts, has the
authority to punish citizens.
This authority creates a safe and orderly society in which we all can
live, work and do business.
But that authority is not unlimited; it can be exercised only in certain
ways and under certain conditions.
Due process rights specify these conditions.
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Employment at Will
Due Process:
Other Employment Contexts
Downsizing:
The Legal Perspective
Downsizing:
The Legal Perspective
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Within the United States and throughout many other countries with
developed economies, there is a wide consensus that employees
have a fundamental right to a safe and healthy workplace.
In some other regions, employees lack even the most basic health
and safety protections, such as in working environments that are
often termed sweatshops.
Even within the United States, this issue becomes quite
complicated upon closer examination.
Not only is the very extent of an employers responsibility for
workplace health and safety in dispute; there is also significant
disagreement concerning the best policies to protect worker health
and safety.
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Challenges with
Acceptable Risk Approach
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Challenges with
Acceptable Risk Approach
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Challenges to Market
Control of H&S (insert obj. 9)
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Government-Regulated
Ethics
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Government-Regulated
Ethics
Some critics charge that this approach does not go far enough and
unjustly sacrifices employee health and safety. But the more
influential business criticism has argued that these standards go too
far.
Critics in both industry and government have argued that OSHA
should be required to use cost-benefit analysis in establishing such
standards.
From this perspective, even if a standard is technologically and
economically feasible, it would still be unreasonable and unfair if
the benefits did not outweigh the costs.
These critics argue that OSHA should aim to achieve the optimal,
rather than highest feasible, level of safety.
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Challenges in the
Cost-Benefit Approach to
Government-Regulated H&S
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What to do??
The answer is not a simple one.
Though few people, if any, would argue for the continuation of the
circumstances described above, economists and others do not agree
about a solution.
Some contend that the exploitation of cheap labor supplies allows
developing countries to expand export activities and to improve
their economies. This economic growth brings more jobs, which
will cause the labor market to tighten, which in turn will force
companies to improve conditions in order to attract workers (see
next slide).
In fact, several commentators argue that encouraging greater global
production will create additional opportunities for expansion
domestically, providing a positive impact on more stakeholders.
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Philosophical Application
Discrimination
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Discrimination Persists . . .
Statistics
Diversity = $$?
(Reality Check)
Affirmative Action
(insert obj. 14)
Affirmative Action
A policy or a program that tries to respond
to instances where there has been some past
discrimination by implementing proactive
measures in order to ensure equal
opportunity today.
It may take the form of intentional inclusion of
previously excluded groups in employment, education
or other environments.
Affirmative Action
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2.
3.
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Opposition to Affirmative
Action Programs
Opponents claim that the efforts do more harm than good, that they
create ill will and poor morale among work forces.
They argue that they translate into current punishment of past wrongs
and therefore are inappropriately placed since those who pay for the
wrongs are unfairly burdened and should not bear the responsibility for
the acts of others.
It is not merely the white males who articulate this claim. Ward
Connerly, an African-American Regent of the University of California
discussed affirmative action during a 60 Minutes interview and stated,
Black Americans are not hobbled by chains any longer. Were free to
compete. Were capable of competing. It is an absolute insult to suggest
that we cant.
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