11 December 2013

Ethics of Capitalism

Finding ethically sound employers in a capitalist economy is difficult. As often the objective of a business is to make money. But the drivers of making money often overshadow the humanistic attributes of a sound ethically run business. Take for example, if a business is not doing well the first thing a company would do is to reduce staff - redundancy as it were. This is at a cost of many employees losing their jobs. Whereas, the management staff might still be available and employed while the company goes belly up. No doubt the blame of business not doing well should be at the hands of the management not the employees. Plus, reducing the management staff only reduces bureaucracy and politics not to mention that even a small reduction of management staff means a huge amount of savings. Most employers also are dishonest with employees from over selling on roles, building expectations, but not realizing the effect it would have on employees as they suddenly decide to outsource everything. These days employees are recruited and fired with the drop of a hat while the management continue to earn bonuses and make incalculable mistakes. This further reduces the potential of companies to innovate and improve on services nor increase in job retention. Often times it is the service and quality of products that drives sales. Cutting corners is not the right way to run a business by any means. The economic downturns that we see of today have all been elaborated by bad management practices, unethical behavior, the greed to make money while over stepping on humanist morals of society and responsibility. In fact, even contractual policies for employees are in place to protect the employer not the employee. If an employee were to ever go through a grievance the employer may try to look like they were following a fair equitable process through mediation, but what they are really doing is bring in as much backup to protect their own backs. In process, if one were to ever make a grievance it might even go against the employee. The employee is always seen as an outsider if they do not agree with the employer and the way things are done. It is always best to be vigilant and informed from time when making an application to when interviewing and even at time of offer right up to employment. A lot of times the best and sound alternative is to start one's own business and run it the right way. Even as a private limited company at least one has control as to how things are done. Soon as a company goes public it all becomes a matter of shareholder interests over employees, founders, and even customers to that effect.