It is time that organizations had a separate department to study the moral and ethical dilemmas of employees and their employers as well as the business practices. Such departments could be spin-off from compliance and even their governance services. We live in a growing capitalist economy where businesses are dictated with shareholder value without the forethought or care for either employees or customers for that matter. We need to strive for more ethically run businesses that have their own internal audit department for which scrutiny for compliance can be provided in a fair manner and with an established code of conduct. Also, such departments can track employee ethics both internally and externally to combat discrimination in the workplace but also to protect the reputation of the business as a whole. Such departments could also act as third-party mediators that can handle a whole suite of investigation for which the manager or a human resources time may be wasted. While formal and publicly run organizations for such may not be an answer, more thorough approaches need to be taken to protect the rights of employees as well as employers in the workplace. A linked data approach to integrated ethical boundaries could also be a stepping stone in a more interconnected direction. Reducing staff as a way of cutting back on cost of businesses seems to be an almost typical answer from management who may ultimately be the real culprit to bare the blame for the missed performance. It seems for many businesses, fairness goes out the door soon as it starts losing money on the balance sheets. However, it is usually such practices that not only lead to more mistakes and dire performance consequences but also distaste from current as well as former employees. Institutional discrimination in the workplace is also a big dilemma that is often overlooked. Also, another aspect crucial to businesses is whether 'something is the right thing to do given the current circumstances' is also an ethical aspect that many organizations lack in their internal processes as well as part of their strategy. Perhaps, it is time in civilized societies we started caring more for our environment, our employees, and not just for shareholder value. This will not only help businesses take responsibility for their actions but also be held accountable both to their employees, customers, as well as within the global space of things for their cumulative effects to an economy.
