PSY FPX 6740 Assessment 5: Ethical and Legal Aspects of I-O Psychology

Introduction 

First of all, we need to define the problem. I’ve been contracted by MacDonald Pfiffer to conduct some team building here at Purple Sky, Inc. I’ve met with your colleagues, and I have found that there are some communication issues and some potentially unhealthy leadership. Before we solve the problems that I’ve found, let’s take a step back and recall: what are APA ethics? APA Ethics Principles

• Principle 1: Beneficence and nonmaleficence
• Principle 2: Fidelity and Responsibility
• Principle 3: Integrity
• Principle 4: Justice
• Principle 5: Respect for people’s rights and dignity (Ethical principles of psychologists and Code of Conduct, n.d.)

 PSY FPX 6740 Assessment 5: Ethical and Legal Aspects of I-O Psychology

We want to be morally and ethically right so we can help our peers. We have a lot of strategies that we can use to introduce the issue of how peers feel that they are being treated. We can utilize resources such as dilemma stimulus training cards, CAPE bingo, and other resources available on the SIOP official website (Blackman, n.d.). There are four main ethical theories:

• Teleology—morally justifying morality based on the outcome of the consequences
• Deontology – the right actions must be consistent
• Relativism – humans have a natural inclination to moral acts
• Virtue theory – people will do good based on their character traits

The optimum action in an organization is deontology. We must be consistent in our actions and results; otherwise, others may perceive our behavior as biased towards certain colleagues and peers.

 The Issue

The grievances we are facing from our colleagues are based on discussions I’ve had with an employee, a supervisor, and another colleague at Purple Sky. It is clear that there is a problem of miscommunication and also poor management style. Both these problems fall in the category of organizational culture. Firstly we need to have moral awareness on a personal level and an organizational level (O’Reilly & Aquino, 2011). Second, we need to make a moral choice. Aka my boss never hears back from me even after I provide them data and evidence that something needs to change. We need to then take this to ethical action. We cannot just let the company keep doing something that is potentially ethically wrong, so you have to speak up and speak out. Talk with co-workers, other managers, and/or higher management. Breaking Down Ethical Issues Because there are communication problems, and senior leadership went so far as to request not to concentrate on managers but only employees, this is workplace inequality.

Analyzing Ethical Issues 

The top management is turning a blind eye to any wrongdoing because it is by management, which is not just and will make employees resign and not feel safe/respected in their workplace.

We also need to be extremely conscious of the fact that the individual who was going through this was a female employee who felt her male manager was not listening to her and had poor communication skills. Is it because he inherently lacks basic understanding, or is it a deeper-seated issue where he discriminates against her on the basis of gender? Gender discrimination is very much a prevalent thing in the workplace.

 Gender Inequality 

Gender inequality will be something that is placed in an HR policy as not permitted, but oftentimes people have unconscious bias, and they don’t even realize they’re discriminating against women.

The same applies to other minorities; the management may not even be aware that they discriminate against women or others just because they may not even realize when they are being culturally insensitive to a Muslim man who is working for them.

All of this may be brought about by ignorance and inadequate training. This is why it will be important to have workshops whereby managers get the opportunity to play out scenarios and learn how to react to them.

Advice

While considering colleagues’ opinions, at times you can gain an outside perspective on a situation. As an I-O practitioner, though, you should never allow yourself to be swayed in making any decision, and it should not stop you from helping the organization. If the issue is leadership, they would be equally in need of a workshop as the other staff. We should recall the principle of justice. If we use a different yardstick for employees than for management, it will make it unequal, and it won’t be just. Morale is as much, if not more so, than pay in the workplace, and if we’re not equal and fair, people will leave. Ideas for Resolution How can we solve the gender inequality in the workplace?

Ideas for Resolution

Then, we need to create trainings and role-play scenarios, provide visual aids, and have a safe space for women to speak up (Dashper, 2019). All managers have to comply with rigorous training every year. They need performance evaluations from their employees so that they can be evaluated on how well they are doing in managing their employees, and their turnover rate due to an employee being promoted within the company should be counted as a positive for the manager because that means they are equipping their employees with the means to move forward. Creating a distinct, monthly forum in which women employees can speak about what is on their mind and providing them with room to own their careers will empower them and, as a result, enhance their job performance and happiness (Zhuzwayo, 2016).

Confidentiality

Confidentiality I/O psychologists face a lot of the same ethical issues that researchers and practitioners in other fields of psychology deal with, such as confidentiality. As the American Psychological Association (APA) has pointed out, psychologists of every kind need to keep in mind that people are “multicultural beings” and that the life history of people is composed based on their worldviews that are culturally embedded.

But there are also ethics, law, and diversity issues that are unique to practice in I/O psychology, partly because the application of I-O research affects individuals’ jobs and thus their economic status.

I-O psychologists follow the new APA Ethics Code that mandates ten standards addressing issues of competence, human relations, public statements, record keeping, education and training, therapy, ethics, privacy and confidentiality, research and publication, and assessment (Cascio & Aguinis, 2011).

Conclusion 

While there are certainly some similarities between human resource and I-O practitioners, it is more likely that the third party will be more objective and ethical and possess the capability to further the interest of the stakeholder because of the experience as well as the sense of legal obligation. How people are being managed and how leadership is impacting the vision of work life. Since the employees are not satisfied and there is ineffective communication, we will start with a communication workshop in the workplace.

For the leadership, one-on-one meetings and discussions about what it means to be a good leader will be done.

Some workers are so tenured, they forget what it’s like. Then we will do a role-playing workshop where the employees get to play the managers and see how quickly resolution can be achieved.

PSY FPX 6740 Assessment 5

Ethical and Legal Aspects of I-O Psychology Dashper (2019).

Challenging the gendered rhetoric of success?

The limits of women-only mentoring for addressing gender inequality in the workplace.

Gender, Work, and Organization, 26(4), 541–557. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12262

Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. (n.d.). Retrieved from American Psychological Association: https://www.apa.org/ethics/code. O’Reilly, J., & Aquino, K. (2011). A Model of Third Parties’ Morally Motivated Responses to Mistreatment in Organizations. Academy of Management Review, O’Reilly, J., & Aquino, K. 36(3), 526–543. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2009.0311. Khuzwayo, Z. (2016). Separate space: An approach to addressing gender inequality in the workplace. Journal of International Women’s Studies, 17(4), 91-101.