Read the commentary, Egg-freezing policy gives new meaning to human resource management and discuss the key management ethics issues raised in these comments from the perspective of each of the five viewpoints listed below. Based on your discussion, what recommendation/s would you make to a company that is considering the inclusion of egg-freezing for employees in its HR benefits policy?
1) Utilitarianism
2) Kantian deontology
3) Rawlsian justice
4) Rights
5) Ethical relativism
Note:
1. No marks for describing theories; instead discuss the relevant ethics issues raised in the commentary from the perspectives identified above. By focussing on relevant ethics issues you will be demonstrating your understanding of how ethical theory informs business practice. Consider the word limit in relation to the marking schema.
2. The question asks you to discuss the key management ethics issues, not the bioethical issues of egg-freezing Egg-freezing policy gives new meaning to human resource management Marian Baird, The Age, October 17, 2014 Marian Baird is director of the Women and Work Research Group and professor of employment relations at the University of Sydney Business School. The realisation that the market and private companies increasingly control and direct our lives was borne out this week with the news of Facebook and Apple offering a huge financial incentive, US20,000 ($22,953), to cover procedure and storage costs for female employees to freeze their eggs. At first, the news left me gobsmacked. One colleague had to check it wasn't April 1st Quickly, after a few phone calls, the reality sunk in - it was a genuine company initiative. Well, they don't call these "human resource" policies for nothing. This one, it seems, is just taking the term to a new place. And it's spreading - the Australian IVF company Virtus Health has also announced an egg-freezing staff subsidy. It makes business sense for them I suppose. Of all industries, the technology sector suffers particularly severely from a gender imbalance. Women make up 57% of the US workforce in professional and related occupations, but only 26% of professionals in the computer and information field according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Over the years, Silicon Valley has given birth to some of the more exotic human resources management initiatives. Massages at desk, pets at work, including dogs and snakes, to relieve stress caused by work, were all conceived in Silicon Valley. But having your employer pay you to freeze your embryos - that takes the cake. The HR employment cycle has moved right into, and taken over, the life cycle. Aside from the medical and bio-ethical questions, seriously, what does this say about work, women and childbearing? We know that women in Australia have higher education levels and enter the labour market and stay in it for longer periods than ever before. They have their first baby at about 30 or 31 and return to work, typically part-time hours, within twelve months. They are needed because with Australia's ageing population our labour force is shrinking. Report after report urges women to participate in the labour market in order to increase Australia's GDP. Women juggle work and family and still they remain committed workers and committed mothers. In just a generation, this has generated a huge workplace and social revolution. In terms of public policy, it took Australia a long time to come to terms with this change. Finally, a national paid parental leave was introduced - that was just four years ago. How quickly we have accepted the need for the policy. Many companies offer more than the government's parental leave policy - but at least most women now have access to a period of paid leave when they have a baby. They also have the right to return to their jobs, although we know that discrimination against pregnant women and mothers returning to work is depressingly widespread. But what does a new policy giving financial rewards for egg freezing mean? It takes us into another whole dimension of work and family, one most of us, I have to admit, had not yet contemplated. One could say it gives women more choice. They can have their babies when they like Or can they? Or does it really give the company the upper hand - even more than before? If you're a female employee turning 32 and thinking it's time to have a baby - and you want, and need, to keep your career on track, what are your real choices? How coerced are you?What norm will now operate in the workplace? Turn down your employer's offer to freeze your eggs, and instead, take leave and have a baby? How does that look at your next performance review? If there is one, that is. The choice is highly constrained. You see, women in this scenario are caught between being the new labour force fuelling capitalism's expansion, as well as the child-bearers, giving birth to the next generation of workers and consumers. How can they do it all? Certainly not by policies that make them work longer and throughout the childbearing years. And what does such a policy say about getting old? It's okay to have your baby a decade later because by that time you'll be 40 or 45 - and you're a redundant, dispensable female worker anyway? Finally, where is the gender equity? Can men get recompensed for freezing their sperm? In truth, we need policies that allow for sensible transitions in and out of the workforce, for women of all ages. Let's think about the company cash-for-freezing-eggs policy, and all its implications, before we spread it further.B1. Drawing on insights from the four viewpoints listed below, discuss the issue of taxation as a social responsibility of business. Note, the viewpoints can be discussed in any order and can be discussed in an integrated manner.
(i) the narrow classical economic view,
(ii) the broader socio-economic view,
(iii) the broad maximal view, and
(iv) the Kew Garden Principles