Lacks a Base on the Traditions and Customs in Which Employees

Question: Discuss Lacks A Base on the Traditions and Customs in Which Employees? Answer: Introduction The reputation of 7-eleven has for the past few years spiraled down due to practices within the company that is unacceptable in the society. The company lacks a base on the expected traditions and customs in which employees, customers, and suppliers relate. It activities has been on news for the past years for numerous scandals concerning the treatment of its employees. The 7-eleven is a franchise worth billions of dollars and has its stores across Australia. These give a glimpse of how big companies are able to conduct their businesses and being able to contain its practices regardless of their nature. Although the company had been investigating in 2008 by the Fair Work Ombudsman, the abuse went on for long and no mechanism had detected it before it went out of hand. According to Thor Schultz (2016), the expose of the franchise requires it to have a commitment to workers protection by having a code of conduct that would be used to regulate the operations of the company. This requires the company to have a fair treatment of its employees and transparency in the payment of employees. Employees had severely been underpaid; this became a major cause for alarm. Therefore, for image restoration and improvement of reputation, the company must restructure its systems to accommodate public scrutiny of its activities. This paper outlines the code of conduct that the franchise can adopt to ensure that it addresses issues that led to the scandal. Code of conduct principles Uphold honesty and integrity These are integral values that the franchise should base its actions and decisions so as to create an environment in which all the stakeholders are satisfied with the operations. The 7-eleven management practices concerning employees should be transparent and allow for the consent of the employees. Employees should be treated as required by the guidelines given by the Australian workplace laws. The franchise must stop falsifying data to conceal their operations but rather provide facts about the organization. The franchise has a responsibility towards its actions and accountable to its employees. They must show commitment to a meaningful auditing of stores data and not a cover up the activity that protects unlawful practices. Employee complaints must be given meaningful considerations and show commitment to resolving them. All financial accounting must be communicated to the employees to ensure transparency and accountability. Avoid exploitation of employees The 7-eleven franchise has a diverse workforce ranging from locals and international employees residing in Australia. A large percentage of the demographics are international students who are in the country on a student visa. Many of them were careful not report the misconduct of their employees as they were afraid of being reprimanded by the management (SBS. 2016). The organization must show commitment to stopping bullying, discrimination, and harassment of employees and create systems that do not tolerate such behaviors. This creates a supportive environment for the employees where all their concerns are heard and given considerations. The company should avoid taking advantage of foreign students because of their status in the country but rather treat them as expected by the laws that govern employment in Australia. Payments should be made according to the agreement and the expected pay for the work done (The Guardian, 2016). The management should provide a safe working environment for the employees through the guidelines given by the local government and the internationals bodies responsible for rights of employees. The workplace environment should be stress-free to avoid causing mental problems. Many employees within the organization have gone through psychological trauma due to long working hours and less payment for the work. Foreign students should feel comfortable in a foreign country and where they are able to earn like their fellow employees from within the country. The organization should formulate policies that govern practices that may affect employee health. Avoid discrimination against employees According to Background briefing (2016), the franchise employees are mostly foreign students who have been caught up in the scandal as the main victims. The company has had a history of discriminating against employees for various reasons such as age, race, disability and residential status. There have been cases on news agencies of occurrences of such discriminatory practices. In 2016 a lawsuit was filed by an employee working in a store owned by the company for discriminating him because of his disability. The management was unsympathetic towards the employee and they considered him slow without recognizing their disability and fired them. The race has become a major issue that world has struggled to adjust to in everyday activities. Stereotypes on races exist and have affected workplace dynamics and managements are struggling to navigate through the quest to treat all races equally. 7-eleven has been caught up in a row on race discrimination against employees. Racial discrimination has been reported in some 7-eleven stores and lawsuits have been filed by victims of these actions. The organization should formulate policies to prevent discrimination against employees based on their race. The company must show commitment to stopping these practices and give an opportunity for anyone to work in the organization. The management should change the systems that oversee productivity of workers as the current system does not allow employment opportunities for anyone. This damages the image of the organization as it currently owns stores in different countries across the world. Diversity brings a positive influence to the organization through the creation of collaboration of employees. Avoid improper payments practices The system used by the 7-eleven system has been manipulated to cover up for employee exploitation. The management deliberately formulated a procedure that forcefully cut employee payments back to the company. Corruption within the management had become rampant and employees have missed their payments and some lost their jobs without compensation or pay for the work they had done. The management laundered money from the company and carefully concealing their actions through series of financial transactions that were in favor of their side of the story. From exposes on the franchise, the organization should formulate policies that monitor and regulate financial transactions done by the management. To achieve this organization should keep all its records on transactions made for future reference and which builds trust between management, employees, and the customers. Accountability reduces lawsuits that may arise when the business practices are questionable and do not follow outlined rules and regulations. This will reduce improper transactions and increase accountability of finances that the company receives and spends. It creates transparency which results in an efficiency of workflow and employee satisfaction. This reduces wastages of resources owned by the organization and enhances their utilization. Corruption is a hindrance to advancement and development of any organization. Whistleblower protection Internal whistleblowers risk their job to expose misconduct within workplaces. They are vulnerable to reprisal from the management as they are considered snitches. 7-eleven provided and environment that was complicated for a whistleblower to access crucial information and evidence as the management hierarchy had intense complicity. The franchise is known for ruthlessly tracking down dissenters hence being a whistleblower in such an organization is risky. The situation of the case that broke in 2015 is still ongoing due to numerous setbacks as the organization has tried to cover up issues. In a report done by the Financial Review (2017), it indicated that whistleblowers risked a lot in exposing ills without personal gains in the processing. From the parliamentary joint committee inquiry indicates that there are limited legislations that protect whistleblowers in Australia. Many whistleblowers blamed the government for failing to provide protection in exposing misconduct in 7-eleven and they were forced to contend with consequences of their actions. The shortcomings in the law gave the franchise an opportunity to treat their employees however they deemed right. The increase in corporate misconduct in Australia had led to the formulation of policies by the government that governs these areas. From the committee of inquiry formed legislations that protect employees have been discussed in the parliament. This had created an opportunity to change how companies handle whistleblowers in their workforce. According to the Transparency International Australia, the government should fill the gap in whistleblower protection both in the private and public sector. This reduces the silence in workplaces and creates a safe working environment. The lack of whistleblower protection by the government is also an opportunity for the organization to formulate protection laws for whistleblowers within the organization. This includes procedures in which employees can access information that may be deemed confidential and possible consequences for whistleblowing. The company can join international bodies to provide it with whistleblowing standards and protection to individuals. The franchise has an obligation towards the employees regardless of their attitudes towards the management (Botha, M. M. 2015). Employees should not fee afraid to voice their concerns and be heard. Enforcement The code of conduct formulated by the franchise should be implemented through strategies developed to ensure its success. This reduces misconduct among employees in different hierarchy levels in the organization. This protects employees from unethical behaviors displayed by other employees (Wiese, T. 2014). Some of the strategies that the franchise can adopt to realize the success of the formulated code of conduct include: Provide clear guidelines to the expected kind of behavior in the workplace. For example, the franchise can create zero tolerant environments to discrimination and harassment of workers. Possible consequences of such behaviors should be clearly outlined in the code of conduct. Have a reward system for ethical behavior of employees. If an employee uses the expected channels to report an issue they should be rewarded fro their effort. This encourages other employees to follow suit and unethical behavior in the organization is reduced. The franchise should provide privacy to whistleblowers and complainants that are afraid of retaliation from their fellow employees. Some employees may have crucial information that involves their fellow employees which make it hard to come out and condemn their behaviors. The franchise should create an ethical panel as it is a large company with many stores across the world. Such bodies would be responsible for making judgments on employee behavior and formulating guidelines for the code of conduct in their stores. Conclusion Code of conduct is necessary for daily operation within an organization. These operations are normally intertwined therefore requires some level of regulation to ensure that activities are done as expected. It allows for smooth running of activities within the organization. References Background Briefing, 2016, Taken to the cleaners: International students underpaid, exploited. https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/backgroundbriefing/international-students-exploited/ 7472384 Botha, MM, 2015, Responsibilities of companies towards employees. Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal. 18, 1-67. Kotzian, P Sto?ber, T Weissenberger, BE, 2016, Reducing Antitrust Violations: Do Codes of Conduct and Compliance Training Make a Difference? London publishers. SBS, 2016, Exploitation of international students getting worse in Australia. https://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/punjabi/en/article/2016/09/14/ exploitation-international-students-getting-worse-Australia SMH, 2016, 7-Eleven store cops record penalty for exploitation of workers. https://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace-relations/ 7eleven-store-cops-record-penalty-for-exploitation-of-workers-20160621-gpo026.html The Guardian, 2016, 7-Eleven is the tip of the iceberg in worker exploitation. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/12/ 7 -eleven-is-the-tip-of-the-iceberg-in-worker-exploitation-so-whos-turning-a-blind-eye Thor, B Schultz, A 2016, Code of conduct. Pearson Wood, G Svensson, G Callaghan, M 2015, An International Comparison of the use of Codes of Ethics in the Marketplace: Australia and Sweden. 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