Assessment Task
From your experience, evaluate real-life scenarios where you have demonstrated that you have acquired the behaviour, skill or knowledge in each of the selected assessment criteria below. Inform your answer with wider reading to critically analyse your performance. You may identify a different scenario for each assessment criteria or use a scenario to demonstrate up to any two assessment criteria. You could consider adopting the STAR approach when structuring your answer. If this approach is adopted the follow areas should be covered:
- Situation
- Task
- Action
- Result
The majority of words are likely to be allocated to the ‘action’ and ‘result’ parts of your answer.
As a manager at Tesco plc, I have been responsible in making decisions based on various ethical perspectives to adopt inclusivity and utilise better contributions of colleagues at the workplace. Tesco has a code of business conduct, which states that our values and leadership behaviours must be used to make decisions that will always do the right thing to each other and the business (Tesco PLC, 2021). This act of principled actions indicates ethical practises to encourage employees and enhance job performances. The case of employee scheduling conflict that I had in a big distribution centre demonstrates how different theories of ethics can be used practically in order to come up with a reasonable and practical solution. In this case, a set of standard procedures must be adhered to, comprehended, and incorporated into the various requirements of all the affected colleagues.
The policy of Tesco to treat people the way they prefer to be treated and to possess a Code of Ethics to govern the staff constitutes a guideline to address situations (Tesco PLC, 2020). This significance is in the support of ethical decision-making to create trust and improve reputation to achieve long-term success. The situation in my local store was related to the assignment of overtime and weekend shifts. A situation arose where a system was needed to distribute a limited number of weekend shifts that required working irregular and extra hours. These shifts were desirable because they offered premium pay and allowances (Morris, 2022). This scenario demanded a method that adheres to the fundamental principles and incorporates the knowledge of the various ethical models to guide my judgment. These ethical reasoning principles demand equitable final judgement, which is an inclusive and justifiable final decision. Therefore, it was a peak trading season, through which the working overtime was possible but there was a dispute over the way of allocation of this overtime.
The immediate task was to allocate the shifts fairly to all colleagues, while meeting the operational needs of the store. The informal system based on seniority (top management) had been used previously, which a group of younger employees argued was unfair as it permanently excluded them from accessing the higher earnings. The challenge was to have a balance between the expectations of the experienced staff and the demands for equal opportunity from the newer employees.
An experienced manager suggested a first-come, first-served approach, arguing for its efficiency and individual responsibility since it is within the ethical individualism theory. This perspective supports personal self-interest as the guiding principle (Anderson and Caldwell, 2020). Ethical individualism suggests that individuals should make choices that maximise their own long-term well-being (Askari, 2020). However, this approach would have disadvantaged colleagues with family and caring responsibilities because they cannot commit to extra hours due to the nature of their personal lives. This insight made me understand the Care Ethics framework, which is about relationships and responsiveness to the situations of all vulnerable stakeholders (Sander-Staudt, 2024).
My action was to implement an ethical reasoning and decision-making process that merged the core principles of Utilitarianism, Deontology, and Virtue Ethics to outweigh the ‘first-come, first-served’ model. I applied a utilitarian perspective to analyse the consequences of various options with my aim to achieve the inclusive well-being and happiness for the majority of people (Eldakak, Khalid and Loke, 2017). A ‘first-come, first-served’ model might be efficient, but would reduce the workforce’s overall happiness (the new employees). I gathered data on colleague preferences and constraints to determine the impact of different scenarios. Also, I applied the principles of Deontology as a moral theory that judges the morality of an action based on whether it adheres to a set of rules or duties, rather than the consequences of the action (Chen, 2019). This theory ensures that the moral obligation to treat all employees with respect and fairness, as voiced in the Tesco Code of Ethics’ focus on respect, dignity, and fair treatment (TESCO, 2016). This meant creating a system that respected the worth of every employee’s needs, irrespective of their tenure. I also complied with the Virtue Ethics framework to support character and moral virtues rather than rules or consequences to determine right action. This aimed to integrate virtues such as fairness and integrity throughout the process to ensure there is transparency and open communication within Tesco. Thus, my decision-making process was an application of an ethical approach to achieve positive outcomes and adhere to moral duties.
Moreover, the action involved the use of an open dialogue with the team to understand everyone’s availability and needs. I applied a rights-based framework, which suggests that all individuals have the right to be respected, the right to privacy, and to manage their personal lives without undue pressure (Ebert, Wildhaber, and Adams-Prassl, 2021). This meant balancing the rights of some to get opportunities with the rights of others to fair consideration despite their constraints. I also applied the Justice Framework to ensure that there is fairness in distributing the benefits (extra pay) and burdens (working busy shifts) (Uhde et al., 2020). This required me to create a schedule that balances the need to ensure that those who needed flexibility were given chances and the opportunities were distributed equitably over time. I partnered with the internal People Data team to know the demographics of my team. This was to make sure that my decision-making process was informed by the real data on diversity and inclusion in the workforce as part of the strategy of Tesco.
The outcome was the introduction of a rotating shift system whereby everybody had an equal opportunity of getting the premium shifts. This offered flexibility as people could trade shifts in a legitimate internal market. The extra-time and weekend shifts were provided effectively and enhanced morale and justice of the team. The very decision-making process became a transparent exercise that established trust to follow the main value of Tesco to treat people in a way they want to be treated (Tesco PLC, 2020). My strategy helped to avoid the adverse effects of the first-come-first-served system as it minimises the level of involvement among the employees. An internal Pulse survey of post-implementation showed that it was rated at 89 percent. This is because the new overtime system is fair to the team members that were affected. This is the quantifiable effect, which proved that ethical considerations positively influence the perception and engagement of colleagues. Therefore, the moral choices endorsed these outcomes within the principles of frameworks and a mind-sharing attitude.
