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Employment Termination

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Employment Termination
Running head: MORAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES OF TERMINATION

Moral and Ethical Issues Involving Employment Terminations
University of Phoenix
MGT216

Moral and Ethical Issues Involving Employment Terminations
When the decision is made to terminate an employee-employer relationship, the employer faces a far more daunting challenge than simply being able to terminate the employee, with or without due cause. Difficult steps must be taken to ensure that all precautions, legal and ethical, have been scrutinized and actuated prior to the final decision to terminate the relationship. Present ethical guidelines stipulate that employers, especially those involved in management, are responsible for ensuring that ethics for both the company and the employees are enforced in accordance with laws and regulations. Conflicting interests in the decision-making process of terminating employees must be avoided to justify terminations that reside within the fair constructs of the law. The purpose of this paper is to describe and identify social issues in relation to legal and ethical practices of employment terminations.
Terminating Employee-Employer Relationships
Various factors exist when considering the justification for employment terminations. Employers can simply invoke their right to terminate employees based on the at-will employment doctrine. However, carefully examining the legal repercussions prior to capitalizing on at-will terminations is recommended. Another significant reason for terminations are behavioral-related offenses by employees, instigating due cause.
AT-WILL TERMINATIONS
Most states within the United States of America have adopted the employment- and termination-at-will doctrine that came about around the late 1800s and early 1900s. It was later rendered by the California Supreme Court to be interpreted “Precisely as may the employee cease labor at his whim or pleasure, and whatever be his reason, good, bad, or indifferent, leave no one a legal



References: Dan Van Bogaert, & Arthur Gross-Schaefer. (2005, July). Terminating the Employee-Employer Relationship: Ethical and Legal Challenges. Employee Relations Law Journal, 31(1), 49-66.  Retrieved June 6, 2010, from ABI/INFORM Complete. (Document ID: 846305971). McAllister, S. (2008). Human Resources - Termination for excessive absences.  AllExperts.com. Retrieved from http://en.allexperts.com/q/Human-Resources-2866/2008/4/Termination-excessive-absences.htm. USLegal.com. (2008). Employee Termination Law & Legal Definition. Retrieved from http://definitions.uslegal.com/e/employee-termination/.

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