Unethical behavior is defined as behavior that contravenes rules designed to maintain the fairness and morality of a situation.

Though commonly considered to be acts of physical assault, workplace violence as in the case above is actually a problem of much greater range. Workplace violence consists of any behavior in which a person is threatened, intimidated, abused, or assaulted at or relating to his or her employment. It may include such acts as: Threats, verbal or written - which includes any expression where there is an intent to harm the recipient. Harassment - acts which embarrass, demean, humiliate, annoy, abuse, or alarm the recipient, where these acts are known to be unwelcome and undesired. These acts may include gestures, words, intimidation, bullying, and any other inappropriate behaviors. Verbal abuse - swearing, cursing, insulting, or using language that is condescending. Threatening behavior - this includes pounding furniture or walls, shaking fists, throwing objects, or destroying property. Physical attacks - including pushing, shoving, hitting, kicking. Workplace violence doesn't necessarily need to occur at the workplace itself. It can happen at any business-related functions that occur off-site, such as conferences, social events, and trade shows, or away from work altogether, such as in the case of threatening phone calls.

The causes of unethical behaviours in a case study above could be because of the following reasons: Employees are not very responsive to a strategy of coercion. This strategy implies that management does not trust its employees. As a result, worker satisfaction and performance deteriorates and the management and employee relationship suffers. Self interest caused by less satisfaction with the remunerations so the supervisor tends to over look the subordinates.

Balancing work and family, poor internal communications Poor leadership from top management thereby affecting the junior staffs Work hours and work load, little time to do a lot of work, being brought about by poor planning by the supervisors. Lack of management support, that they are only interested in profits, how they are made it is an issue of another day, as long as the sales target are made and profit goals. Little or no recognition of achievements, no motivation and in any case if one person complains, a dismissal letter is given immediately. Company politics, in this case if he is a relative, friend of the director it will be difficult to say anything one has to just swallow and bear with the situation. Personal financial worries that all the problems of the supervisor are borne by the subordinates. Insufficient resources, this causes the supervisor to always doubt the workers even if they have done their best. He will think that they stole some few things. The case above is unethical because of the following facts: Bullying, belittling, calling and texting at all hours of the night, constantly criticizing on the littles of issues, calls you at home to insult you, threw a water bottle at me once. Expects us to work until 8 or 9 every night. All the issues mentioned are unethical and some of them are illegal. As a student of Business ethics this is what I would do to curb down the situation and in the long run for it to become an ethical work place. Hiring ethical people, this will create an ethical work place, the introduction of an ethics programme, can also raise the expectation employees have of their employing organisation.

Human dignity means that humans have intrinsic worth, managers should keep away form Abusive contracts Exploitation Manipulation Poor working conditions Management should remember: expect the worst from employees and you will get the worst from employees and you will get the worst. Expect the best from employees, and give them room to do their best, and they will rise to the occasion. The correct methods will help you create a moral environment. An ethical culture must start from the top, establishing a code of ethics; this should include procedures that would support an employee reporting unethical behaviour. Setting a good example and challenging behaviors that are unethical. Visually inspect the workplace, considering its processes and interactions. Look into its design and layout, as well as its practices and accepted behaviors. To prevent workplace violence, there are many efforts that can be made. Among the most effective is the establishment of a workplace violence prevention program which should include a written policy. This policy should be specific and clear, and should be continuously updated. Make certain that every employee has read and understood the policy, and that any additions are clearly explained. Every employee should be provided with his or her own copy, and each person should sign to state that they have read and understood it. The policy should also provide employees with instructions regarding what they should do if they are victims of workplace violence. The second is to give a clear outline of what is expected of the person who has discovered the unethical behavior. It should include the person who should be contacted, and how to go about doing it. With clear instructions, there will be less hesitation in reporting unethical activities, and then they can be dealt with quickly and relatively easily, before they develop into overwhelming issues.

Furthermore, the repercussions of unethical behaviors should be clearly stated. This way, both the person doing the activity, and the witness to the activity will be well aware of the way that things will be dealt with, and there won't be any risk of someone not reporting unethical behavior because they're afraid that the culprit will be unfairly treated. Communication is key in the proper management of unethical behavior in any workplace.

In conclusion: the longer this cycle continues, the harder it is to break. However, changes can be made to break the cycle. A firm and unwavering push for company-wide ethical behavior, with third-party oversight and accountability, helps immensely. The selection of, and commitment to, a company vision and mission statement provides clarity and a sense of purpose. A top down modeling of ethical behavior and a desire to serve reinforces that commitment, coupled with the expectation that all employees will follow in those footsteps or suffer consequences. Finally, there has to be consistent enforcement of those expectations for all employees at all levels.