BSK1001-Assessment 3 by

jolienguyen30082002 — 2024-06-05 09:53:00 UTC

Ethical decisions at the workplace must be seen as a tool for helping employees to feel more valued and at the same time acknowledging the fact that ethical decisions are directly impacted by the quality of the work environment (Judeh, 2021). Thus, the specific topic of this essay is gender inequality in workplace with its reference to the cultural and religious context of Jordan. The discussion of which will rely on the principles of the utilitarianism theory and will correspond to the UN SDG 5 (Gender Equality) with respect to its ethical business consideration, and the suggestion of the effective strategies for improving the gender equality in organizations.

jolienguyen30082002 — 2024-06-05 10:00:00 UTC

jolienguyen30082002 — 2024-06-05 10:01:21 UTC

Ethics is crucial for business organizations as it promotes credibility and helps organizations to achieve worthwhile goals and objectives. In this context, this assignment sought to explore gender inequality in Jordan bearing in mind the principles of utilitarianism and SDG 5. Major findings presented include the tertiary level unethical gender inequality in utilitarianism point of view as well as its limitation towards attainment of Target 5.1. It is essential to tackle this ethical issue to help adopters provide employers fair working conditions and contribute to economic development while striving to meet the UN SDGs for women’s employment, thus contributing to forming a more ethical global society.

jolienguyen30082002 — 2024-06-08 05:57:21 UTC

The promotion of the gender equal opportunities in tourism is crucial to unlock the potential for development that tourism offers as well as the path to fair society. In the study by Jamhawi et al. (2015), it is seen that the gender distribution of the tourist industry of Madaba in Jordan show that women form 20% of the workers, and in the age group 30-39 (Jamhawi et al., 2015). This shows the need to wake up and ensure there are opportunities for women in this particular sector of the economy for both purposes of welfare and as a way of diversifying employees in the labor markets. Yet, Banihani & Syed (2020) showed that work engagement has its shades: masculinity , femininity, and how it is perceived by people with different working experiences (Banihani & Syed, 2020). These they argue stem from inequality regimes and familial pressures that limit women’s time of Employment and reduce their ability to meaningfully engage in paid work. Using a socio-cultural perspective, Mehtap et al. (2016) build on this by understanding the social cultural barriers, education level, economic status and legal systems affecting women employment in Jordan (Mehtap et al., 2016). In order to effectively deal with these complex issues, there are required broad-spectrum solutions that aim at achieving equality between men and women in the spheres of learning, working, and legislating. This entails not only seeking to increase access to education and training opportunities but also working to improve work-life balance arrangements and contesting traditional gendered discourses regarding the roles women should play in the family and the workforce.

jolienguyen30082002 — 2024-06-08 05:59:37 UTC

jolienguyen30082002 — 2024-06-08 06:01:30 UTC

In their 2018 article titled ‘Implications of Religion, Culture, and Legislation for Gender Equality at Work: Qualitative Insights from Jordan’, Koburtay, Syed, and Haloub analyses the impact of religion, the culture and the laws regulating the economic sector particularly for Jordan’s business (Koburtay et al., 2020). The core ethical concern is the lack of employment equity in Jordan as most women are underemployed or not employed at all in executive positions. The article shows how the culture of interpreting Islamic religious practices’ in relation to women alongside the Bedouin tribe endures conflict with or erases the Islamic teachings of fairness and justice in employment to stifle women’s career progression (Koburtay et al., 2020). For instance, while the Islamic texts that govern the societies encourage equality between male and female, the rigid cultural practices adopted from tribalism restrict women employment (Koburtay et al., 2020).

Evidence used by the authors is strong and airtight. For example, they cite statistics from the Jordanian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, which show a stark gender disparity in employment within the hotel sector: 35,460 male workers compared to 2,833 female workers (Social Security Corporation, 2014). Similarly, the 2023 SDG Report shows that even with small changes, inadequate progress was made towards narrowing the gender gap in managerial and political roles although the inequities differ in various regions (United Nations, 2023). The other articles also pointed out the need for a sophisticated appreciation for how culture and religion interplay in defining gender relations at work (Metcalfe, 2008; Syed & Van Buren, 2014).

Utilitarism

jolienguyen30082002 — 2024-06-08 06:02:51 UTC

Utilitarianism is an ethical approach to the problem of gender discrimination in the workplace, which is discussed in an article by Koburtay et al. (2020). Through the framework of utilitarianism, it is universally agreed that the right action will always be the one that results in the most good or the greatest amount of utility for all parties involved (Shaw et al., 2020). This theory centers on the result of an action and aims at maximizing the utility in general for the majority (Shaw et al., 2020).

When it comes to gender inequality, utilitarianism focuses more on the benefit of society in providing equality to women and girls. Therefore, it implies that when there are equal opportunities for women, the productivity of the business increases, the morale of employees is boosted, and the culture of diversity in the workplace is embraced (Gartzia, 2021). These benefits are especially important because they help maintain economic growth and social and economic stability.

In outcomes of the article, the application of utilitarianism reveals that the business is unethical since it results in a low overall utility. The gender pay gap impacts employment opportunities leading to the inability to fully utilize talents hence low outputs and costs the economy a lot of money (Koburtay et al., 2020). Furthermore, continued exclusion of women as disenfranchised members of society, increases suffering of an enormous segment of the population. For instance, the article gives some figures of employment in Jordan’s hotel sector where only 1,147 women are employed, while 12,847 men are employed (Social Security Corporation, 2014).

SDG 5 - Gender Equality

jolienguyen30082002 — 2024-06-08 06:05:14 UTC

The United Nations sustainable development goals or UN SDGs for short were inaugurated in 2015 under the 2030 sustainable development agenda that seeks to solve key problems across the world like poverty, unfairness, and eco-instability (Carlsen & Bruggemann, 2022). SDG 5 deals with elimination of all forms of inequalities particularly for women and girls (Target 5.1). Target 5.1 is particularly concerned with eradicating discrimination of women and girls, to allow them have equal rights to make decisions, education, employment and politics (Hirsu et al., 2019). It seeks to address gender prejudice at its root, and empower women worldwide, providing them with equal rights as well as opportunities so that they continue contributing to the sustainable development of society (Küfeoğlu, 2022).

Ethical Issue

jolienguyen30082002 — 2024-06-08 06:06:24 UTC

The ethical issue of gender inequality in Jordan squarely falls under Target 5.1. The authors discuss the barriers which include the culture and practices against women and other genders, which hinder corporate SGDs from achieving goals stated under Target 5.1 (Koburtay et al., 2020). In response to them, organisations need to establish equality at work policies and fight for culturally sensitive changes. These barriers were identified by the article and the suggestion made was to get more education and advocacy for gender equality (Koburtay et al., 2020). Solving these fundamental issues in this patriarchal society can be quite challenging and complex and needs a more nuanced approach, while embracing some culture, at the same time advocating for change (Gartzia, 2021).

jolienguyen30082002 — 2024-06-08 06:10:47 UTC

jolienguyen30082002 — 2024-06-08 06:13:13 UTC

jolienguyen30082002 — 2024-06-08 06:21:43 UTC

Reference List

jolienguyen30082002 — 2024-06-08 06:25:19 UTC

Banihani, M., & Syed, J. (2020). Gendered work engagement: Qualitative insights from Jordan. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 31(5), 611-637.

Carlsen, L., & Bruggemann, R. (2022). The 17 United Nations’ sustainable development goals: A status by 2020. International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology, 29(3), 219-229.

Gartzia, L. (2021). Gender equality in business action: A multi-agent change management approach. Sustainability, 13(11), 6209.

Hirsu, L., Hashemi, L., & Quezada-Reyes, Z. (2019). SDG 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. RMIT University, Melbourne.

Jamhawi, M., Al-Shorman, A., Hajahjah, Z., Okour, Y., & Alkhalidi, M. (2015). Gender equality in tourism industry: A case study from Madaba, Jordan. Sustainable tourism management, 119.

Judeh, M. (2021). Effect of work environment on employee engagement: Mediating role of ethical decision-making. Problems and Perspectives in Management, 19(3), 221.

Koburtay, T., Syed, J., & Haloub, R. (2020). Implications of religion, culture, and legislation for gender equality at work: Qualitative insights from Jordan. Journal of Business ethics, 164(3), 421-436.

Küfeoğlu, S. (2022). SDG-5 Gender Equality. In Emerging Technologies: Value Creation for Sustainable Development (pp. 277-288). Springer.

Mehtap, S., Jayyousi, Y., Gammoh, N., & Al Haj, A. (2016). Factors affecting women’s participation in the Jordanian workforce. International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, 6(10), 790-793.

Metcalfe, B. D. (2008). Women, management and globalization in the Middle East. Journal of Business ethics, 83, 85-100.

Shaw, W., Barry, V., & Muntean, D. (2020). Moral Issues in Business. Cengage. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/vu/detail.action?docID=6511766

Social Security Corporation. (2014). Annual report 2013: Statistical appendix.

Syed, J., & Van Buren, H. J. (2014). Global business norms and Islamic views of women’s employment. Business Ethics Quarterly, 24(2), 251-276.

United Nations. (2023). The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2023: Special Edition. https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2023/The-Sustainable-Development-Goals-Report-2023.pdf

Reference List file

jolienguyen30082002 — 2024-06-08 06:35:20 UTC