Question Description
Respond to two classmates about the film NOrth Country
by Sanjay Rammanam
Morals and ethics play a major role in business leadership. After watching the film North Country I found many moral and ethic breaches. But the moral breach that stuck out to me was the locker room scene. It’s when the women go into their locker room before their shifts, to find words written in blood on the walls. This takes place a day after Josey meets with the corporate managers of the mining plant, to express her thoughts on the problems with the men in the workplace. And that didn’t sit well with the men at all. I believe this is a moral breach because, instead of the men talking about how they feel they took a very childish and what can be viewed as threatening approach. I think a remedy for this breach is to have an investigation to find which men were involved in the vandalism and fire them immediately. Another thing they can do is implement a security measurement. It seems like anybody can come and go in the women’s locker room. There should be keys are access cards given to only the women. Because it should be a right to have privacy and a place free of distractions. A place to prepare and wind down before and after work.An ethic breach would be when Josey repeatedly tried to tell the branch manager whats going on. But he shrugged it off and said “boys will be boys”. The company did not take action on the issues. Even when Josey went as far up as the corporate managers, they acted like nothing happened. Then instead of finding a solution they ask Josey to resign. To ensure there was no settlement or bad name on the company. This is very ethically wrong, for the top managers to just look the other way on a serious problem. A remedy would be to separate the workers by putting them on different shifts. Or punish anyone who can’t control their actions. Wether thats suspension with out pay or firing them.
By Christopher Urbina
In the film North country there are many instances of ethical and moral breaches. During this time, working women were rooted to the stereotype that they should be say at home moms and not workers. And since this film was taken place around the 1980’s women’s workers rights weren’t considered, often stepped on and pushed to the side. This frequently led to gender-based violence and unequal opportunities for women.Morals is defined as an individual’s ideas about right or wrong, i.e a persons beliefs. Moral breaches found in this movie are; the adult toy in Josey’s locker, blood all over the women’s locker room, when the men flipped over Josey while she was in the restroom portable, and when Bobby pushes Josey to the ground. Although all of these breaches were unjust, the locker room scenes stuck out the most. In order to protect the company from liability I would reprimand any male employee that has gone into the females locker room without proper reason. Then I would take the necessary steps to ensure that all women in the workplace has their right to privacy and not fall victim to gender-based violence or discrimination.
Ethics is defined as a set of rules that people tend to follow, for example; In the workplace it is ethical for a boss or superior to provide guidance/ help when a lower division employee seeks it. One ethical breach found in the film is when Josey’s superior assures her that she will get help when she needed it but then refuses Josey’s request when she claims that she has been sexually harassed in the workplace. Consequently, Josey brings this claim past her boss all the way to the corporate managers of the company. This ethical breach should have been stopped from when Josey first brought up sexual harassment with her boss at the mine. This could have prevented the company from deeper allegations. If higher officials were ethically and morally veracious (unlike in the movie) then the situation wouldn’t have stooped to an higher level of jurisdiction.At this moment it was in the companies best interest to clean house and remove anyone that partook in this breach. Implementing sexual harassment and discrimination contracts that every employee must sign (similar to the contracts we have in the workforce today) to prevent any future accusations or contentions.
References
The World of Business in Movies https://businessmovies.wordpress.com/2008/02/12/north-country/ (Links to an external site.)
Women’s Rights in the Workplace https://smallbusiness.chron.com/womens-rights-workplace-706.html#:~:text=Women’s%20rights%20in%20the%20workplace%20include%20many%20facets%2C%20such%20as,as%20she%20can%20perform%20satisfactorily.&text=Women%20should%20report%20all%20advances,Opportunity%20Commission%20or%20a%20supervisor.
