b)Outline the barriers to exposing unethical behaviors or practices in

organizations.
In an article entitled Ethical Breakdowns authors Max and Ann Tenbrunsel said the vast
majority of managers mean to run ethical organizations and while there are some Out and out
crooks. They went on to say that the majority of ethical lapses in companies occur because of
either the blinders of leadership or that business leadership may unknowingly encourage
unethical behaviors in their companies.
Bribery
Bribery could also be one of the reasons why unethical behaviors are not being exposed in
organizations .For example if a sales person catches another sales person in a boutique
overcharging a pair of shoes, that sales person may fail to expose his fellow worker because he
can be given a price money so that he does not say it out. Hence, they are now engaged in the
same act.
Lack of action
Adding on unethical behaviors are not being exposed in organizations because of lack of action
taken by the top management. For example nepotism might take place in an organization and one
of the subordinates might know it very well that the person given that particular job does not
have the qualification and that he or she is a relative to the manager. And with every confidence
he says it out and no action is taken and on top of that, that same person is promoted, hence this
will act as a barrier to exposing unethical behaviors in organizations.
Lack of evidence
Certain unethical behaviors might not have tangible evidence. The reason being that in most
cases there is no evidence to most of cases like sexual harassment as it encompasses acts like
sexual provocative actions and compliments that do not have concrete evidence. For example a
secretary might be sexually harassed by her boss and fail to report and in the case that she reports
the issue, the boss might refuse that he did not do such an act
.
Lack of proper reporting structure
In the organization employees may fail to disclose unethical practices due to lack of proper
reporting structures. This is because the one who is doing unethical behavior is the big boss
where subordinates are suppose to report their grievances hence they will not report and the
unethical behavior continues to take place.
Fear of the unknown
Low level employees may fail to disclose unethical behaviors because of fear of the unknown
.For example top level management might be practicing unethical behavior such as Fraud and
because low level employees do not know what is going to happen next if they report this issue,
they will not disclose this and hence unethical behavior continues to happen.
Fear of losing job
Employees in organizations may fear to expose unethical practices because they fear to be
dismissed from work by big bosses who practiced such unethical behaviors .For example the top
management in many companies in Zimbabwe due to high rate of unemployment they employee
their relatives who lacks skills and proper qualification and because of fear of losing job,
subordinates may not expose their act.
Lack of incentive to disclose unethical behavior
Employees in the organization are unwilling to disclose unethical behaviors such as sexual
harassments. For example sexual harassment of a student by lecturers .some students might be
reluctant to report such cases because they do not gain anything from reporting these issues,
rather thy lose because if they report , the lecturers may make them fail their courses at the end
of the semester. Hence, they rather gain from these unethical behaviors than loosing leading
them to continue doing such behaviors.
Fear of losing job
Employees in organizations may fear to expose unethical behaviors which are being practiced in
organizations due to the fact that some of these behaviors are being practiced by their managers
.This is so because they fear to be dismissed from work by managers who possesses legitimate
power. For example a manager may employee his relatives who lacks skills and qualifications in
favor (nepotism) and scare away highly qualified personnel at the expense of the organization.
Fear of tarnishing the image of the company
Moreover both the management and employees may decide not to expose unethical behaviors in
the organization for them to retain their good reputation to the external stakeholders. The
company may lose its customers, suppliers and can be sued against law when such unethical
behaviors are exposed. For example unethical behavior such as window dressing of financial
accounts and misleading advertising .If such cases are disclosed the company may lose potential
investors and customers .They can also be sued against misleading advertising.
People benefiting from these practices
According to Shamssuzoha ,MO Hasan Shumon 2007 said in his research people are not in
position to disclose unethical behavior because they are also gaining from such unethical
practices. For example practice of tax evasion or avoidance and fraud in the organization. This
might cause employee and its management not to disclose such issues because they are
benefiting. For example employees might benefit from receiving high salaries when the company
evade from tax authorities. Again the top management might decide not to take action on fraud
issues from accountancy because they might be also benefiting from such practice.
Political muscle
Political muscle could be one of the reasons why unethical practices are not being exposed in
organizations. For example If a manager with a strong political influence is stealing stocks of the
company and the guard is witnessing this act, he or she may fail to expose the manager because
he fears to put his life at risk or threat since this can turn to be personal.