ETHICAL DILEMMA - HIRING BASED ON BODY ART

ETHICAL DILEMMA - HIRING

BASED ON BODY ART
Group Members:SR. No.
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NAME
NIDHI PANDIT
ADITYA HEDAU
KUNAL NAGWANI
NISHANTA SHIKHAR
VIRAJ PATIL
ABHINAV DHANANJAY
SRISHTI CHOWDHURY

Section: - E
Group no. : - 4
Submitted To: Dr. Saleena Khan
Date: - 29/08/2016

INTRODUCTION
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ROLL No.
201600318
201601242
201601135
201601147
201611301
201601346
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ETHICAL DILEMMA - HIRING BASED ON BODY ART

ETHICAL DILEMMA - HIRING BASED ON BODY ART - In this case the author deals
with the dilemmas associated with employees who have body art and who dont have body
art or tattoos. The case shows the freedom of speech that is practiced by employees by
getting themselves tattooed and the employment dilemma that is associated with these
employees.
Different employers have different opinions on hiring the employers with tattoos.
Like Leonardo's pizza situated in Gainesville, Florida regularly employees heavily tattooed
workers. Many employers like Walt Disney World, GEICO, Sea world, etc have policies
against visible tattoos. On the other hand there are companies like Bank of America, Allstate
and IBM that allow tattoos. It was also indicated in a survey that 58 of the employers were
less likely to hire someone with visible tattoos or body piercing.
Policies toward tattoos vary because there is no rule and employers do as they wish.

QUESTIONS
1. Why do some employers ban tattoos while others dont mind them?

Some employers think it is an employees personal matter: liking and disliking about
tattoos in a work place depend on the culture and moral of the organization.
Some employers don't care, it's the quality of the person and his/her work that matters. As
long as you dress safely it doesn't matter.
Some employers personally dislike tattoos: Probably because the employers are running
an environment that is considered to be suitable for all members of an average family
and feel tattoos don't reflect appropriate set of moral principles. Some tattoos are
assault and unsuitable to customers a n d t h e e m p l o y e r s f e e l e m p l o y e e s
w e a r i n g t h e m l a c k professionalism.
Sometimes customers may be offended and employees are prevented from displaying
their tattoos: Because some of us think tattoos are a sign of less than up righting type of
person.
Employers will probably not allow tattoos if they feel it will drive away
customers.

2. Is it fair for employers to reject applicants who have tattoos? Is it fair for
employees, if hired, to conceal their tattoos?

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ETHICAL DILEMMA - HIRING BASED ON BODY ART

It is not fair for employees to reject applicants who have tattoos because a person
should not be judged based on their personal life and decisions. A person should be
judged on their skills, knowledge and attitude. These three are the major factors to
determine the ability and the values of a person. The proportion of all the three
should be of same size in an employee for them to be considered effective in their
job. This should be the major criteria for recruiting employees.

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It should not be required for an employee to conceal their tattoos as tattoos are
means for people to express themselves. People having tattoos are usually
considered to be creative, open and easy to approach. People tend to be more open
to people who are open about themselves. But senior citizens and older people may
find it freakish to see people having tattoos because of generation gap.
Hiding tattoos should not be required rather people should be sensitized that those
having tattoos are normal people just like anyone else, in order to do away with the
taboo associated with it. The knowledge of an individual's value system provides
insights into what makes an individual and how is the individual. Therefore a tattoo
also describes the thinking, belief of an individual. It also describes and individual
behavior.

3. Should it be illegal to allow tattoos to be a factor at all in the hiring

process?
Nowadays, its not rare to see a man or woman with a tattoo or with multiple tattoos all over
ones body. The tattoos are of different forms like pictures, scriptures, names, alphabets etc.
People make a dairy of their own on their skin. If we make it illegal to hire people on the basis
of tattoos we are falling in the criteria of freedom of speech. Freedom of speech is being able to
express ones thoughts and feelings in any way thats not harmful to others [1]. Some companies
do not hire people with tattoos and some may hire people with tattoos, it depends on one firm to
another. They are often considered to be a way of expressing their own thoughts, beliefs and
feelings of a person. Therefore, people with tattoos should be protected under the First

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ETHICAL DILEMMA - HIRING BASED ON BODY ART

Amendment. Also, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination based on
race, sex, color, religion, and national origin (US EEOC) [2]. There are many people who get a
tattoo because of some religious belief or practice therefore by not hiring people because of the
having a tattoo or not having a tattoo is breaking the law. This kind of discrimination should not
be permitted because business looses a prospective and may be an effective employee who could
benefit in the business. A person should not be bypassed on the fact of having body art as ones
qualification, wisdom, experience, judgment and skills should be a factor for hiring.

MANAGERIAL LEARNING

Employers should be more concerned about the quality of work their employee are
producing not how their bodies look.
We should respect every individuals personal decision.
Asking employees to hide their tattoos or not hiring them because of their tattoos is
against the Civil Right Act 1964...
Tattooing & piercing has been common practice in several different religions and
should be respected the way it is

SOURCE
[1] and [2]: http://projectcensored.org/body-art-discrimination-violation-firstamendment/

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