Your company has been a major employer in the local community for years, but shifts in the global marketplace have forced some changes in the company’s long-term direction. In fact, the company plans to reduce local staffing by as much as 50 percent over the next 5 to 10 years, starting with a small layoff next month. The size and timing of future lay-offs have not been decided, although there is little doubt that more layoffs will happen at some point. In the first draft of a letter aimed at community leaders, you write that “this first layoff is part of a continuing series of staff reductions anticipated over the next several years.” However, your boss is concerned about the vagueness and negative tone of the language and asks you to rewrite that sentence to read “this layoff is part of the company’s ongoing efforts to continually align its resources with global market conditions.” Do you think this suggested wording is ethical, given the company’s economic influence in the com-munity? Explain your answer.

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This is in reference to the approach of laying off employees as part of the global shift business st... View the full answer