Business Ethics: Individual Ethical Decision-Making Process - Assignment Example

? MID-TERM EXAM QUESTIONS Identify the three steps in the Individual Ethical Decision-Making Process and discuss how characteristics of individuals and organizations can influence our ethical behavior. In a research it has been found out that talking about factors which can have an impact upon decision-making that is ethical in nature within the work world can be defined by an approach named person situation interaction. This approach states that situational and individual factors collectively effect the decisions taken within the contexts of the organization. According to the individual perspective it has been noted that the philosophies of ethical decision making of individuals manipulate the management procedure of ethical problems and the way the behavioral decisions are taken. The ethical philosophies of an individual are characterized by ethical principles and norms that they possess as their ethical frames for reference. Every individual faces to take moral decisions on daily basis. These decisions revolve around the questions related to correct or false. Therefore, the bases in accordance with which these decisions are produced are shown several researchers (Stead, Worrel, & Stead, 1994). Purtilo (2005) showed that the three steps in the Individual Ethical Decision-Making Process are recognizing and defining the issues that are ethical, reflecting upon and interpreting the information gathered in recognition of the issues, implementing and evaluating the decision taken. Define business ethics and explain the value of focusing on conduct rather than characteristics. Business ethics is the appliance of our perceptive of good and right to the collection of technologies, institutions, transactions, pursuits and activities. According to Rossouw et al. (2007) business ethics has been referred to those ethics that focuses on what is good and right especially in economical activities. Hence business ethics is more focused upon morally evaluating economic activities and practices. For the long term survival of any business and its profitability the ethics involved in the business are very essential to be followed. The failure of many companies is due to unethical behaviors. The companies with sound principles of business ethics are likely to benefit more and have a lesser risk of developing a bad reputation that can be harmful for the company in terms of future perspective. The board has the responsibility to actively manage the ethics performance of the company. Virtues have been defined as the main features that are valued by moral philosophers and religious thinkers. Identify and define the six high virtues presented by Peterson and Seligman. Select a virtue you believe is inherently important to the study of business ethics, identify its corresponding character strengths and explain why it is important. The six high virtues presented by, Peterson & Seligman (2004) are intelligence and awareness, bravery, humanity, fairness, self-control and transcendence. Wisdom and knowledge involves the cognitive strengths which engage the acquisition and use of knowledge the creativity thinking, curiosity, open-mindedness and things like love for mastering new skills etc. Courage involves the emotional strengths, the implementation of will to achieve goals, always speaking and supporting truth and being pure and genuine. Humanity relates to interpersonal strengths like kindness, doing good deeds for other, social intelligence and being aware of the feelings of others. Justice involves fairness in treating all people similarly and working well in teams. Temperance refers to the strengths that protect against excess, forgiveness, modesty, and prudence etc. Transcendence relates to appreciation of excellence and being aware of and thankful for the good things happening. Although all the virtues are important but justice, honesty, fairness happen to be the most important of all as all the other virtues revolve around it. If a person is not capable of doing justice and being honest then none of the other virtues apply to him. Discuss the concepts of altruism and egoism in terms of motives and benefits. Is it possible for businesses to be altruistic? Why or why not? According to altruism each individual should only perform those actions which will benefit others and not necessarily to that specific individual. It does not promote self-interest but it encourages promoting the interest of others (Sorrel and Hendry, 1994; Weiss, 2006). Altruists will give up their personal safety and security for the progression of others. This is based on both affection and personal concern for the welfare of others. Altruistic approach is empathic and sympathetic. A faith, more focused on a person’s self interest is called ethical egoism. It may have positive, negative or no effects on other people’s interests. Egoist people are generally seen as selfish. Yes, it is possible for businesses to be altruistic if they aim to survive in the market for a longer time period. The conservation of other people’s interest both present internally and externally help the businesses enjoy larger profits in the long run. Define the four types of responsibilities identified as part of the Corporate Social Responsibility Pyramid. With a particular corporation in mind, identify two examples of each type of responsibility. The Pyramid of CSR Corporate Social Responsibility is a graphic representation of four layers (Carroll, 1979) that are discussed ahead: Economic: It is the responsibility to provide investors with sufficient and smart returns on their investments. Like for example maximization of sales and minimization of costs. Legal – It is the responsibility is to obey all laws and stick to all regulations. Like for example environmental laws, consumer laws and laws protecting employees and their right. Ethical - It is the obligation to do what is right, just, and fair and to avoid or minimize harm to stakeholders like employees, the environment and the consumers etc. Philanthropic – It is the responsibility to contribute towards the financial and human resources to the community and to improve the quality of life. Walt Disney Company is amongst the top few most socially responsible companies. Disneyland trains run on biodiesel made with cooking oil. This establishes a worldwide conservation fund and institutes a green standard for all the cast members and employees. How might an organization benefit from being socially responsible? Give specific examples. An organization can enjoy a lot of benefits by being socially responsible. The reputation of the company is enhanced and improved if it is socially responsible. The organization starts to become an appealing brand. Increased number of customers is enjoyed by organizations with highest ethical standards. Organizations tend to attract more investors. The ability to retain, recruit and motivate the workforce of the business is dramatically improved and can benefit the organization that is socially responsible. For example Ford Motor Company launched a sustainability program for Ford and Lincoln Mercury dealers to decrease their CO2 emission. This has helped the company enjoy more customer loyalty and increased sales (Davis, 1960). Give an example of a Human Resource issue. Define the ethical issue, explain why it is an ethical problem, identify the costs associated with the issue and how it might be effectively addressed. The most important and valuable investment that a company has is the employees and the human resource that organization possesses. The success and failure of the organization is critically dependent upon the human resource it has. It is the responsibility of the management to attract and hire employees who are well qualified via developing an environment that is creative and fair both. It is very important for the workforce to enjoy their work as this will lead them to be more productive (Trevino and Nelson, 2007). The issues related to human resource of ethical nature arise when people work in form of teams and groups. Fairness happens to be the centre of attention to such issues. Fairness necessarily does not merely include the outcomes in terms of compensation and endorsement. Those organizations that manage to use fair processes and proceeds to handle employees in a sensitive manner are very powerful (Trevino and Nelson, 2007). If the organizations fail to do so then it is likely to suffer issues like greater turnover rate, low productivity, higher absenteeism, lower profits etc. So the management needs to keep a strict check and balance. Give an example of a typical conflict of interest issue. Define the ethical issue, explain why it is an ethical problem, identify the costs associated with the issue and how it might be effectively addressed. There are chances that the responsibilities of employees towards the organization conflict with his or her personal interests like that of making personal progress or profit. Situations like these take place when the personal interests of employees lead the employee take bad decisions which are of utmost importance to the employer or the organization. An example of conflicting interests can be when the employee starts to confer with a company in competition with the current organization in which he or she works (Parsons, 2007). So it is ethically incorrect to work in any organization where you have no interest in the type of tasks and responsibilities assigned to you. This is not just a loss to you as an individual but also a big loss for the organization as there are no chances of you being committed to that particular organization. Compare and contrast the Consequentialist and Deontological approaches to ethics. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using each and when might one be more effective than the other in addressing an ethical dilemma. According to the approach that is known to be consequential, the individuals are likely to do anything or everything to bring out the outstanding results in a place or a situation. This concept relates to the logical thinking that says that if the person is aware of the results of a particular act then he will be superior to the other person’s results. So, the individual tends to choose the act that will produce the best outcome (Uglietta, 2001). A person ought to preserve the capability to forecast the costs of an act in this consequential approach. The decision which produces the largest profit to the majority of individuals is the most ethically accepted decision by an individual who pursues this approach (Beckner, 2004). According to the approach that is called deontological, the results of acts are not important when it is about determining the true and false. In this approach, the majorly significant feature is to remember that consequences are unlikely to produce a difference in the determination of an action or person to be immoral or moral. The ending does not rationalize its mean. A morality standard helps in the determination if an act is correct and whether the individuals are right or not. Moral standards ought to be kept under all situations and scenarios (Beckner, 2004). Deontological theories or the generally known as duty based approaches, show that humans possess moral compulsion to track definite principles. They certainly do not clarify the way to rank duties that can make unsolvable dilemmas. In a few situations following the duty may result in hazardous or terrible outcomes.  Identify and define the eight steps to ethical decision-making. The eight steps to ethical decision making are discussed ahead (Corey & Haynes, 1998): Problem Identification: Does the problem exist? What is the type of the problem (legal, moral, ethical, professional etc), nature of the problem, stage of the problem etc. Identifying potential issues involved: How is it possible to best evaluate the responsibilities, rights and welfare of all those involved and are affected by the decision. Reviewing the relevant ethical codes: The guidance that can be found on the specific problem under professional codes? Knowing and understanding the applicable laws and regulations: Are there any laws? If yes what are they then. Obtain consultation: Where to go for consultation and what is the type of questions to be asked. Considering the probable and possible courses of action Enumerating the results of various decisions Choosing the best course of action after a careful analysis of the gathered information Define locus of control and discuss its relationship to ethical conduct. Locus of control refers to the level to which the person believes that he or she has control over the events that affect them (Hellrigel et al., 2010). In further studies locus of control has been distinguished as internal and external where internal refers to the extent to which a person feels in control of their behavior and external relate to the degree to which external factors like luck and fate control their behavior (Rotter, 1966; Spector, 2008). According to recent researches individuals who have a greater internal locus of control are likely to have greater levels of ethical behavior whereas individuals with a high score on external locus of control tend to have a lower level of ethical behavior. Define “illusion of superiority” and discuss how we might fall victim to it. How can corporations safeguard against it? According to recent researches it has been found out that people may think that they are more honest, fair and ethical than the rest of the people on earth. It definitely starts to be an illusion when most of the start claiming to be more ethical and honest than the average person and their peers, friends, colleagues (Weaver & Reynolds, 2006). This phenomenon is known as illusion of superiority and it can very badly affect its victims. The worst affect is that it can lead to very bad and wrong decisions. The person fails to accept and admit his/her mistakes and faults and starts to get in a habit of blaming others. Such people overestimate their own skills and fail to recognize true and better skills in others. So organizations need to keep a strict check on this issue as it can lead them lose true talent and end up with undesired results. There are a number of management behaviors important for employee engagement. Select two and discuss how these behaviors can also positively influence ethical behavior. Organizations can easily achieve their missions, produce desired business results and execute their strategies if they have a greater number of engaged employees. Different HR practices like recruitment, selection, compensation, job design, training, performance management can improve the engagement of employees. There are a number of management behaviors important for employee engagement. A few but important management behaviors include being a good coach/mentor, showing interest in employees well being and success, empowering your team members and not micro managing everything, being a good listener and communicator, assisting in career development of your employees, providing clear vision and strategy to be used, being result oriented, having good technical skills for being able to advise the employees better. Now if we talk about coaching and career development, the management needs to provide equal opportunity to all its employees and avoid discrimination on any basis (demographics, psychographics etc). If achieved then the company is likely to enjoy the positive effects of ethical behaviors like professionalism, sense of responsibility, respecting others, integrity, loyalty to the organization etc. Organizations capable of employee engagement enjoy lower turnover rate, increased customer loyalty, increased number of positive and effective people and thus have a better working environment (Ilgen and Pulakos, 1999). Employee engagement is an important concept for organizational success since it describes how committed employees are to their work. Identify and define the four drivers of engagement and discuss how engagement is related to business ethics. Barbuto (2003) has been proven that performance of the committed employees is greater than that of the rest of the employees in the organization. Employee engagement can be considered to be a-step up the employee commitment. Therefore it is very important for the organizations to understand what drives engagement. The main drivers of employee engagement are immediate management, communication between them , their performance and appraisal, having equal opportunities and being provided a fair treatment. Involvement in decision making is one very important for the employees to get engaged with the organization. The level to which the employees are permitted and shown confidence in to voice their opinions and ideas and the level of acceptance their idea gets also drives their engagement. To develop the jobs the number of opportunities given to the employees and the concern shown by the organization in employees’ well being and health is also very important. Therefore there is a strong link between engagement and business ethics as all the drivers are supposed to be based upon the principle of equality, fairness and honesty. References Barbuto, J. E. (2003). Motivation, altruism and generalized compliance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 498 502. Beckner, W. (2004). Ethics for educational leaders. New York: Allyn & Bacon. Carroll, A.B. (1979). A Three-Dimensional Conceptual Model of Corporate Social Performance, Academy of Management Review, 4, 497-505.  Corey, G., & Haynes, R. (1998). Student workbook for ethics in action. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole. Davis, K. (1960). Can Business Afford to Ignore its Social Responsibilities? California Management Review. 2, 70-76.  Hellriegel, D., Slocum, J.W., & Woodman, R.W. (2010). Organizational behavior. Mason: South-Western Cengage Learning, 54, 401-405. Ilgen, D. R., & Pulakos, E. D. (1999). The changing nature of performance: staffing, motivation, and development. 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