The Importance of Morality in Business - Essay Example

The basic objective of business is to earn profit out of your investment but this is a very primitive saying regarding business as it has other objectives too besides making profit some of them are providing the consumers with good products and efficient services. The company must give priority to providing these services to the consumers because they are actually spending their money on these services and products. Therefore morality is also important in business. Morality is hard to practise but it is the morality of the company which brings the greater good in the end. The most successful companies and businesses give high priority to practising morality in business but when it comes to deciding between two or more options it is not very easy and the mistake is realized very late. This is the scenario of Ford in this case study. The decision made turned out to be the wrong one and because they had advanced so much with the wrong decision it was very difficult to tell if they had to go back and revise their decision or carry on with the situation at hand. The legal department had to intervene and help them out an tell them if they had committed a self-destructive act. But they finally decided that they have to carry on with the status quo and proceed further with which would risk many lives. The things which are taught to us in our early age are of much importance to us in our life as we are told to stick to morality no matter what happens and we are told that bringing harm to someone especially for the sake of money is not a good deed. We were told that we were bound to loose too at some stages of life and this is the way of the world. The reason for this discussion is to agree with the fact that monetary benefits are not the only thing a company should deem as profit making. But Ford was sticking to the monetary benefits of the things on the as advised by his advisor. He could have sustained the damages if he had not taken the decision considering monetary profits but now escape was not possible because the mechanism of check and balance is media now. At the end of the day you will find this that cost benefit analysis is not the correct approach in all type of problems, some of them need to be analysed considering the basics like morality and ethics. There are so many options and so many paths to follow in business but the deciding factor is the mindset of the person which makes him follow a certain path. The mistake actually provided Ford with a chance to improve by admitting that he has committed a mistake rather than proceeding with the wrong decision and risking lives of people which certainly earns a bad repute to the company. And it does not end here, the biggest damage is done to the co-workers, employs and the important people in the organization. And all this damage just because of a wrong decision which was taken for extra monetary benefits which ultimately turned out to be detrimental for the whole organization. While deciding something on the basis of morality and ethics, adoption of a systematic approach helps greatly which means considering some key points before finalizing any decision. For this one must: a. Collect relevant information b. Work out the possible solutions based on morality c. Look out for the war all the individuals especially the key individuals of the organization are being affected by the decision and based on this knowledge the consequences must be known d. Must check out what the dictations would be like which would be given to the individuals in the company and how would they react to these assigned tasks individually and the decision taken collectively. e. Consider the practicality of the decision at hand and work out the execution plan for carrying out the decision f. Chalk out different options and prospects available for the execution of the plan based on the decision g. Self analysis is the key in the end because the inner conscience of the person knows between right and wrong and can tell the risks involved better than anyone This systematic approach must be the way of the manager of any business and he must stick to it for better proceedings. Same must have done in the scenario of the present case study and the primary objective should have been winning a good repute rather than earning more profit. Morality, when vigorously alive, sees farther than intellect, and provides unconsciously for intellectual difficulties James Anthony Froude Editor of Fraser’s Magazine The approach of the recall co-ordinator at Fords clearly depicts the fact that he was not considering the greater benefits and was his approach was very primitive considering the primary benefits. Continuing with the same decision and allowing the production of Pinto he was ignoring the bad repute which this would earn the company and was only focussing on proving his decision to be the right one somehow or the other however he was unaware of the fact that this mistake will ultimately fail the product completely. Ford and his recall coordinator were totally reluctant about the risk involved to human life, they only considered avoiding any monetary loss to company. In every profession in the world there are right and wrong ways of earning money and everyone agrees that it is the basic right of a person to earn money but a more strong belief is on the fact that the earned money should come from the right source and must be earned utilizing the correct approach not by putting other peoples’ money or life at risk. The most important thing is the repute of the company which suffers irreparable damages if such an incident occurs. At start it seemed to Ford and his recall coordinator that they have saved the company from monetary loss but at the end of the day they have to pay the punitive damages ultimately bringing the monetary loss to the company. These mistakes never would have happened if they had possessed some moral awareness. This depicts the fact that large profits are a concern for Ford which can certainly be earned keeping the morality intact. If I were appointed as the recall coordinator at Ford the first and foremost consideration in my thought processes for solving any problem would have been earning profits keeping the safety ensured. I would have taken the decision keeping my company’s repute and money safe and I always consider the darker side of the things too before coming to a decisive conclusion. In this regard the eight step decision making process serves as the guideline which tells that business satisfaction can be achieved without risking other person’s happiness and peace of mind. For this one must follow and try to understand the quote which says “Business is not only meant for the monetary benefits but also for the greater benefits of social harmony” Sir Richard Branson References Trevino, L. K., & Youngblood, S. A. (1990). Bad Apples in Bad Barrels: A Causal Analysis of Ethical Decision-Making Behavior. Journal of Applied Psychology , 75 (4), 378-385. Trevino, L. K. (1992). Moral reasoning and business ethics: Implications for research, education, and management. Journal of Business Ethics , 11 (5-6), 445 - 459. Managiing Business Ethics, Straight talk about how to do it right, fourth edition page (103-109) (115-144) Read More