Applied Business Ethics - Coursework Example

Applied Business Ethics

Appendix A: The Ethical Leadership Debate

A group consisting of Mike, Juan, Deshi and Mei Hua debated the argument “This Business School believes that ethical leadership is impossible in a shareholder focused economy.” Mike’s group believes that Mike he is not supporting the argument. The group believes that an organization’s top management is responsible for establishing codes of ethical conduct in the organization’s working environment. They also believed that the actions as well as inactions of top management team influenced the ethical behavior of the entire organization. Therefore, ethical actions promote an ethical organization whereas unethical actions by members of the senior management team promote unethical conduct (Krebs, 2011). In the same measure, Juan’s group also believes that Juan is opposing the debate statement. The team uses the utilitarian approach to support their argument by placing Mike in the fourth stage of the Kohlberg moral development model. I strongly believe that Mike belongs to the fifth stage of the model. The reason is that his personal values influence his perception of what is right or wrong.

There was an interesting idea from the group representing on Jan. The group noted that even though Jan had goodwill, her efforts to force employees to donate their free time to her charity organization revealed her egoistic nature. I disagree with her approach to collect donations and do not support the basis of her actions. She claims that most of the employees were unwilling to share their contributions with the charity because of their self-interests. However, I think that she should allow employees make personal choices even if they are against her will. After all, the utilitarian approach to ethics states that people should always act for the greater good of members of society. Despite the difference in how she should base her actions, I think that Jan deserves to be placed on the sixth stage of the Kohlberg theory of moral development. The rationale is that we should coexist on mutual respect as humans. People should be willing to pursue their interests on their basis. Additionally, her involvement in the provision of educational facilities and teaching practice enables her to create job opportunities (Rae, 2009).

The group presenting on Mei Hua had mixed reactions to her ethical actions as well as moral standing. Some members of the group thought that she belongs to the first stage of conventional level whereas the other members argued that she bases her actions on Kantian ethics thus she should be categorized at the level the post-conventional stage. The second stage of the post-conventional level posits that people make decisions by universal ethical principles. I agree with the sentiments of the second group of the team because she applies strong principles in her actions even when they seem outrageous. She is consistent in her application of ethical principles. Kantian ethics posits that an action is either wrong or right depending on its ability to make us fulfill our duties. Therefore, actions are right if they make us fulfill our duties and wrong when they limit our ability to fulfill our duties. For instance, it is our duty to obey the laws of the land. Mei Hau argues that she is okay with tax avoidance as long as it is within the confines of the rule of law. She also argues that ethical leadership is the ability of a leader to follow the code of ethics and conduct to the latter. Thus, she believes that it is possible to achieve ethical leadership in an economy that focuses on shareholders.

At first glance, Deshi appears to be a straightforward and practical person. However, members of my group viewed him as an individual who has total disregard for ethics and its teaching. He wishes that ethics should be removed from the curriculum because it is a waste of time and resources. This is a clear sign that he belongs to the pre-conventional stage of the Kohlberg theory of moral development. He is only concerned with pursuing self-interest and external rewards. Therefore, his actions support the argument that it is impossible to achieve ethical leadership in an economy that focuses on shareholders.

Appendix B: The Seminar Case

For this section, I am analyzing the Volkswagen emission scandal using the normative ethics approach. The ethical dilemma I am exploring is the decision to either sell expensive cars that conserve the environment or sell cheaper cars that compromise the environment. Virtue ethics posits that an individual character rather than the consequence of their actions determine the morality of an action.

According to Aristotle, moral virtues are a product of habits. In the same way, humans can develop good habits in the way they treat the environment. Some of the habits include energy conservation, recycling, car-sharing, and walking. In Hill's classic article, the neighbor cuts down an avocado tree and covers his yard with asphalt. Hill was offended by his neighbor's actions because he thought that the neighbor was depriving others the opportunity to enjoy the tree. According to Hill, an admirable person would not do something like that because it is not one of his or her virtues. Some of the most common virtues of include humility (ecological) and sensitivity. Aldo Leopold once said that humans should acknowledge and cherish their proper status as members of the biotic community. He was against people considering themselves as conquerors of the biotic community. It implies that people should be considerate of how their actions affect the biotic community because we are all members of that community.

How Volkswagen treats the environment may influence the way the company will its consumers and other members of the community. According to Aristotle, practice is what develops virtues like patience and temperance. For instance, when we look after pets we develop virtues such as patience and kindness. The same thing can be applied to environmental conservation issues or practices such as recycling and energy saving. In recent times, green campaigners have argued for environmental conservation by championing for practices that change human behavior. Those things of real worth in life are worth going to any length in love and respect to safeguarding (Hill, 1983). Good people do not simply behave in a certain way, but they behave that way out of their character. This implies that VW should develop the character of conserving the environment even it hurts their competitive position in the market.

A virtue ethicist would tell someone who is "weak willed" that they do not know what is best at the time of their action. Such people are moved by contrary passions and should be made to see a reason that environmental conservation is priceless to the human population. The greatest enemy of moral conduct is the weakness of the will because the moral agent fails to behave well in situations even when the agent has a clear knowledge of what is right. It is a failure of the moral agent because he can connect between the moral general of environmental conservation and the need to take such appropriate steps to conserve the environment. Therefore, a virtue ethicist may term a "weak-willed" person as immoral because they lack the character to pursue what is good. In the same breadth, it is evident that members of the VW staff were aware of the mistakes they were making, but they bowed to the pressure from their boss.

Even though a weak-willed person is not moral, neither is he vicious. There is a difference between those who know what is right and aim at doing it but are overwhelmed by pleasure and those seek excessive pleasure on purpose. According to Aristotle, the one who seeks excess pleasure is irredeemable because he destroys the related virtue. On the other hand, the one who lacks the will to do the right thing is redeemable because he has respect for the virtue. Therefore, a virtue ethicist may convince the weak-willed person to pursue the right path by offering simpler ways of expressing concern for the environment.

Appendix C: Interpersonal and Team-working skills

One of the objectives of this seminar was for the students to develop interpersonal skills in the form of debating, team working and presenting skills. This seminar was addressing a topic of debate, and we were grouped into a team of four people. During the debate discussion, I gained a lot including independent research skills, team work, and interpersonal skills. It was a rare opportunity for me to engage in a serious discussion of a contemporary issue and the lessons I acquired can never be underestimated. Every member of the team was assigned different tasks to ensure their commitment and participation in achieving the objective of the seminar. We used to meet twice a week and make presentations of our tasks before other members. During the meetings, I was capable of good verbal skills. I spoke in a clear voice and incorporated non-verbal cues to emphasize my points. Members of my team easily understood what I was presenting and it made it easy for them to contribute to the discussion (West, 2012).

During discussions and team presentations, I used effective listening skills to understand questions from members and ideas they were presenting. I was attentive in all the discussions and this enabled me to identify points of weakness and request for improvements. It also enabled me to contribute to the discussion without repeating what other members had asked or covered during their presentations (McIntosh, Luecke, Davis & American Management Association, 2008). During the debate, members could clash about what to be included in the discussion to make our argument more convincing. I applied negotiation skills to manage the discussions and make members reach an agreement in a professional manner. In most cases, I applied good listening skills and weighed every argument to come up with a fair solution. Team members were satisfied with the outcome of the negotiations. Finally, every member of the team contributed equally to the debate and we supported each other even though every member had their own task.