Analysis of Business Ethics Case - Essay Example

Businesses in this world are looking towards different methods to be competitive and ignore the fact whether they are ethical or not in their doings. The prime reason for this is intensifying competition which has made it difficult to earn profits. Ethics is thereby an area that has been compromised but still companies state that they are ethical. Ethics is a situation which is different for each individual as looks to take different decision based on the situation they face. This might be either ethical or not ethical depending on the decision that has been taken. This paper looks into a situation which involved me and was to be determined whether I was ethical or not in my decision making. It also looks into various theories so that justification regarding the decisions that are taken can be substantaited and better ethical decisions taken. The situation which I encountered was while working in a company I found that the company which supplied chemicals claimed that they were organic and were fit to be used everywhere. I was also happy with the manner the company was working because it preached what it said. Then one day I noticed a complaint that an animal had died due to the manure as it contained some harmful and toxic materials. On complaining to the company the customer received the reply that the manure was correct. I looked into the matter and found out that the company was not ethical and used harmful chemicals. I brought this to the attention of my boss but he didn’t hear to me. This created confusion as to what I should do and resulted in an ethical clash with me and the company. Since, my values didn’t match with those of the companies I was finding it difficult to adjust to the ethical situation prevalent in the company. This left me in a state of total confusion and I was unable to gauge what should be the steps that I should take. This left with a few options which I had to look into it. First of all I could complain to the higher authority and look towards finding the actual cause and bring it to the notice of the management. This would result that the organization would become aware about their acts and steps could be taken to prevent those in the future. On the part of the customer I could reply that the company acted fairly just to save the image of the company. Secondly, I could bring the actual matter to the knowledge of the management and the outside bodies along with the customers. This would make the customers and other aware of the incident and might result in saving lives in the future. This might have also resulted in my job loss. Lastly, I could have kept quite and look towards working in the same scenario. This would mean that I will have to sacrifice my own ethics and be unethical in my acts. These were some of the decisions which I could have taken. A look at the different theories will help to understand the decision that could have been taken which would have been ethical from different areas and might have resulted in better decision making. According to the Egoism theory decisions should be taken by a decision maker is made freely and should help to pursue either the short term or long term directives. According to this theory, I should have brought the information both to the notice of the management and the customer. This will ensure that I will be able to save few lives and spread awareness about the manner the company is working. Also, being able to take this decision would make me leave my job but it would help that my ethics are not compromised. This thereby helps me to look both into the short and long term directives and will ensure that the decision taken by me is ethical and looks towards spreading awareness. The utilitarianism theory which can be applied in this situation suggests that decisions should be taken which will benefit the larger section of the society and help to provide benefit to the largest possible section of the society. Based on this theory I should look towards identifying the actual reason that accounted for the incident. I should after identifying the cause bring it before the notice of the management and customers so that the awareness about the incident can be spread. I should also to the extent to ensure that the information is made available to the outside world so that my responsibilities are fulfilled. This will also result in me changing my job as my ethics doesn’t matches with those of the management which will thereby make it important I take decision based on the larger picture and ensure that my decision ensures benefit for most. A look at the virtue ethics state that the virtuous person should take decision which is fair and correct. Since, I rate my ethics very high and look towards ensuring that my decisions are ethical it is important that my decisions taken are ethical. This makes it important that I should look towards identifying the actual reason that accounted for the incident. I should after identifying the cause bring it before the notice of the management and customers so that the awareness about the incident can be spread. I should also to the extent to ensure that the information is made available to the outside world so that my responsibilities are fulfilled. This will ensure that I act fairly and will help to take a correct decision which is after the well being of the society. This will thereby ensure that I kep mt ethical values and will ensure decision for a major section of the society. Thus, the different ethics bring forward the fact that I should take a decision which looks after a major a section of the society. Based on the different theories and different situations which I can encounter I need to ensure that I look into the matter into details and find out the actual reason. Based on it I should bring it to the notice of the management and customer so that awareness can be spread and such incidents in the future can be reduced. I took the same decision and brough the decision to the notice of both the management and the customer. I also ensured that I took the same decision which ensured that my decision benefitted most. Also taking a decision for the larger section of the society ensured that the decisions were correct and fair. This decision made me look for another job as my ethics and the ethics prevalent in the organization was not similar. This resulted in the decision taken by me was correct and I appreciate the decision taken by me. This will ensure that my decision were fair and ensure that all the decisions were correct and I appreciate the same. I feel that the decision taken by me was correct as it ensured that my decision benefitted a larger section of the society. Brining the decision forward ensured that I was able to bring forward the actual scenario which will help to reduce such situations in the future. I also feel that by taking the decision I wil be able to keep up my morals and values and ensure that in the future if I face a similar situation I am able to take the correct decision so that maximum people in the society can benefit. Thus, businesses continuously face ethical situations which require them to take decisions. The decisions here gets decided based on the ethics that the individual. I encountered a similar situation and being able to take a decision which looked into the wellbeing of a majority of the population ensured that my decisions were ethical. This also ensured that I acted fairly and didn’t compromise my own ethical values. Another contrasting fact here is that if businesses are able to follow an ethical code for their employees it ensures that the decisions are fair and ensures benefit for a larger section of the society. This thereby ensures consistent rewards and helps the business to take ethical decisions. Read More