The Ethical Behavior and Decision Making Within An Organization - Essay Example

In my earlier submission, I evinced allegiance to the utilitarian ethics as per which those actions are decisions are considered to be ethical that accrue maximal benefit to the maximum number of people, while allowing for the optimal and efficient utilization of resources. However, over this semester I realized that as my innate understanding of ethics evolved and matured, I concluded that no ethical dogma or principle happens to be a one size fit all dictums. The utilitarian ethics which profess to be sacrosanct in one particular situation may turn out to be problematic in some another mass situation.

For instance, during Nazi Germany, the Jews were persecuted and killed because the regime of the time strongly believed that such actions intended to bring happiness to the majority of the Germans. However, in retrospect, nobody harbors the doubt that such actions were not only evil but a viable source of shame for the entire humanity. Such examples forced me to think as to what does it mean by being ethical? Is there a single ethical dogma that fits and suits all the situations? After much brain raking, I came to the conclusion that my idea of ethics stood to be more in consonance with the theory of situational ethics.

Eventually what is right and what is wrong, what is ethical and what is unethical depends upon the nature of a particular situation. There exists nothing as universal ethics and each situation has its own ethical norms imminent to it. What is considered to be ethically right may be totally incongruent and inapplicable in a particular situation? Hence, while taking ethical decisions, a leader needs to be amply flexible and open-minded. This does not mean that such an approach must be pliable and open to manipulation.

Yet, the ultimate ethical credentials of a leader ought to be dependent on one’s ability to opt for the nobler hypothesis amongst the available choices. For instance, if as a manager I fire an employee because one’s services are not in tandem with the organizational expectations, it would be ethical. However, if I fire an employee because he has not been able to muster his best, as he has a wife suffering from cancer and he needs to take care of his two kids at home, it would be unethical.

The nobler choice in this situation will be to extend the options and possibilities to that employee, which allows him to serve the organization while taking care of his domestic responsibilities. I also need to mention that the ethical values to which I owed allegiance to earlier, which are integrity, honesty, charity, and responsibility still stand to be more or less the same. However, the way I perceive and understand these values have indeed achieved much maturity and human consideration.

For instance, the value of integrity requires an employee to safeguard organizational information and secrets. Yet, if the imperative of integrity makes a person to safeguard such organizational information, the withholding of which amounts to cheating the customers and shareholders, then safeguarding such information will be totally contrary to the value of integrity. The same stands to be true for the other three values.