Ethical Aspect in Management - Assignment Example

Introduction to Management and Section # of (a) Executive Summary: Management is not a new term for us it is as old as human civilization. Greeks and Babylonians had successfully practiced management years ago to rule their territories. Today we live in a global village where continents are connected to each other like the cities were linked in the past resulting in a broader horizon for business and trade. Advent of technology has changed the business styles and methods of management in this era. This is the era of modern management where "produce more" is the cry of the day and despite of the demand of product in the market and capital, organizations are lacking in fulfilling the needs of customers due to shortage of competent and skilled labor. Managers are struggling nowadays to improve the skills of individuals in order to meet the market expectations. As people from all around the world are in contact to do business, therefore unawareness to culture and norms of one another results in unethical practices and values occur in the business environment which results in decrease of trust and eventually huge losses are born by the organizations due to misunderstandings, thus managers have started to make sure that unethical values and practices are not occurring in their organization by using the methods and techniques of management under the light of theories and functions of management. To ensure the standard of ethics in an organization managers have to work hard to set the rules and they have to communicate the code of ethics to each and every employee so that everyone gets the information about the ethical standard which is required to be maintained in the organization. Managers also spend their time to monitor the business carried out in the organization so that employees should develop the sense that they are not at their own to do whatever they want. It is suggested that simply caring for the utility and rights of others and justice while dealing in a business environment ensures that ethical values are being practiced in the organization. (b) Introduction: Management is the ability which is instinctively present in humans however some people are better managers than others because of certain factors which help them polish their ability more than others. Management means different things to different people (Haimann, 1974) but when this term is used in an environment related to business it refers to a process. What is Management' Defining Management The process of planning, decision-making, leading and controlling the available resources of an organization such as man-power, finance, machines and information in order to achieve the organizational goals in the best possible way is called management. Good management results in completion of projects using the resources wisely and in a cost effective manner in accordance with making right decisions and implementing them successfully (Portny, 2007). Management in Modern World Due to its importance in every organization and business environment, management has emerged as an important subject area which is widely studied and practiced all over the world. With the gigantic increase in the population of the world, productivity has emerged as a serious problem in the business organizations because the demand for the product has suddenly increased and despite of having capital and demand of product in the market, organizations are not able to increase their production due to lack of skilled labor (Malhotra, 1997). Therefore, the managers have started to think and search for methods and techniques to fulfill the customer's demand by using the existing labor. Management on this outline is the modern management and in this era managers struggle to improve the performance of the employees individually which in turn results in the improvement in the production of the organization. Management is a complex process because managers have to keep eye on various aspects at the same time therefore problems and hindrances are always present in the way of managers (Heizer, 1998). Some of these problems are incomplete requirements, lack of user involvement, and shortage of resources, baseless expectations, poor planning and technical illiteracy. Various management theories have been introduced up till now which provide guideline to the managers in order to unravel the problems and hurdles in management. Management Theories Whenever it is decided to organize or reorganize an organization a theory is followed otherwise there would be no criteria to determine how the work should be directed and coordinated. Three major schools of thought exist in management for example, the classical, the behavioral and the systems. Classical theories give importance to the work and suggest ways to identify the difference between the jobs. According to (Dale, 1978) behavioral theories are concerned with people who constitute the organization. The systems theory declares organization as a system which is an entity and various people interact and play their role in this entity. Nowadays a better approach is in practice which suggests that the best way to manage an organization is to use the ideas from various theories at the same time according to the individual situation (Dilworth, 1996). Let us analyze management in an organization and apply theories and functions of management to monitor the ethical values and practices effectively in any organization. Taking the scenario of a monthly magazine as a case, we shall apply ideas from leading and planning functions of management to ensure the practice of ethical values in the organization. Discussion: Though every organization is set to earn profits from the market and employers and employees both work for their respective share in the market but there is another aspect which should be taken in account and that is moral and ethical values of an organization and individuals. As world has turned in to a global village today and people from all the continents are doing business with each other the question arises that how does one decide whether or not a particular action is ethical' What is Ethics' Defining Ethics: Ethics means different to different people, in dictionary it is defined as a set of principles of right conduct or a theory or system of moral values (Ethics Resource Center, 2009). The effective management of ethical issues requires that organizations ensure that their managers and employees know how to deal with ethical issues in their everyday work lives. Therefore, organizational members must first understand some of the underlying reasons for the occurrence of unethical practices. According to (Griffin, 2005) experts have suggested a three step model for applying ethical judgments to situations that may arise during the course of business activities. These steps can be generalized as below: * gather the relevant factual information. * determine the most appropriate moral values. * make an ethical judgment based on the rightness or wrongness of the proposed activity or policy. As it is obvious that differentiating between an ethical and a non ethical way is not as simple as implied by above steps therefore a more intricate analysis is required to analyze the ethical aspect of a particular behavior. In this regard (Griffin, 2005) suggests considering utility, rights, justice and caring is the key to act in an ethical manner. The organizations are having a tough competition today and they have to work hard in order to survive and achieve their desired objectives. As organizations are giving importance to production and business growth the moral values and ethics have been overlooked in the institutions which have resulted in occurrence of ethical issues and scandals in the institutions. Moon Magazine scenario: Moon is a monthly news magazine which was started in 1990. It covers business, media sports and literature. Moon has made a good repute in the market by aggressive marketing as approximately 500,000 copies of moon are sold every month. Adler Brown was the vice-president of Moon until he died of an accident in 1997. Adler was a successful marketer who worked hard to get a reasonable market share for Moon in a very less time. He had also a very clear point of view about what is ethical and what is not and he believed that principles and values are more important than money. After his death the president and founder of Moon Jack Robert who highly relied on Adler had a chance to change the management style in his organization so he hired Sara Watson as vice-president of Moon instead of appointing Peter Johnson who served as assistant to Adler for a long time. Sara had made her reputation in selling a weekly magazine in the past so she demanded a lucrative amount of salary besides enormous commissions. Sara had a three years contract with Moon so she started with emphasis on marketing and took measures to increase the subscriptions. Sara started to stress the employees for more work without giving them proper credit like she was often heard saying "you are volunteering to work two hours more today", she planned to hire children for door-to-door selling, she started favoritism and the employees whom she favored were mostly those who disliked Peter thus a conflicting atmosphere was created in the organization, Sara didn't care about the norms and traditions of the Moon and only focused on the increase in subscription. Such actions on the part of vice-president resulted in the prevailing of unethical behaviors in the organization as Linda Beth sold personal information of a celebrity to a firm which offered her a handsome amount in reward and advertisement staff agreed to publish an unethical advertisement in the magazine just because of the commission they were offered. Application of Functions and Theories of Management on the Scenario Let us apply the leading and planning functions of management to ensure that practice of unethical values in Moon magazine is eradicated. Ideas from Planning and Leading Here it is the president of Moon who is responsible to act accordingly he should recognize that ethical values are being dishonored and thus he has to define the problem while keeping long range objectives of the organization in view. President has to gather complete information about the scenario so that formulating and developing of the possible alternatives can be done. Once the alternatives are developed; Jack Robert has to choose the best practical alternative to implement. To carry the process described above a team should meet and interact with the stakeholders, customers; employees to discuss where the ethical lapses exist then president should be briefed on the final report of the team so that he may take a decision. Most importantly an ethics code should be made and properly communicated in the organization for necessary guidance in future (Institute of Business Ethics, 2009). Let us apply Hersey and Blanchard's Situational Leadership theory on the Moon magazine scenario. Jack the president of Moon has to make sure that rights of customers, employees, stakeholders are being respected moreover he has to determine how to take action on the unethical issues pointed out in the gathered information individually according to the situation. It is the leader who brings change therefore he has to set the ethical standards and has to take measures to enforce them in the organization (Dilworth, 1996). As offences are present in the Moon magazine case the president should respond to them immediately this will minimize the similar offences in the future moreover an environment should be created that encourages voluntary self-disclosure of unethical or immoral activity to the authorities which would set a positive trend and will result in more trust and coordination in the organization. Likewise problems of child labor, explicit advertisements, and violation of duty timings can be easily solved under the light of theories and methods of management. Here the major problem is that a top level manager is not respecting the ethical values and as in any organization or environment seniors set the example for the juniors; this is why the employees of Moon are simply following their new vice-president and have indulged in unethical activities. Though Moon has not encountered a big loss due to the wrong trends which have prevailed in the organization yet but who knows when a set back is waiting for the organization. If president of the organization ignores the unethical behavior of Sara this would encourage other employees to keep the unethical practices occur therefore Jack should not ignore Sara by considering the incoming revenue due to her policies but he should also consider that if someone prosecutes Moon on account of child labor, or on account of publishing explicit advertisements, or if that celebrity whose personnel information has been sold by an employee of the magazine; sues Moon, how bad impact it would leave on the magazine's reputation. Thus Jack has to simply arrange a meeting with Sara and inform her about the possible negative consequences in a logical and witty manner. Jack should also acknowledge the increase in subscription of the magazine as a result of Sara's managerial skills but should try to persuade her that reputation is more important than the revenue and the business is successful to the extent that it provides satisfaction and happiness to the customers and employees. After discussing the matter with Sara, Jack should make a committee of a few honest and devoted employees and negotiate with them to draft a code of ethics for the organization (Texas Tech University, 2009). Another team should be made which will be responsible to monitor all the work and dealings of the organization so that an atmosphere of check and balance may exist in the organizations. All the employees accused of unethical behaviors should be warned and should be given an opportunity to clear their position; this will generate alternatives to ensure the ethical behavior in the organization. Conclusion: Management is a complex process in which theories and functions are the guidelines for the managers to tackle the various situations which come in their way of achieving the desired objectives for the organization. In recent past various ethical scandals have been reported in business organizations, these issues occur due to absence of code of ethics, careless attitude of employees and lack of respect for truth and justice in individuals. The best way to tackle ethical scandals in an organization is to formulate a code of ethics and make sure its enforcement in the business environment moreover functions of management should be practiced because they provide a successful managerial strategy and evolving policies on the basis of (plan, organize, lead, control) lead to the working solutions to eradicate the unethical practices from an organization (Wysocki, 2000). Leaders should set a good example for their subordinates and establish the moral tone of their organization by taking the responsibility for any shortcomings that are reported (Burns, 1978). This could be done only when leaders are honest, straightforward and have high ethical values as an individual. As a professor of Texas University Robert Prentice states that "if [Managers] didn't get a sense of right and wrong from their families or their faith, it's unlikely a business school professor can instill one". Therefore efforts should be made to improve the moral values of the employees at every level and a committee should be made responsible for keeping eye on the ethics updates in the world so that code of ethics of the organization may be updated and communicated in a timely manner (Rosenau, 2005). The most important step to ensure ethical value and practices to occur is to develop awareness as much as it is possible and align the values from top to bottom in an organization. Recommendations: Following are the points which I would recommend to managers for ensuring the ethical practices and values occur in an organization: *Establish a code of ethics and communicate it in your organization. *Exercise good judgment and adhere to the ethical principles. *Appreciate honesty, truthfulness and sincerity. *Disclose any unethical or illegal activity in a timely manner and make sure that proper punishments are given. *Monitor the organization so that any employee may not have an easy chance to violate the set ethical standards. References Burns, J. M. (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper & Row Dale, Ernest (1978). Management: Theory and Practice. 4th edition. McGraw-Hill. Original from the University of Wisconsin - Madison Dilworth, James B. (1996). Operations Management. 2nd edition. McGraw-Hill. Ethics Resource Center (2009) Retrieved April 24, 2009, from www.ethics.org Griffin, Ricky W. (2006). Management. 9th edition. Houghton Mifflin Company. Haimann, Theo & Scott, William G. (1974). Management in the Modern Organization. 2nd edition. Houghton Mifflin. Original from the University of California. Heizer, Jay H. & Nathan, Jay (1998). Cases in Total Quality Management: Manufacturing and Services. South-Western College Publishing. Institute of Business Ethics (2009) Retrieved April 24, 2009, from www.ibe.org.uk Malhotra, R. K., Singh, Nachhattar & Sharma, S. D. (1997). Operations Management. Anmol Publications Pvt. Ltd. Portny, Samuel E., Portny, Stanley, Mantel, Samuel J., Meredith, Jack R., Kramer, Brian E., Shafer, Scott M. & Sutton, Margaret M. (2007). Project Management. 4th edition. John Wiley & Sons. Rosenau, Milton D. & Githens Gregory D. (2005). Successful Project Management : A Step-by-step Approach with Practical Examples. 4th edition. Wiley. Texas Tech University (2009) Retrieved April 24, 2009, from www.niee.org Wysocki, Robert K. Beck Jr., Robert & Crane, David B. (2000). Effective Project Management. 2nd edition. John Wiley & Sons. Read More