Deontology Philosophy and Relativism Perspective - Essay Example

1. Pick two moral philosophies from chapter six of the Ferrell text and apply to a “real world” opportunity or challenge that you or your company hasfaced during the past year. Ensure that you justify the selection and application. Deontology philosophy says that a person will perform an action based on his moral duty to do so, regardless of the possible consequences of that action. I faced a situation at a job I had recently in which a co-worker and I were involved. My coworker was physically harassed by our boss. We were both on the initial probation period. I saw the wrong doing of our boss. I was discussed by his action, but there no witnesses except the two people involved and myself. I saw the event from far away. I decided to take a stand against the abuser. I told human resources about it. Our boss did not like my position, she said I wasn’t even there and you did not hear the other person involved complaining. I was made out to be liar. I only lasted an extra month at that job. Relativism perspective basically says that the ethical standards and views of a person are created depending on his own perspective of the situation. I had a car accident about four months ago. I was hit from behind by a car. To me it was simple the person bumped me because he did not keep distance so he was liable. The person who hit my car did not see it that way. His point of view was that I stopped suddenly and my pressing on the brakes cause the accident. Both views might have been right depending on the perspective of the person analyzing the situation. Fortunately the insurance company ruled in my favor. 2. Pick one of the readings from the Harvard Business Review text and discussed what was learned from the reading. Learned can also mean a “relighting” of something known but forgotten. Then discuss how you could/would use this knowledge in a professional or personal setting. The conflicts a managers faces regarding ethical issues in the workplace are numerous and constant occurrences. The decision making process requires the professional to take into consideration all aspects of the action, but they should remind themselves that the action itself requires a decision based solely on the act without putting unnecessary emphasis on factors such as the consequences of revealing an unethical act to the public. When working in a team environment I would lead a team by emphasizing honesty within the actions of the team. If somebody does not meet expectations the person should be honest about it or should be confronted by the entire team. 3. Identify and discuss an ethical issue that has emerged during the past month. The issue can be from the news or from your work. Then apply one or moral philosophies from chapter six to the issued. An ethical issue that has been in the media in the last month is the Human Genome Project (HGP). The purpose of HGP was to determine the entire gene composition of the human body. By 2005 the team announced that the project was functionally complete at 92% because the rest of the genes of were of a repetitive nature (Wikipedia, 2007). Some of the ethical issues that have arisen in the media recently concern how genetic information will be handled in the future. Some people fear that improper use of genetic codes will invade privacy, other see it differently. For example law enforcements will want the information to track down people in their investigations. The general population might think that the information should be kept private and the government could utilize it to discriminate against members of society. This is an example of an application of the relativism perspective. 4. Discuss one of the topics from the Thomas text that most impacted you with new or updated information. In other words, what was the “best” part of the text for you? Justify your selection. A topic I like from the Thomas text was questionable caddies. Nike seems like a great company who in the 1990’s had the biggest sport star representing them, Michael Jordan. People paid hundreds of dollars for a pair of shoes. Then it was revealed that the company abused children in third world countries paying them a misery to lower cost at the cost of poor people. Nike is a questionable caddie. 5. Discuss how Business Ethics (communication) impact/relates to your personal and professional life, experience, and goals for the future. Business ethics involves establishing clear procedures, business standards and a code of conduct for the employees to follow. Within a working environment people will encounter situations in which the person has to apply his ethical and moral values to resolve a problem. I encounter a business ethical dilemma in high school. I was part of an organization dedicated to protecting animals. The group wanted to start a protest against a local zoo because there were rumors of animals been mistreated. I decided not to participate in the protest because my intuition told me that it is wrong to protest against an institution based on rumors without clear evidence. I thought maybe the rumor could have been started by a disgruntled employee of the zoo. 6. If you had the power to change any part of this class what would it be and why. (Please do not worry; I am looking for honest feedback for future classes). What you say will not influence the grade for the exam, the question, or the class. I liked the content of the class a lot. I thought it would have been nice to have more interaction within the members of the class. We could have done tasks such as 15 minute brainstorming sessions for a specific subject, then a group response to the class, followed by ten minute feedback sessions from other groups on the responses of individual groups. 7. As a strategic leader, what actions would you take to establish and emphasize ethical practices in your firm? A leader of an organization has to realize the importance of ethics within the business. There are many instances in which a strategy must be developed taking ethical standards into consideration. For example in the selection of a supplier a leader will investigate the practices of potential suppliers before starting a business relationship with them. If a supplier that provides services to your company were to be caught in unethical behavior practices such as abusing human rights in a sweatshops working environment, the business one represents will receive bad press and lose business because of the despicable behavior of business acquaintances. 8. How can corporate governance foster ethical strategic decisions and behaviors on the part of managers and agents? Corporate governance creates specific policies, procedures, rules and customs on how things should be done inside of a corporation. It serves the purpose of a control mechanism which managers can utilize to maintain a working environment in which the highest ethical standards are implemented. Corporate governance creates documentation on how to do things. The documentation will help in the strategic decisions since strict guidelines on how business should be performed are available. 9. Respond to the following: “Can everything people desire to express eventually be expressed in language, signs, or symbols? Be sure to justify your position. Most of the things people desire to express can be express in language, signs or symbols. Signs and symbols are utilized a lot in written form in mathematics and in the roads as methods to express instruction to the drivers. An entire language was created for the deaf to communicate with each other without words based on utilization of hand gestures, sign language. People of different societies utilize different languages to express themselves. Technology created the need of developing different computer languages for programmers to express instruction to the computers. The one gray area which I believe might not be so easily to express no matter what medium one utilizes are matter of the heart or emotions. A person may say one thing to another in an emotional circumstance, which in reality is not really what the message this individual wanted to get across. 10. Are people basically selfish (egoistic) or basically generous (altruistic)? People are basically altruistic in their general lives. They try to help others as much as they can whenever they see someone in need. In the workplace is totally different. People are egoistic because competition and greed changes a person into thinking that to get ahead egoism is the best way to accomplish it. References Wikipedia.org (2007). Retrieved June 11, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org Read More