Ethical Issues in a Dental College - Essay Example

Ethical Issues in a Dental College Ethical Issues in a Dental College Introduction In the past most institutions attributed the issues of ethics to administrative rules and regulations yet with time it has become a requirement for everyone. In the modern setting of the institutions the top level management has realized that there is more than that when it comes to handling issues related to ethics. Big and small institutions are slowly realizing the importance of ethics in the workplace as they are a crucial factor to success. It is important for institutions to learn how to be confident and respectful to its customers (McKeough, 2006). This makes them be accountable for their actions since the current working situation is more demanding not only to the customers alone but also to the society at large. This is not an exception for a dental college that is not yet well established in the sense that they could be lacking the appropriate facilities to offer quality training for the students. Fairness and honesty become a big issue in the sense that ethics are considered a moral dilemma. Brighton dental college has been established through the efforts of a community that is prone to dental diseases. This was regarded as a short cut to achieving good health for the teeth in future. The administration thought that sustainable development for all institutions in the society would start with the society itself coming up with strategies to help them. With time the college was expected to expand into a bigger institution and therefore for a start, it was advisable that they come up with flexible ethical considerations that would ensure that all those interested in pursuing a career course were included. Among the key players were the community itself who were regarded as a force with which the college would work for. It was assumed that once the college had accepted the introduction of the college into the society, they would be given an appropriate setting where they would slowly establish themselves. The institution itself has a team of tutors who are expected to deliver quality education with which they can attract more learners. To enable this to become a reality, the ethical considerations that are put in place should be those that the society can withstand. As a dental college, the management is expected to act according to its moral guidelines so as to be able to attract a large number of dental students to the college (Glenn & Rowe, 2010). However, this may not be the case since they do not have stable facilities and have to, therefore, come up with strategies though which to serve students better. The dental college in question is not fully qualified to provide quality education and this may force the management to lower the entrance requirements in order for them to have students in the college. In the current generation, education has become an issue that one cannot do without. In order for one to become successful it is a requirement that he or she has credentials with which he can be able to prove that he is qualified for a given position. Literacy and access to education become the vital prerequisites with which an individual can be able to take advantage of the existing opportunities. Access to basic education prepares individuals to access higher education in future. This should be an opportunity that is pursued by all irrespective of their gender and everybody should be allowed to access education to the levels they wish. The opportunities that exist should be those that allow everyone to be able to access education in order to develop their levels of literacy (Lori, 2009). In a case where the dental college does not have qualified equipment, it is advisable that they derive ethical ways through which they can be able to recruit and manage a certain number of students. It would be ethical if the school fees to be paid would be lower as compared to the already advanced institutions. This will provide a chance for those who wish to pursue the dental course but cannot afford the higher rates of payment that exist in other colleges. Society finds it flexible to incorporate such an institution amongst them since they are able to benefit from the upcoming resources. Examinations, tests and teaching practices have to favor all the students in order for there to be fair results. As it is known in most societies, women tend to be ignored in matters related to education and hence, do not live to fulfill their dreams. This is attributed to several factors and at the end of the day culture seems to be the one that sums up all the factors into one. They are expected to start helping with the house responsibilities at a tender age while the boys are allowed to go to school (Lori, 2009). This should be discouraged worldwide and everybody should be allowed to access education equally. This will make the college appear ethical as they are able to offer equal opportunities for the learners irrespective of their gender orientation and social class in society. There was need for ethical transformation where leaders were expected to help their followers to achieve higher ethical standards by listening to their suggestions and reaching a consensus on issues that affected them all. This is mostly in the case where individuals are likely to differ during a conflict and it is through the interaction between the leaders and the followers that will result in ethical behavior. Servant leadership was the main point of discussion of consideration for such a college and here there is need for the leaders to always be aware of the needs of their students (Smith & Aristotle, 2006). By serving the followers, they were giving them encouragement to be more knowledgeable. Technology should be incorporated into the academic system so that students can be able to share information worldwide. Despite the fact that it is a less developed college, such efforts have to be made with time so that the enrolled students do not drop out of the institution. It is advisable that it is introduced to the students during childhood so that they can be conversant with the requirements. Through technology students are exposed to a variety of information which can be vital to their academics. They are able to share information with students from other institutions, hence being able to develop their literacy more. Many sources of school work can be obtained from the internet (Fieser & Pojma, 2007). This can be considered as an aftermath plan for the institution as it continues to admit more students into the college. The educational opportunities cannot afford to ignore those with special needs and the institutions have to ensure that they attend to such cases. This will give them a unique approach to issues of learning. To enhance this, they can employ tutors who are able to attend to those with special needs. This becomes effective in cases where they set up institutions for those with special needs in the school (Guan et al., 2009). Literacy development improves the chances of an individual being the most preferred in employment. It opens up channels and creates awareness on the individual. However given the scarce job opportunities students should be taught subjects that enable them to develop skills that can lead to self employment. The teachers should not just concentrate on theory teaching but try and apply the practical part of it. Leadership ethics is also called responsibility ethics and is mostly concerned with the ethical principles and the problems that accompany them in the workplace environment. It is vital in an organization as it helps to monitor the conduct of individuals among themselves. It is a discipline that is both normative and descriptive (Frederick, 2002). The already enrolled students might be used by the administration in doing promotions for the institution in order to encourage more recruitment into the institution. This is attributed to the fact that with more students coming in, others will be challenged to join the institution. A central setting and location that is used should be one that is accessible and students do not have to spend much trying to access the institution. In order for the college to be successful, there has to be limits in terms of the way employees relate amongst themselves in the work place and this can be obtained through a clear outline of ethical guidelines. The policies and the ethics give a direction to the daily tasks being undertaken in the dental college and without the ethics frequent conflict of interests are likely to be experienced (Ferrell et al., 2010). An upcoming dental college should seek to better itself through innovations and competition so as to be sustainable in future. This serves as an inspiration for the students who are enrolled that things are likely to become better with time. It should also seek to open more branches so as to be accessible to most of their consumers. In a major effort, the college should seek to preserve the environment by carrying out clean processing of commodities. Ethics among leaders is vital since some individuals may prove unethical at times as these are firms that operate in the social and natural environment (Lori, 2009). Therefore, it proved vital that these ethics be brought on board due to the demise of the small high trust and the upcoming enterprises. The emergence of many multinational corporate structures also triggered the need for ethics in leadership. The choice of education should be made by learners and the teachers should only come in as mentors and guides to the students on the best subjects. It should ensure that the teachers enrolled in different institutions are well trained in order to meet the educational requirements of the students. It should educate the society on importance of education in order for society to send all children irrespective of their sex to school. Deontology Theory of Ethics The theory argues that an action will always be considered to be right if it is in accordance with the moral principles and expectations of the society or work place. They have to be aware of the ethical dilemma that could be as a result of the obligations and duties that have been assigned to them as a result of being leaders. Special duties and responsibilities are set up by the leaders in order to avoid the conflict of interest that could result in case they were lacking a clear protocol to follow. Leaders who are immoral may not be valued by their subjects and respect for the decisions that they come up with are not implemented by any of their followers. The quest for moral knowledge can be traced back to the Ancient Greek philosophers who were influenced by the enlightenment moral thought (Glenn & Aristotle, 2010). They aimed at defining the good and ended up using very many approaches to find an appropriate answer. This is because for a long time ethics had been considered to be an issue that was concerned with the religious or social conventions. Ethics can be seen as trying to answer Socrates question of how one is expected to live. This clearly indicates to us the aim of ethics as being that of a concern ion the actions of an individual. It helps one to develop obligations and to learn to tell the truth always. The ethics make a leader focus on maximizing its services to the stakeholders and others. Respect for others is a key factor in the sense that through dignity and respect for their followers, there will be less conflict between the two parties. They are able to recognize the goals and ambitions that they have for their followers who are a great value to the organization that they are in. Service to others is another principle in which they are expected to be altruistic and not egoistic. Followers have to be put first, and especially where there interests and needs are of priority. Human resource management is a vital ethical issue since it is concerned with recruitment, selection and performance of staff (Guan et al., 2009). This creates an egalitarian workplace where ones dignity of labor is valued. Ethical issues like discrimination, relationship among the employees, rights and duties may rise often at the work place and need to be solved appropriately to avoid misunderstanding Utilitarianism Theory In this theory a situation is ethical, hence its overall purpose is to bring happiness and it mostly focuses on the moral worth of an action which will be determined by the resulting outcome (McKeough, 2006). The outcome is considered as an only way through which you can weigh the moral result. It is argued that when faced with a choice, one has to first consider the consequences of the potential actions and it is from that they can be able to choose what generates pleasure for them. The rules of action have to be put into consideration since they encourage adherence through which we are able to derive happiness. Every individual always has a subconscious perception about himself with which he makes decisions. The mind always feels frustrated on failure to think creatively as alternative solutions maybe required for a particular situation, but since the mind is blocked the frustrations tend to appear. This becomes a challenge for the modern managers who are forced to be more creative in order to be able to handle the increasing challenges that are as a result of the advanced technology. It is through creativity in decision making that they can be able to be on the attack in an attempt to solve the issues facing the organizations they are in. Most of the managers who have been able to be successful in such situations are because they see challenges as opportunities to think harder to bring about beneficial changes (Lori, 2009). Creativity provides room for innovation, and good leaders have to be flexible when it comes to innovations so as to handle the decision process rapidly. The major objective in decision asking is for the creativity to be able to provide newer alternatives by using elements that bring about objectives that were initially not available. However, creativity cannot be arrived at on an individual level without listening to the views of the other parties an indication that it is a collective process. This improves on the level of creativity in the sense that corrections are made to the initial decision and on the final decision it would be agreed upon by all the concerned parties. It makes the decision effective as it is able to satisfy the objectives that are set by the parties concerned. However, this is not a common aspect among all the individuals in the society as it is guided by the thought process of individuals and based on certain situations. Virtue Theory The character of a moral agent is considered as being a driving force for the individual’s ethical behavior. Rules do not really make an individual to be ethical as they can still be broken by an individual as they choose which ones to adhere to and those to forfeit. The concept of self actualization also seems to be more important in creativity as the individual will be able to perceive the reality more accurately and then go ahead to compare it to the objectives in order to find alternatives through creativity (Fieser & Pojma, 2007). One should not look at issues in a more complicated manner but try to make it simple so as to find from which level to decide how creative it will be handled. The preconscious activities that occur in an individual are as a result of the creativity being undertaken in a simple and naïve way. Put into consideration the unusual and let be defined by the mental processes in order to bring in new concepts. Creativity in being virtuous can be manifested in the creative thoughts of individuals as it makes them acquire new knowledge about the word they are in. It is the mind that directs the creativity of an individual by ensuring that it ends up with the best decisions. The cognitive approach brings variations where an individual undertakes the process of decision making by handling it in various ways. Individuals who are creative have more variations in terms of decision making as they think widely about the challenge they are facing (Neuman & David, 2010). This could be attributed to the fact that they have a wide range of life experiences and have worked in different environments where they were exposed to different challenging situations. On the other hand, there are those that are simply good at recognizing the appropriate solutions that are likely to arise and quickly formulate creative solutions for them. The environment is, therefore, a great determinant of the level of creativity that is to be instilled in the individuals. Problems that are visible tend to have an upper hand in terms of being handled first as compared to those that are not visible and tend to be complicated (Stephen & Tim, 2010). Conclusion The managerial responsibility and conduct between the workers and leaders may require one to be more knowledgeable of the ethics that are relevant and comply with the processes. The years of experience are also relevant so that one may be able to understand the situation and that which is acceptable there. Accepting major pay increase will mean that the workers will be overworked in order to maintain the profit that is made in a day, yet at the end of the month they still get the same salary at the expense of their bosses. Academic achievement leads to a good career. Promotions or increase in pay enable one to move up the ladder, hence career happiness. They are able to mentally work on motivational factors that lead to success. Most of the decisions that are made by the individual become effective in an organization only if those involved find it to be sensible. This is attributed to the level of creativity that has been involved in reaching the decision together with the level of participation that has been emphasized. One cannot ignore the fact that there are other situational factors such as attitudes, attribution and the stereotypes that affect the decision made. References Ferrell L., Fraedrich J., & Ferrell, C.O. (2010). Business ethics: Ethical decision making and cases. New York: South-western Cengage Learning. Fieser, J., & Pojma, L.P. (2009). Ethics: discovering right and wrong. Canada: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Frederick, R. (2002). A companion to business ethics. United Kingdom: Blackwell Publishers. Glenn, W., & Rowe, L. G. (2010). Cases in leadership. New York: SAGE Publishers. Guan, L., Hansen, D.R., & Mowen, M.M. (2009). Cost management and control. New York, South-western Cengage Learning. Lori, H. (2009). Literacy development with English learners: Research-based instruction in grades K-6. Chicago: Guildford Press. McKeough, A. (2006). Understanding literacy Development: A global view. London: Routledge. Neuman, S.B., & David, K. D. (2010). Handbook of early literacy research, Volume 3. New York: Guilford Press. Smith, A.J., & Aristotle, L.M. (2006). Ethics. Middlesex: Echo Library Publishers. Stephen, P. R., & Tim, J. (2010). Essentials of organizational behavior. New York: Prentice Hall. Read More