Moral Development - Essay Example

?Case Study Moral Development Transparency generally refers to the way of protecting fairness and promoting what is commonly good or ethical. Transparency is a pro-ethical condition that enables or impairs other ethical practices or principles (The ACM Digital Library, 2012, p.1). Indeed, transparency is very significant in professional and working ethics where it reveals all actions, plans, motives, and data of individuals and organizations to the relevant stakeholders (Learn Well Resources, 2012, p.1). Where stakeholders may include shareholders of certain organizations the directors and management of such organizations should avail all information pertaining to the status of the organizations to enable the shareholders to make necessary decisions on the same. Additionally, transparency is a legal requirement that all organizations should adhere to enable the government make a financial follow up on public organizations. Lawrence Kohlberg is a scholar that concentrated on both psychology and philosophy. He put much emphasis on moral development and proposed a 6-stage theory of moral thinking that advances the Piaget’s theory on moral development. He relevantly interviewed both children and adolescents about moral dilemmas to deduce three levels of moral development classified in six stages. The three Kohlberg’s levels of moral development include pre-conventional morality, conventional morality, and post-conventional morality levels (Crain, 2010, p.18-20). Level1. Pre-Conventional Morality The first stage of this level is the obedience and punishment orientation stage. According to Kohlberg, this stage is common with young children though adults can also express their reasoning at this stage. Children in this case obey rules in response to consequences of punishment involved. They do not do things because they are right but only obeys what the authorities’ permits. They do not have a societal voice but term morality as an external command from the adults. The second stage of this level is the individualism and exchange stage. At this stage, children value actions in relation to how they satisfy individual interests and not necessarily their morality. They recognize that there are varieties of right things permitted by the authorities with the best option serving one's own interests. Again, they realize that punishment from authorities or adults is just a natural risk that one needs to avoid. As such, their voice is still isolated from that of the society, as they do not identify with members of society (Crain, 2010, p.19-22). Level 2. Conventional Morality This level entails stage three of moral development that is interpersonal relationships. At this level, individuals seek to live up to social expectations and roles. This clearly affects the interpersonal relationship in a society depending on the choices different people make. At this stage, teens see morality as the way people should live and behave as expected by the family and society. They regard morality as having good motives and interpersonal feelings like compassion, kindness, love, and trust. Stage 4 involves maintaining social order. At this stage, individuals tend to consider the entire society while making personal judgments. They aim at being responsible, following set rules, and respecting the authorities with an aim of maintaining social order. This stage boils down to one-to one relationship where one considers the others feelings and offers help where they can (Crain, 2010, p.22-27). Level 3. Post conventional Morality This level entails stage five of moral development that involves social contract and individual rights. At this stage, individuals seek to accommodate others different opinions, values, and beliefs. They agree on rational standards to apply in the society. They adopt the common belief where all are entitled to benefit from what they do. Universal Principles is the last stage of moral development according to Kohlberg. He based it on universal ethical principles and abstract reasoning. This stage defines the principles of achieving universal justice to all. He notes that people tend to internalize the principles of justice even though they sometimes contradict with the set laws and rules. However, this stage is subject to a lot of criticism by fellow psychologists (Crain, 2010, p.28-24). Levels of moral development by Gary Howells, Vanda Monroe, and Martin Chan The three were executive directors of Worldwide Minerals (WM). Gary Howells observes that they ought to conceal the error from the shareholders as disclosing it would be so damaging. He notes that it is beneficial to them to conceal the error. He does not mind the feelings of the shareholders in this case. His explanations relate to individualism and exchange stage of moral development as seen in the Pre-conventional morality level. On the other hand, Vanda Monroe observes that the company is bound to rules set by the stock market listing which require them to be transparent. She warns that a concealment of the error would amount to a liability and a breach of the law. Her explanations relate to the stage of maintaining social order as seen in the conventional morality level of moral development. Finally, Martin Chan observes that they should reveal the error to the investors, as he would also not like to be deceived if he were an investor. He notes that WM should admit liability irrespective of the effect on the reputation of the company in the market. He relates his judgment on the fairness and feelings of the investors. His explanations relate to Post conventional Morality level where social contract, individual rights, and the common belief that all should benefit surface. Indeed, he bases his argument on universal ethical principles and abstract reasoning on the issue at hand. Analysis and Discussion of the Principal Roles of Non-Executive Directors Initially, only big and public companies took the initiative of appointing non-executive directors to the company boards. Indeed, the law only requires public companies to do so. However, in the recent past we have seen many medium sized and large private companies appoint non-executive directors to their company board of directors. There is no legal distinction between an executive and non-executive directors except that the executive director carries out executive responsibilities. Most significant is the fact that all corporate organizations irrespective of their size or financial status stand to derive immense benefits on including non-executive directors in the board (Gould, 2008, p.1). This is because the non-executive directors possess a lot of experience that is relevantly significant to reference organizations. For the non-executive to derive maximum benefits to the company, they should considerably operate as part of the executive management and not in isolation. Actually, the non- executive directors play a fundamental role in enhancing decision making in a corporate organization. Ideally, they complement the detailed knowledge and experience of the executive directors by bringing objectivity, business experience, and independence to the board (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2006, p.9). They generally accord creative contribution to the board of directors by offering objective advice and criticism to the company’s board of directors. As such, the non-executive directors bring independence, personal qualities, impartiality, specialist knowledge, and wide experience to the management of a given company. Nevertheless, their principal roles include the provision of general guidance and an independent perspective on the subject matter. They additionally enhance strategy development in a company by providing a creative and informed contribution derived from their wide and specialized knowledge. More so, they offer reasonable and constructive criticism to actions, plans, and objectives of the executive directors and the entire management. They equally monitor the performance of executive directors as far as implementing the strategies and achieving the company’s objectives (Gould, 2008, p.3-4). Moreover, although it is the duty of the entire board to ensure that the company accounts are properly prepared in accordance to set financial standards and presented to shareholders in real time in trueness and totality, the non-executive directors have an upper hand in ensuring this succeeds. They also ensure that the requisite internal controls, systems, and audit procedures are in place and effectively serve the purpose of reflecting the true financial position of the company without any delays. The non-executive directors thereby have a responsibility of satisfying themselves, questioning, and ensuring the accurate production and presentation of financial information to the government and shareholders in real time (Gould, 2008, p.3). However, in seeking to satisfy these principle roles, the non-executive directors faces potential tensions and conflicts in their quest on offering creative contribution and advice to the executive management. Indeed, the appointment of unskilled and non-independent non-executive directors will not serve the company effectively and thus jeopardizes its operations (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2006, p.9). Indeed, the non-executive directors of Worldwide Minerals may encounter various tensions and conflicts on advising the executive directors on the discloser of the over estimation of mallerite reserve. Most specifically, if the non-executive directors bare the intention of the majority shareholders or sole shareholder to represent their interests on the board this is likely to bring a lot of tension and conflicts with some members of executive management. In this case if the executive directors seek to have a discloser of the over estimation of mallerite reserve, they would conflict with Gary Howells who observes that the disclosure would jeopardize the market position of WM. Where an analyst Christina Gonzales questions the adequacy of the audit and controls systems, it becomes very clear that these systems are weak in relation to WM company operations. This amounts to a lot of tension on realizing this weakness that probably resulted to the over estimation of mallerite reserve. This leads to the Chairman’s revelation that he intended to write a letter to the investors and analysts in light of this. This demonstrates the chair’s admission to weakness and lack of options as the non-executive directors would only push the board to disclose the anomaly. Additionally, where a non-executive director is also a director in another company that relates or competes with the reference company, potential tensions and conflicts of interest come up. In this case, it becomes hard for the director to carry on with his principal roles. Works Cited The ACM Digital Library 2012, the ethics of information transparency, Web 29, May 2012, < http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1553337> Learn Well Resources 2012, Transparency Ethics: Honesty & Deception, Web 29, May 2012, < http://www.learnwell.org/transparency.htm> Crain, W 2010, Theories of Development, Prentice-Hall: London. Gould, N 2008, The Role of the Non-Executive Director, Web 29, May 2012, PricewaterhouseCoopers 2006, Non-Executive Directors - the role and responsibilities, Web 29, May 2012, Read More