Ethical Decision-Making - Article Example

Ethics Exam There are various ways through which an individual can identify whether a particular situation or an incident requires ethical decision making or not. One such method is recognized as moral sensitivity (Johnson 220). When this method is used an individual indulges in a three step process which includes how a particular situation may impact the lives of other individuals, what can be done to mitigate the issue and identify the impact that different steps for solving an issue can have on other people. Any issue that can have a negative impact on the overall or the majority population of the society is a moral issue. Thus, first an individual needs to identify the harm a particular scenario may do to the majority population of the society. In order to identify the harm, one needs to identify what the majority of the society perceives regarding the issue and whether there is an agreement on the issue impacting the majority in a negative manner. Once it has been established that an issue may have consequences associated with it for the majority of the population, an individual needs to look at the various solutions that are available to solve the problem. Once solutions have been identified, a cost and benefit of all the solutions need to be conducted. This is a significant step in order to identify which solution will have lesser consequences and more benefits for the overall society. This step will help in ensuring that only that solution is implemented which benefits the major population of the society. 2. An ethical leader needs to have good communication skills in the area of communicating ethical values and guidelines of the organization. He/she needs to encourage his/her followers to focus on the interests of the organization. Ethical leaders even need to indulge in successes planning in order to ensure that there are other ethical leaders within his/her ranks and in future the organization will have ethical leaders to continue to promote and adopt the ethical values of the organization (Lewis 138). Ethical leaders need to be able to exhibit the connection of operating within ethical guidelines and how these guidelines help in the attainment of organization’s aims and objectives. Ethical leaders even need to ensure that they do as they preach. If they are preaching ethical values, then they need to abide by them and take strong and difficult decisions in times when the ethical values of the organization are being compromised. For example an organization may have a zero tolerance policy towards sexual harassment. If an ethical leader of such an organization witnesses that one of the employees is indulging in sexual harassment, then he/she should take corrective measures regardless of how important that particular employee is for the organization. This will in turn encourage the followers to act in the same way and they will abide by the ethical values of the organization. The ethical leader should even know how to educate employees regarding the benefits that the employees and other stakeholders of the business such as the society will be protected if the employees follow the ethical guidelines of the organization. 3. The rules of how to do business and what is considered ethical and unethical in business are quite undefined. Due to this it is believed that in the setting of a business normal ethics or performing acts that are supposed to be right are considered as suspended. This does not mean that businesses and managers are indulging in unethical acts and have given up on the code of conduct principles of trustworthiness as well as fair play. This rather means that the people who are analyzing the actions of businesses have differing views regarding the ethical and unethical nature of these actions. In other words, certain actions being conducted by a business may be considered as an unethical act by a certain group and at the same time it may be considered as an ethical act by another group. For example a certain advertisement by a particular business may be seen as deceptive and manipulative by a certain group and at the same time it may be seen as informational as well as beneficial for the customers by another group (Lewis 152). For example an advertisement that informs individuals regarding the benefits of eating healthy and the healthy food that an organization is selling may be viewed as ethical by those who believe that people should eat healthy food and the business is performing in an ethical manner by informing the citizens regarding the benefits of healthy food. On the other hand, another group may believe that by such advertisement, the seller of healthy food is trying to compete against those organizations that are selling fast-food or food with high carbohydrates and this may be considered as a manipulative advertisement. Therefore, in the business world it is difficult to maintain the image of an organization as an ethical organization. But it is the responsibility of the business and the managers to ensure that they act while following universal ethical principles and code of conduct such as fairness. 4. In order to implement a culture of ethical financial operations in the organization an individual first needs the support of the higher level management and the higher level management needs to communicate to the organization regarding the ethical guidelines that the organization should follow while conducting financial operations. The second step that needs to be implemented is the development of policies regarding the financial operations of the organization. These policies should include the ethical guidelines in compliance with the norms of the society and the laws that govern the financial dealings of an organization within a particular nation. For example the Sarbanes Oxley Act of the United States have provided various guidelines that help an organization perform financial activities in an ethical manner and organizations operating in the United Nation should incorporate them in their financial operation policies manual. Next the individual needs to motivate the employees of the organization to adopt these policies. The individual should direct the organizational leaders at all levels to implement the ethical financial operations policy and even inform about them to the employees whenever possible or required. This will encourage other employees to even follow the same policies (Lewis 162). The organization even needs to make sure that the new financial operations policies are followed at all times. In order to so they need to provide rewards to employees who follow the financial operation policies and punish those who do not. Furthermore the organization will have to provide training to employees to help them learn regarding how to behave in compliance with financial operations policies. 5. Various strategies can be implemented by an organization to depict itself as a socially responsible organization and to serve in the best interest of the community. One such strategy or intervention that an organization can implement is funding charitable institutions. Organizations can choose to fund various charitable institutions that exist to help those who are needy. It is essential the companies give charities to that charitable organization that are closely associated with their line of business. For example the organization named Ken Blanchard Companies has developed its own charitable wings which the company finances (Lewis 179). The purpose of this wing is to provide money for the education of those who cannot afford it and want to gain education in order to enhance their living standards. The company has established such a charitable organization in compliance with its mission. The company’s mission is to attain improved productivity as well as higher level performance by the employees. Other than funding and developing charitable organizations, organizations can even depict themselves as socially responsible organizations by indulging in various behaviors that help them attain the image of corporate citizenship. In order to attain this image the organization needs to carryout various responsibilities such as legal responsibilities. An organization can implement the strategy of abiding by all the rules and regulations of the nation they are operating, so they can depict themselves as organizations who are completing their legal responsibilities. For example in the USA organizations that involve in providing equal employment opportunity are able to develop an image of themselves as organizations that are equal employment employers. 6. Individuals have several personal moral values and they even have to abide by the moral values of the organizations they work for. At times they are faced with a situation in which their own and their organizations moral values are challenged. An individual needs to be courageous enough to stand by their and their organizations moral values. This courage is developed over time and in order to develop this courage an individual requires having a strong moral development. Furthermore an individual even requires the support of others to have experienced a strong moral development. These supporters may include the socialization agents of the individuals including friends and family members as well as managers and leaders of an individual who work with him within an organization (Lewis 191). Furthermore, an organization that experiences threat to its moral values should have a culture where ethical decision making is supported by the top level management and that is only how individuals working within the organization will have the courage to act in a morally responsible manner. An individual may have faced various scenarios in which their moral values are challenged and in order to face this challenge an individual should at all times side with their moral values. They should have been indulged in this act from time to time. They should have adopted such a stance from a very early age and this stance should be promoted by the peers of the individuals in both social and professional settings. This in turn provides the courage as well as the perception to the individual that if they stand by their moral values, they will be helped by others to enforce these values. 7. Working in business organizations is a very challenging task for individuals who want to serve their God and want to make sure that they abide by the various principles and values that have been preached by God. These values and principles have experienced immense confrontation due to organization’s focus on profitability over doing well for the betterment of the overall society. Under such working conditions an individual can still ensure that he/she lives a faith based life both in their professional as well as personal spheres of life. One way of living with the teachings and principles of God is to actually learn those principles and abide by them at all times. An individual needs to realize that the salary paid to him by his human bosses is not enough and an individual needs to focus on the rewards that God has to offer him. While indulging in any task or being forced to perform an unethical task an individual needs to prioritize whether he wants the rewards that God has to offer or whether he wants to the materialistic rewards that his managers have to offer. An individual should give precedence to the rewards that God has to offer and never indulge in unethical practices that are against the values and principles preached by God. This might cause a disadvantage to him/her at the organization where he is working. But the individual will be well rewarded for keeping up with the God’s words. This will even help an individual in diffusing stress he/she faces due to unethical actions he has been directed to carry out in his organization and the individual will be able to live a satisfied life which will directly benefit him in his personal and family life. Works Cited Johnson, Craig E. Meeting The Ethical Challenges Of Leadership. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE, 2012. Print. Lewis, Phillip. Ethics In The World Of Business. [Place of publication not identified]: Kendall Hunt, 2013. Print. Read More