Making decisions when faced with ethical dilemmas is one of the pointers of a good manager. The primary thing, when confronted with such situations, is first to realize that actions have consequences. My approach when dealing with ethical dilemmas, therefore, takes into consideration the effects that my decision will have to other stakeholders in the organization such as customers, employees, and even suppliers. My approach to solving the dilemma involves the application of some steps. The first one involves evaluating the different alternatives available for solving the dilemma. This entails gauging how the possible decisions would affect the various organization stakeholders.
As a manager, the modern day business environment makes the topic of ethics an uncomfortable one. Steve Jobs, one of the world’s most respected business leaders, was known fro instances of unethical conduct. These included the collection of speeding tickets, subcontracting of labor from China and disrespect to staff (Solymossy, 2015). This is what makes the issue of ethics tricky to me as a manager. I, however, believe that engaging in unethical practices require the use of cover-ups, which when revealed, would lead to the adverse impacts on organizations.
One of the biggest challenges that entrepreneurs face when growing their businesses is the conflict between ethical behavior and applying opportunism. Given that the success of entrepreneurship is defined by the ability of the entrepreneurs to seize opportunities, it is always a challenge to gauge whether the opportunities are ethical or not. In most cases, opportunism will entail placing individual interests over those of others, with economic benefit in mind (Solymossy, 2015).
In trying to resolve the issue of opportunism, entrepreneurs need to adapt to the cultural values that touch on ethics. To this end, the entrepreneurs can look into the codes of conduct that different countries adopt governing businesses. This will define the limit to which opportunism will go, thus mitigating the effects that would have been caused by over-application of opportunism. Besides, the application of the principles developed in the area of business ethics would also help to deal with the issue. Given that opportunism is an ethical issue, adding scholarly insight would be helpful in coming up with appropriate solutions to the challenge (Solymossy, 2015).
Reference
Solymossy, E. (2015). Call for collaboration in researching the best practices in teaching ethical entrepreneurship: the conflict of money and ethics.Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, 5(1), 1-16.
