Essay Questions
1. Three Steps in the Individual Ethical Decision-Making Process and How Characteristics of Individuals and Organizations Influence our ethical Behavior
The first step in the individual ethical decision-making process is ethical awareness. The second step is making ethical judgments. To be able to make ethical judgments one needs to define the ethical issues in the situation. The third step in the ethical decision making process identifying the ethical behavior. Individual characteristics that influence ethical behavior may include ethical decision-making style. Certain individuals believe that, in cases of ethical dilemmas, no one should be harmed. An individual’s locus of control is another characteristic that influences ethical behavior. Individuals with high external locus of control believe that events are beyond their control. Individuals with an internal locus of control believe that outcomes depend on an individual’s actions. Organizational characteristics such as group pressure influence an individual’s ethical behavior. Failure to comply with what everyone is doing portrays an individual who is not to be trusted. This pressure of wanting to be liked makes many individuals engage in unethical behavior. Organizational cultures such as division of labor and hierarchy of authority may influence ethical behavior. For instance, an employee may fail to report unethical behavior from his immediate superior to the higher authority in the organization since for fear of such consequences as being laid off.
2. Relationship Between Ethics and the Law
A close relationship exists between ethics and law. Most people believe that abiding on the law also means that portraying ethical behavior. However, the law does not cover all aspects of ethics. For instance, a law abiding citizen may have an affair, in an organization, with another person without breaking the law. However, many people consider this to unethical behavior. This is because most of what is ethical is normally defined by the society and is not stipulated in the law. Ethics, therefore, incorporates the law and extends its sphere of influence to include ethical standards and issues that are not addressed in the law. Another example that may illustrate the relationship of ethics and law is the presence of certain laws in some countries that allow industries to release their wastes in rivers without prior treatment. Though this is within the law, it is unethical to pollute water. Therefore, without ethics the law may encourage unethical behavior in individuals as well as organizations. There is a need to develop more laws that incorporate ethics.
3. What is Positive Psychology and how it is Useful in Studying Business Ethics. Six high virtues presented by Peterson and Seligman.
Positive psychology is a branch of psychology that is oriented towards improving human performance. Positive psychology becomes useful in studying business ethics since it plays a critical role in developing and understanding the attitudes of individuals. If human performance is improved in an organization, individuals tend to be enthusiastically occupied in the operation of the organization. Once the human performance is improved ethical behavior is improved. This contributes to improving the ethical behavior in an organization. The six high virtues by Peterson and Seligman include courage, wisdom, humanity, temperance, justice and transcendence. One virtue that is essential in business ethics is courage. Character strengths of courage include bravery, honesty, integrity, enthusiasm and perseverance. This is important because reporting of ethical dilemmas may require an individual to be brave and honest if he or she is to uphold ethics in an organization.
4. Four types of corporate Social Responsibility
One type of corporate social responsibility is economic responsibility. Economic responsibilities for an organization involve production of goods and services that consumers want and require. This also has to be with a certain degree of profit for the organization. An examples of economic responsibility includes an organization such as Pepsi venturing into production of different brands of products to maximize profit as well as satisfy the needs of consumers in the fast food industry. Another example of economic responsibility is the televising of live sport games by cable companies. Another type of responsibility is the legal responsibility. Organizations need to conduct their businesses within the current law and government regulations. An example of legal responsibility is in the child pornography business, which is illegal in the United States. Another example is in the music business where different individuals are involved in pirating music. Ethical responsibilities are the third type of corporate social responsibility. This entails businesses engaging in activities that avoid harm and rely on the ethical decision-making processes to make decisions concerning their activities. Ethical responsibility may entail a company continuing to produce products that harm the consumers. Also, it may involve a company such a Coca-cola being involved sustainability efforts of the water resource. The fourth type of responsibility is philanthropic responsibilities. This involves an organization’s involvement in activities that promote human welfare. An example of philanthropic responsibility is the gates foundation by Bill gates and his wife. Another example is a company such as the Target and Whole Foods Company that donates a certain percentage of their profits to charity.
5. How an organization Benefits from being Social Responsible
Organizations that are socially responsible may experience increase in financial performance. Companies that have clear corporate governing policies experience high profitability. Additionally, companies that have a higher sense of ethical responsibility tend to have or experience high productivity. For example, after several of the Polarfleece and Polartec fabrics industries burned down, the CEO continued to pay the jobless wages and benefits for three months. The result, after the industries were reconstructed, was increased productivity since the employees had a willingness to work for an organization that took care of them. Reputation of a company as a corporate social responsible company may also boost the company’s performance. For example, companies that were recognized as the “Most Friendly Companies” in the Working Mother magazine list experienced increased stock returns after the list was announced. Companies that participate in philanthropic responsibilities may experience press coverage that may boost the company’s image. Furthermore, a company that is social responsible is able to comply with various regulatory requirements. This helps to reduce any financial risks that may result from being fined for not following the law.
6. Conflict of interest Issue
A typical example of a conflict of interest is the rating made by the Standard and Poor’s agency that rated complex mortgage-backed securities. Rating of triple-A increased the confidence of investors in buying the securities. The conflict of issue arose since the rating agencies are paid by the companies whose securities they rate. This results to biased ratings. The ethical issue in this case was a lack of transparency. This was an ethical problem because most of the securities were wrongly assigned high rating. Additionally, the fact that the securities company was paying the rating agency shows a level of influence that constitutes a conflict of interest. Cost implications include fines from the respective professional bodies. Such a situation can be addressed by ensuring that future ratings are done by companies that have no relations with the securities company.
7. When is an employee justified to blow the whistle and how can they do so responsibly
An employee is justified to blow the whistle in situations where there is disregard of values such as an employee rights or customer rights, harm, breaking of the law or where the reputation of the organization is being tarnished. The employee should ensure blowing the whistle when he or she suspects situations that provide evidence of the above named issues. The employee needs to first approach the immediate manager or supervisor, to blow the whistle responsibly. The employee should ensure that the matter is not based on personal feelings. If the manger ignores the situation, the employee is obliged to write a memo to the manger documenting the issue in detail. If the manger ignores the situation again, the employee is supposed to take the matter to the supervisors of the manager. This should be done in a meeting where the manger and supervisors are present to ascertain whether the situation demands attention. This ensures that you do not undermine the manager. If the meeting with the manager’s superiors does not generate good results, the employee can contact the ethics department of the organization to inquire about any laws protecting whistle blowers. If the manager is part of the issue, it is recommend to go to the ethics officials first. If the company lacks any formal reporting department, the employee can raise the matter to the regulatory organization that monitors that organization.
8. Eight steps to ethical decision making
The first step involves gathering of facts. This will enhance formulation of credible solutions. The second step involves the definition of the ethical issues. This will entail identification of the area or values of conflict in the ethical dilemma. Some situations may contain multiple ethical issues that need to be identified for developing proper responses to the situations. The third step involves identification of the affected persons. This will involve finding out the harms and benefits to the persons concerned and who is responsible for those situations. The fourth step involves the identification of consequences. Identification of consequences will involve those ones that have a higher chance of occurring again. Additionally, negative consequences will have to be identified. The fifth step involves identification of obligations. Each obligation is identified and given a valid reason. Step six involves consideration of a person’s character and integrity. The question to consider in this step is what a person of integrity would do when faced with an ethical situation. Step seven involves creatively thinking about potential actions. This step provides the person with a number of different alternatives for the situation at hand. Step eight involves checking your gut. The use of intuition provides credibility in making good decisions.
9. Preventative steps an employee might take to prevent ethical dilemmas or improve their ethical decision-making when face with ethical issues
The first preventative step the employee should take is to learn the company’s code of ethics and policy manual. The employee should have a broad idea of the policy in the organization. The second step is for the employee to ask managers, peers and executive what is considered important in that company. This helps the employee to know certain unwritten standards existing in the company. The employee should inquire from the colleagues what some of the most common ethical issues are in the organization. Additionally, the employee should ask the manager how one would raise an ethical issue if it happened. Consequently, the employee should develop and nurture relationships with persons outside their chain of command. Some of the important relationships should include persons from the legal department, human resources department and other departments, which might assist in providing important information on ethics concerning the organization. Additionally, the employee should join a professional group in their profession. These groups tend to have certain code of ethics that guide the professions on how to perform their duties ethically.
10. Moral awareness, what influences it and how to improve our moral awareness of ethical issues
Moral awareness refers to where a person identifies a situation that raises an ethical concern and should be addressed from an ethical perspective. One of the influences on moral awareness is the social environment. Most people look for guidance from their peers when faced with ethical dilemmas. A situation where individuals in an organization view a situation as ethically problematic chances are that the issue has been discussed informally among the workers or in an ethics training seminar. Consequently, if a similar situation happens, one has the capability of thinking about the situation in ethical terms. The second influence on moral awareness is the ethical language used in the different situations. Positive words such as fairness and honesty or negative words like cheating and stealing will elicit ethical thinking. This is beacuse these terms are closely associated with cognitive categories that have moral content. Thirdly, situations that are likely to produce serious harm to other people have a higher probability to be viewed ethical issues.
11. Levels of Cognitive Moral Development proposed by Kohlberg and levels of ethically responsible individuals.
Level one is the preconventional level. It includes stage 1 and stage 2. The individual in this level is very self-centered and examines ethical rules as forced from outside the self. Stage one individuals are limited to thinking concerning obedience to authority for their own sake. Stage 2 individuals are more concerned about personal reward and satisfaction. The second level is referred to as the conventional level. The individual is particularly focused on others and is less self-centered. This level encompasses stage 3 and stage 4. The stage 3 individual views interpersonal trust and social approval as important. The stage 4 individual is concerned with fulfilling duties or rules designed to promote a common good. The third level is referred to as the post conventional level. It comprises stage 5 and stage 6. At this level, the individual has developed beyond identification with others’ expectations and rules and has the capacity to make decisions independently. Stage 5 individuals insist on rules and may even question the law. Ethically responsible people fall under level 2 and level 3. At level 2, the individuals consider what the rule or laws stipulate. Consequently, the level 3 individual considers the moral laws more than the society’s law.
12. Four drivers of engagement and relation of engagement to business ethics
The first driver of employee engagement is line of sight. Employees comprehend the strategic direction of the company. Ethical values and business goals are essential elements in an organization’s strategic direction. The second driver is involvement. Employees actively participate in the organization and contribute ideas. The third driver of employee engagement is information sharing. Once the employees have the information they need they can be able to perform effectively. Organizations with the culture of information sharing resolve ethical issues effectively. The fourth driver of employee engagement is rewards and recognition. Employees will perform effectively to achieve business goals and be rewarded. Employees are motivated by incentives for they work they do. Employees who are actively involved in the portray characteristics such as being innovative and passionate. Such employees have a lesser chance of engaging in unethical behavior. Thus, improving the level of employee engagement improves the level of business ethics in an organization.
13. Ethical issues involved in evaluating performance of employees. How does continuous evaluation help avoid disengagement and unethical behavior?
Ethical issues involved in evaluating performance of employees include honesty, integrity and discipline. Continuous evaluation is important. Through continuous evaluation, managers can be able to determine the performance of the employees. Employees that perform well on the evaluation are rewarded based on their performance. This acts as a driver for motivating employee engagement, which in turn translates to improved ethical culture. Consequently, consistent feedback to an employee makes the employee reflect more on his or her behavior and in the process encourages the employee to improve his or her performance. Using a continuous performance evaluation where there is formal reporting system is essential. Such a system encourages linking of employee performance with the organization’s goals, which acts to inform the employee that he or she is actively involved in the running of the organization. The continuous performance evaluation should include ethics-related performance expectations.
