Trident University Joan Lampley Module 2 SLP Assignment ETH 301: Business Ethics Professor Shah 9 July, 2017 When pressed for time, in many cases, we tend to press the boundaries as well. This is where ethical decision making may become difficult. Under a strict timeline to get a task completed, sometimes the finished product is more important than the safety of workers. As I read the scenario, it is obviously a difficult decision to make; one choice will have the problem fixed in thirty minutes, while the other choice would take closer to seven hours. This attitude of pushing the limits effectively clouds our own moral limits and, as a result, increases the chances that we eventually will cross the boundaries (De Cremer, 2013, p.65). In this scenario, allowing the crew into the trench without a trench box would be exceeding the limits. The municipality’s safety rules state that employees should not go into a trench without a trench box if the trench exceeds five feet in depth. With the trench being seven feet deep, it is clear what should happen in regards to finishing the task. However, being pressed for time plays a huge role in this scenario being that the city is without sewage. As the workers asses the trench and note that the walls of the trench are solid and shouldn’t be cause for concern makes the option to go ahead and complete the task seem less like exceeding the boundaries. Grey areas can be a dangerous yet wonderful game, being able to push boundaries is nice as long as everything goes well. Put differently, as long as we can justify our actions, we will not feel that we are pushing the limits in unacceptable ways, let alone crossing the boundaries (De Cremer, 2013, p.66). With this statement, it is clear that we only the positives of the pending result when pushing limits. When a lie has justification behind it, the feeling of being unethical is created in the situation. Research shows that the survival strategy to justify unethical actions is particularly activated when people suffer from loss of sleep, feeling depleted, and when potential losses of one’s wealth are salient (De Cremer, 2013, p. 66). This being said, if the task isn’t completed on time the risk
Ethics is the guiding force in any respectable organization. With a moral compass, especially in the leadership of organization, a company can become compromised and fall into a quagmire of legal issues, a tarnished reputation, and devaluation of company stock if it is a publically traded company. In pursuit of examine my own ethical lens I will analyze the ethical traits of an admired leader, my own traits as exhibited in the Ethical Lens Inventory, and how I make a decision concerning a particular ethical dilemma.
Unethical practices of business managements are also tough for the employees who get confused whether to do what is right or just avoid complications and go with the flow. Solomon states that
Write a 350-word executive summary outlining the ethical dilemma and outcome in the video, as well as possible alternative solutions.
Not to our surprise, the employee would almost always choose their economic stability over their integrity. It is still not easy to say that the employee’s conscious didn’t warn them of the risks, the first time. It begins with just a simple upgrade tune up and then trickles to $1,000 in new auto parts. If we look back at the Sear’s auto mechanic example, a mechanic could easily convince the customer that their car needed a whole new system because of the customer’s lack of knowledge of the subject. The customer automatically assumes there is a guaranteed trust commitment to their service, but in turn gets fooled. The evidence unearthed by investigators found nearly identical reports of cheating at one Sears auto repair shop after another.
Apply the ethical decision making model presented in week one lectures (adapted from Beemsterboer, 2010; Velasquez et al, 2009) to the case study.
Throughout life, one might observe the different ways that people act. Even though every individual might have his or her own interpretation of the word ethics, it is commonly referred to as a set of morals for people to live by. Every individual has the choice to make ethical or unethical decisions when reacting to a situation. In William Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, a noble Scottish general acts unethically when he makes the decision to kill his own king (Macbeth 54). The Count of Monte Cristo, written by Alexandre Dumas, contains many characters who decide to act unethically for a plethora of reasons. What most people forget when acting unethically are the consequences that are soon to follow.
Abandoned minors are no longer protected from liability on their contracts, merchants are still reluctant to deal with them on a credit basis, fearing that they may still attempt to disaffirm, or
In chapter 1, Levitt and Dubner describe how many people in different cultures and walks of life, which are otherwise inclined to be honest, find subtle ways of cheating to advance their position or increase monetary awards when incentives are strong enough. The authors define an incentive as “a means of urging people to do more of a good thing or less of a bad thing,” and identify three varieties of incentives. Economic incentives are those, which a person responds to in the marketplace. Social incentives motivate people to respond in a certain way because they care or are worried about how they will be viewed by others. Moral incentives appeal to a person’s sense of right versus wrong. Three case studies of the
Often, unethical human behavior is not intentional, but is coincidentally based on boundaries such as individual knowledge, organizational unanimity, and societal acceptance of policy. On an individual level, although unbeknownst to the individual, humans make decisions based on the best outcomes for themselves, which may result in unintentional and unethical degradation of a fellow human. Further, an organizational setting will compound individual ethical dilemmas as internal groups working together seek acceptance through groupthink, which is the tendency of a work group to come to an agreement
Some industry-specific factors, such as having valuable near-cash assets, can increase the organization's vulnerability. Also they will need to rationalize the actions as justifiable. The individuals committing the fraud must first convince themselves that their behavior is acceptable or will be temporary. For example, Barry Minkow’s believed that the lies and deceit are for the betterment of his company and that with time everything will eventually return to normal.
Management constitute amongst major components of a company, organization or a business. As such, management oversees employees interactions with their supervisors and also control of people within a particular organization. Also, it includes critical and ethical decision-making process so as to address various ethical dilemmas experienced by employees while undertaking their respective assigned duties within the company. Ethical dilemmas are hereby to stay as issues usually arise now and then and place a variety of options that bear different repercussions. Therefore, it calls for ethical and critical decision-making skills so as to make the most appropriate option that bears more benefits in comparison to other options presented. While making ethical decisions, it 's substantially important to play heed to a certain ethical decision-making theory. This would enable an individual making the decision to ripe best possible consequences rather than living to regret. Moreover, ethical decision making is typically important in business as making a wrong decision may result not only in huge losses but also poor relationship amongst colleagues and miserable life for employee(s) working in a particular company or business in question.
Making consistently ethical decisions is difficult. Most decisions have to be made in the context of economic, professional and social pressures, which can sometimes challenge our ethical goals and conceal or confuse the moral issues. In addition, making ethical choices is complex because in many situations there are a multitude of competing interests and values. Other times, crucial facts are unknown or ambiguous. Since many actions are likely to benefit some people at the expense of others, the decision maker must prioritize competing moral claims and must be proficient at predicting the likely consequences of various choices. An ethical person often chooses to do more than the law requires and less than the law allows.
Industrial Engineers often face the ethical dilemma of attempting to balance costs with quality and safety. Company management pressures Industrial systems engineers to design processes that are cost efficient, time constrained, and produce a high quality output. This puts the engineer in a tricky balancing act in which they are trying to make every stakeholder happy. Taking risks in order to create cost efficient solutions is not specific to only industrial engineers but applies to all disciplines of engineering, making this topic a relevant discussion. However, this conflict is especially true in a manufacturing setting where industrial engineers thrive, machine operators are often overworked, companies make products in high stakes, large batches, and the range of quality acceptance is growing ever smaller. A relevant example is the engineer who was designing a chemical plant in Mexico. In order to achieve the correct viscosity of the paint stripper, the engineer asked the plant operator to babysit the chemical mixture and manually release the valve when necessary. Engineering management’s decision puts the plant worker at a safety risk in order to achieve a tighter quality and standardization of the chemical stripper production process. Ultimately, this resulted in the catastrophic death of the plant worker and the destruction of the plant.
Project managers encounter several stakeholders, and they generally have a direct or indirect concern in the results of the project. There are a unique set of circumstances which causes ethical dilemmas to develop rapidly effortlessly. For instance, as in regards to the simulation in module 6, it is demanded by the senior management from Delphi Printers & Peripherals to complete a multifunctional printer within 12 weeks with a budget of $40,000. There is one unique characteristic that pertains to this project and it is the pressure to accomplish results in a relatively short time frame. Since it is demanded to deliver this product within the 12-week timeframe, there are outside resources to utilize, however, it is costly to use the vendors. In addition, the team members may become frustrated and a overbudget may occur. Therefore, when I complete a run of a simulation, the project is most likely to be overbudget and the team process might be around 75-90/100 and this affect the score, however, demands have been delivered. There were times during the simulation the project was completed after the 12 weeks. When
Ethical dilemmas are virtually impossible to avoid if you are a participant in the workforce. The definition of an ethical dilemma stands as a situation that challenges two or more “right” values that arise in a conflict (Treviño & Nelson, 2014). As ethical persons, how may we overcome ethical dilemmas and finish on the “right” side? The research mentioned in Trevino’s and Nelson’s book, “Managing Business Ethics: Straight Talk About How to Do It Right,” suggests that preparing for specific ethical challenges before a situation occurs can adequately prepare the workforce to better handle real-world applications when an ethical situation transpires. The notion that ethics is teachable inspires the following case analysis. The case analysis involving chemical safety will discuss the facts and issues, stakeholders, decision alternatives, and real-work constraints. Focusing on each of the previously mentioned topics, I will describe the applications using Utilitarian, Kantian Ethics, and Rawlsian Justice Analysis’s.