Ethical Decision-Making In The Workplace

The method of ethical decision making which was developed by Dr. Cathryn A. Baird presented two components contained in all ethical decisions which are; The Four ethical Lenses and the 4+1 Decision process. The Four Ethical Lenses issue claims that different ethical theories and the means in which we tend to approach the situations which form part of our ethical traditions are looked at in four different perspectives. From each perspective there are different values on which to decide whether the action taken is either ethical or not and each lens also lays emphasis on determining whether the decision made is of ethical requirement. In the 4+1 Decision Process, people who are responsible for making final decisions in an organization do it

The issue of ethical decision making has become more important in recent years for a variety of reasons. An understanding of ethical decision making in organizations is more significant to the development of organizational science. Managers engage in decision-making behavior affecting the lives and well-being of others. The individual responds to an ethical dilemma with cognitions determined by his or her cognitive moral development stage.

Our CEO Indra Nooyi implemented the “Performance with Purpose” guideline to help the company and employees make the right decisions. The company has also developed a Code of Conduct that addresses various business ethics issues such as bribery and conflicts of interest. PepsiCo expects the associates to be familiar with the Code of Conduct. The company also created a Chief Compliance Officer position to enforce the Code. In order to maintain our commitment to the communities and assorted stakeholders, the company has high standards for quality. By adhering to processes and ensuring proper governance, PepsiCo attempts to uphold its responsibilities and earn the confidence of stakeholders. To measure its progress and to make certain that it remains focused, PepsiCo has also developed the following six guiding principles that it uses to sustain its commitment. However, my example shows that we face ethical issues or questions even at a company that is established on how to handle unethical behaviors. It is largely at the individual level to act ethically. As we observed in the baby lab video, we are born with the universal moral core as well as the dark side of morality. As we grow older, society trained us to behavior ethically. However, when under pressure, we do regress to our younger selves. When we are faced with pressure and complications, decision making also become extremely difficult. Saying what is the right thing to do is easier than doing the right thing when you are in the situation. In the future, I will weigh in all four methods of ethical reasoning (virtue, interest, rights and duties) during the decision-making process. I believe that having the proper tools and help will guide me in making the right

Direct democracy’s initiative sounds appealing in theory, but realistically, history has shown that the average voter is incapable of truly assessing the effects and repercussions of these ballot proposals. This is clearly exemplified by Proposition 13, an initiative that, as author Isaac Martin states, became a “nationwide symbol of tax revolt” (Martin). Proposition 13 essentially set the property tax rate to 1% and stated that the assessed value of homes could not exceed the 1975-76 assessed value. This reduced taxes by about 57% (californiataxdata.com), a truly drastic decrease, which translates to a loss of $7 billion in property taxes during the 1978-79 fiscal year (McCaffery & Bowman, 530). Consequently, Proposition 13 led to intense repercussions; the huge decreases in finances forced local agencies to look for funding elsewhere, and severe cuts were made. The Los Angeles Times conducted a survey of 70 southern school districts and found that two-thirds of them had eliminated or sharply curtailed summer school. Also, Long Beach school sent layoff notices to nearly half of its staff of teachers, and by June 28th there was a total of 3,252 estimated layoffs with 165,000 imminent layoffs. The repercussions continued, with prices escalating to cover the decline of financing. And ironically,

Business Ethics is helpful for decision-making process at all levels of organization. Following are major decisions required for solving ethical and regulatory issues

Making a business decision for any CEO is easy, the main principle is to keep the shareholders happy by generating more revenue. The more money a company earns the more attractive it looks to the potential investor. Now, from history, we have learned that every CEO is "not" created equal and some use bad business practices to earn more revenue. So, laws were created to set guidelines, companies started to use risk assessment to see if a decision would lead to any legal recourse that would make them a liability, or put them in fault. Not until I took this class did I not realize that there is no one law for every decision that must be made in a business. Thus, the need for ethical decision making.

The Dean of Harvard Business School, Kim B. Clark, stood at a crossroads and incurred opportunity cost in two options such as ignoring the hacking or rejecting all applicants who had attempted to look at information. On the decision making process contains the impact of ethics. Moral philosophic factors will be taken into consideration as well as unconscious behaviors and attitudes will be occurred. Various approaches of ethical decision making was stated by Shannon Bowen (2002, pg 271) was stated such as materialism, utilitarianism and deontology. The utilitarianism was defined ‘This approach is typically identified with the policy of “maximizing the overall good” (Desjardins, J., 2009. p. 27). Positive and negative acts are determined by their consequences. In this case, the decision maker, the Dean of Harvard Business School, might use a self-interest approach for his short-term benefits which he could not have any ethical issues and got out of problem. However, it will bring moral and ethical issues for long term period such as the lack of veracity, fairness and the breach of trust from other applicants and stakeholders.

We, as individuals, face ethical decisions everyday whether it be for our job or within ourselves. I currently am facing an ethical dilemma myself. My boss has asked me to balance the books for the company by tomorrow morning. He has a meeting in the afternoon with the board to discuss the numbers, so I know I can not be late, however, there is a complication with my calculations. I can not get the book to balance out. I am scared that my boss will get fired if he does not have the numbers on time. Consequently, I must make a decision on how I am going to get correct numbers to my boss by tomorrow morning.

The ethical challenge arises after all the factors have been considered; the decision is made on factors other than those by which all the employees have been evaluated. Managers face a crucial internal ethical challenge when called to do their job. They acknowledge the one party and advancing the interest of others. Objectives may sometimes come at a cost to some employees and harm others. Human resource management’s aim is to attract the right people with the right attitude and frame of mind to contribute to their company. Human resource management ensures that employees grow with the organization. That, as the company grows and develops the employee also grows in knowledge, experience and quality to support the organizational growth. Companies that develop their employees always realize considerable growth in their business. This is because through training and development, employees learn to perform their job better and more efficient. Human resource management decisions cannot be ineffective. And they should not be inaccurate. Because truth is, it can cost an organization its very existence. Quality decision making does not come automatically. It takes training and experience to be able to make effective and accurate Human resource management decisions that make a difference in a business. Decision making is perhaps one of the most frequent tasks Human resources face each day. They have to decide for themselves as well as advise their superiors on specific HR

If an employee who is not interested to spread time on workplace gossip, for example, making the decision not to spread fake information about other employee. A good employees ethical decision at work should be honesty, should not steal the money and keep the customer information confidential. (Marnie Kunz, 2003).This type of moral conflict is solved by the manger by developing decision making framework. This approach consist of utilitarian, rights, fairness or justice, common good, and virtue. Manger in a company should conduct seminar training to educate other employees on decision making in business ethics. This will help the companies to review their current operation and can come up with the strong ethical code in the business operation. (Osmond Vitez,

In this week’s journal, the discussion focuses on using ethical decision-making models. This week, we will use this week’s reading assignments and week one’s journal assignment to further illustrate the impact of ethical decision-making models. According to the Center for Ethical Practice website, there are various types of ethical decision-making models i.e. the resolved method or twelve questions model (Fisher, 2005). Despite these variances, there are four main objectives; assess, plan, implement and evaluate (Fisher, 2005). Assess the problem and determine if it’s a question of ethics. In the plan step, managers are creating lists of possible solutions. In the implement step, managers make a decision and implement it and in the final evaluate

Every day people make decisions that may have profound effect on their personal and/or professional lives as well as the lives of others. The decision people make have a foundation on their personal, cultural, and perhaps organizational values. When these values are in disagreement, an ethical dilemma occurs.

To make an ethical decision is not easy, especially in business. There are a lot of consideration to be put in place before the final decision is made.

Within an organization, leaders are faced with ethical decisions on a continuous basis. In most cases it is not a case of right or wrong, but a matter of how the decision made will affect the company, employees, and customers. The decision of any leaders should be based on the overall good of the organization. At

Ethical decision making process for executive must contain principle, rules and laws. To take ethical decision, executives should create the ethical culture in the organization. Communicate with the community about the mission and value of the organization. Demonstrate the process to the committee people. Evaluate the process that it is ethical or not. Then share the result with the committee and give commitment to hold the ethics for all. “The law is not cast in stone, but is subject to change” (Harris, 2008).