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Ethical Dilemma

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Everyone Does It: An Ethical Dilemma Tomorrow Allen Mark Weber Leadership Ethics Bus 540 Professor Rose Nichols June 25th, 2013 Everyone Does It: An Ethical Dilemma According to Bommer, Gratto, Gravander, and Tuttle (1987), the social environment is heavily influential in how a manager makes decisions. The type of ethical dilemma also influences how strong society’s values affect the decision. When a decision is to be made in private, there is less influence of the social and professional environments (Bommer et al., 1987). Social influence, contrary to some …show more content…

In a professional work environment, managers are expected to bring high ethical standards to their decisions (Bommer, 1987). As a result, personal values may be disregarded and the more socially accepted decision may be the determining factor of the decision to be made. This concept mirrors the dilemma of Jim Willis. Problem(s) ISI is operating from a bottom line perspective: the primary goal of the business is to maximize profits. Social responsibility proposes that a private corporation has responsibilities to society that extend beyond making a profit; ISI is not fulfilling this responsibility (Wheelen and Hunger, 2010). This lack of fulfillment is evidenced by the behavior of publishing an inaccurate date of launch despite knowing about the developmental challenges of the instrument. This is the adoption of deception. The aforementioned behavior, overall, is known as Friedman’s theory of business reasoning (Wheelen and Hunger, 2010). ISI has an endeavor to stay competitive and engage in the norms of the business. According to Wheelen and Hunger (2010), Friedman’s concern is that if an organization acts “responsibly”, it can jeopardize spending money for a social interest. Making Friedman’s theory applicable to ISI, if launch dates are accurate – because of the culture of the satellite imaging business – there is a strong possibility that launch dates will be much later than

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