PHI 445 Personal & Organizational Ethics Essay

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.

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.

This article attempts to explain how personal, cultural, and organizational values play significant parts in decision-making. In addition, the foundation of ethical dilemmas can

Using at least two (2) of the foundational ethical theories studied in Module 2, you should answer the following questions. With each answer, you should discuss the issues and set forth and defend a clear position on whether or not any constraint ought to be placed on the freedom of a business to:

Both psychological egoism and the classical theory can be defended by the utilitarian argument. Utilitarianism maintains that any action or system is good if it results in the greatest good for the greatest number of people. A utilitarian would commence by looking at the total utility or the happiness generated by the compensation paid to executives. Now if paying executive compensation by way of stock options leads to misguiding skyrocketing of profits figures and causes financial loss to several shareholders of the company, the utilitarian will propose that the executives should not be compensated by way of stock options. Moral worth lies in contribution to the overall utility.

Guido describes ethics as “a process of determining right conduct from wrong” (para 2, p. 3). My personal view of ethics is along the same lines as this and has been instilled in me my entire life. My code of ethics includes respect for myself and others; honesty in my endeavors, graciousness in both my personal and professional lives, and accountable for my actions. I use nonmaleficence and beneficence in every aspect of my life. I also strive to honor the proverbial do unto others as they would do unto me.

The problem to be investigated is the application of business ethics. In the business world, ethics are extremely important. Ethics are prime elements that help a business to grow and to become more productive. It is by applying proper business ethics that a business can operate in a moral or ethical business environment and managed to conduct all activities in a manner that maximizes profits while not compromising all other non-economic concerns(Schwab, 1996). Businesses have over the years failed to nurture business ethics in order to fulfill shareholders' interests and to have a culture that is oriented towards profit maximization and high performance(Jennings, 2012; Sims & Felton, 2006). This has led business to have gray areas in their activities. Gray areas are those situations or problems that do not fit exactly into any ethical analysis. These are the activities which may be represented to be immoral as a result of lying and false representations on the part of the business.

This will be an over view of ethics as it relates to business in our society. Concepts from Philosophy will seek to describe the correlation between actions that are classified as morally right or ethical in our dealings with each other as human beings. Clear and concise examples will be given as well as ways in which to improve upon business ethics.

Ethics are values and principles that individuals use to govern his decisions and activities. Ethics are about moral judgment of an individual about right and wrong. In an organization, code of ethics refers to set of guiding principles and organizations use these principles in their policies, programs, and decisions for business. Within organizations, decisions are taken by groups or individuals and these decisions are influenced by the culture of the company. Decision making and relevance of ethics may also differ for nonprofit and for profit organizations. In contemporary business environment, organizations must have a clear ethical policy and implement it in proper manner. There are many social, legal and economic outcomes that company has to face in case of any ethical dilemma, so there must be a smart strategy to deal with ethical dilemmas. In this paper, we will address the ethics for nonprofit and profits organizations, ethical dilemmas being faced or faced by each of these companies and the outcomes of these ethical dilemmas. Critique of actions of each of these companies will be provided from the point of view of applicable philosophical theories of organizational ethics.

Belief in inherent morality- Professionally expert people alleged what they know was ethically wrong, they ignored their own sense of responsibility by trusting their fellow members who allowed misconduct was right. The pressure of groupthink is very powerful in corporate organization, and it forces people toward uniformity of norms, often at the expense of their own personal values.

The theory of psychological egoism is indeed plausible. The meaning of plausible in the context of this paper refers to the validity or the conceivability of the theory in question, to explain the nature and motivation of human behavior (Hinman, 2007). Human actions are motivated by the satisfaction obtained after completing a task that they are involved in. For example, Mother Teresa was satisfied by her benevolent actions and activities that she spent her life doing. As Hinman (2007) points out, she was likely to reduce in activity if she experienced any dissatisfaction in her endeavors.

Psychological Egoism is an absolutist theory advocating that human being’s actions are ultimately motivated by their own self-benefit and self-fulfillment. In other words, the belief is that there is always an ulterior motive to any behavior one performs for another making such acts beneficial to the performer in one way or another. One argument for psychological egoism suggests that people just do what makes them feel good, thereby making all acts selfish. By taking a more in depth view into all aspects of psychological egoism, one can have a better insight and understanding of why someone may favor

This concept has shown prominence through every stage of business evolution and has still remained as an essential factor that every business in the modern generation strives to achieve. Profit not only shows a company’s efficient performance, but it also dictates how the company will be accepted within a society. This is supported by Friedman (1962, pp.23), as he mentions that ethical compromises can be made to achieve greater goals. Since the most fundamental goal of every business organisation is to earn profits and succeed amongst their competitors, it can be agreed that companies would be willing to sacrifice a certain amount of ethical decision making. The opportunity cost in this case is preferable for the people that would want to give up a portion of their ethical mindset to earn a larger profit share for their own selfish career oriented desires. (Lincoln, Pressley, & Little, 1982, pp.476).

Students will be able to select and justify their top three business principles after teaching them the seven principles of the code of ethics of a company.

Look at the ethical issues that the other companies have, learn on the causes and effects, and implement the solution to prevent them. The ethical issues can be in term of environmental issue, business issue or human issue (consumer or