The Responsibility Project Essay

One of the great challenges encountered in relation to organizational ethics is that of individual ethical values. Individual factors are essential in the resolution of ethical issues of concern.

The University of Miami case was one of the biggest financial scandals in the past year. Former UM Football Booster, Nevin Shapiro, orchestrated a $930 million Ponzi scheme, with which numerous NCAA rules were violated. Shapiro allegedly provided cash, goods, prostitutes, assorted favors and on one occasion, an abortion to University of Miami football players. This paper will examine the various legal and ethical implications involved in this case, including an analysis of the university’s social responsibility, and an overview of the scandal in terms of three ethical theories: utilitarianism, Kant’s

This paper primarily consists of a personal response to a few questions about ethics in business. Describing the meaning of ethics sets the criteria for evaluating if actions are ethical. Looking at current and future career work, the concept of ethics is applied to predict ethical challenges. Based on this coursework, and outside research, resources will be identified that may be beneficial when business ethical challenges arise. The coursework on ethics covered law, conflict of interest, accounting, environment, finance, marketing, management, reputation, and corporate social responsibility. All of these topics are corporate concerns. Some topics may present dilemmas during the course of business. The responses in this paper

Ethics oftentimes determines what is right and what is wrong. It is a moral code that determines values, morals, standards of behavior, principles, and ideas (“Ethic,” 2012). After careful review of the results achieved from the Ethics Awareness Inventory and Ethical Choices, decisions were made that helped to determine my ethical perspective. I will explain the role of ethics and social responsibility in developing a strategic plan, considering stakeholder’s needs. Also, I will explain how my ethical perspective has evolved throughout the course of my MBA program here at University of Phoenix.

In most businesses, stakeholders are the customers, investors, shareholders, employees, suppliers, government agencies, communities and others who have an interest in a company’s products, operations, and markets (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell, 2011). Ultimately, they not only influence the course and direction of the company, but the company can influence them as well (Attend, 2015). Additionally, there are secondary stakeholders, such as: media, trade associations, and special interest groups who can have a positive impact, especially in times of corruption (Attend, 2015).

In this article the authors take the approach of analyzing three famous ethical theories. They look at the ethics of virtue by Aristotle, Immanuel Kant’s deontological ethics, and John Stuart Mill’s utilitarian happiness principle. They explain what each of these great thinkers argued constitutes moral behavior as well as their thoughts on what drives such behavior. They then apply these concepts to ethics training programs of modern day corporations. In short, one must have an understanding of the impetus of people’s ethical behaviors in order to implement an appropriate program to cultivate and reinforce the desired organization’s ethics.

The study of Ethics is an important branch of study. It is as important as the study of the sciences, math and business. At its core the study of ethics provides a framework to make decisions on how we conduct our lives. Almost every action we take has ethical implications that affect our own lives and the lives around us. This is important to consider in the business world, since the decisions made by business organizations can affect the lives of millions of people world wide, as well as the ecological health of the planet. The first four chapters of the text provide readers with several interesting ethical concepts that have implications for business professionals. The two topics that stood out as having the greatest potential for wide ranging effects are the historical perspective on business ethics and hiring ethical people. Studying and understanding history provides a strong foundation for making decisions in the present. Hiring decisions have as large effect on an organization’s success as purchasing or marketing decisions.

Since the dawn of time, ethical behavior has been a recurring thought that is a constant throughout the decision making process by many businesses. However, ignored more times than one care to admit. In addition, in recent years the ethical dilemmas continue to plague organizations and their leadership. Organizations and their leaders make decisions daily that can ultimately lead to embarrassing outcome. The subject of ethics is never meet easy, nor is it straightforward in any context. Ethics is a forever-evolving phenomenon that expands throughout organizations as well as your personal lives (Cheney & Frenette, 1993; Fielder, 1964; Jennings, 2012).

Ethical leadership and ethical decision making are a challenge for any organization or institution. Within your professional area/industry, analyze how and why ethical practices and behaviors are critical to your discipline and to the success of organizations. Justify your response in detail with three examples of current ethical practices and discuss the key theoretical concepts and industry guidelines involved. These examples can be from your own professional experience or through research of the literature of case studies. Support your statements and analyses with citations and other support from the academic literature.

Humans has been discussing and thinking of the complex theories of ethics and how they relate to mankind for centuries. The history of human ethical philosophy is far greater and more complex than this paper can ever truly attempt to define or explain. Great philosophers like Aristotle, Machiavelli, Kant and Mills have already taken on the aforementioned task. This paper is not an attempt to replicate their work or explain their work, instead this paper will look to take the theories they have presented along with the writings presented throughout the entirety of this course and discuss the risks associated with the creation and implementation of organizational codes of ethics without factoring in the needs of humanity, then create a personal code of ethics.

Personal Responsibility is taking accountability for all your thoughts, feelings and actions. Understanding personal responsibility is taught from elementary school all the way through college. As an adult going back to school, understanding personal responsibility is the key to successfully obtain your degree. Entrepreneur’s must be personally responsible or they will not succeed in business.

However, in the business world, the influence of power and money has cost people their livelihoods as well as compromised their self-dignity on many levels. One highly publicized scandal that many have known and read about is the Enron Scandal. The motive behind what a person will do remains endless as it is seen in this unfortunate tale of lies and greed in one corporation. The part that many question even to this day is when the story unfolded it was announced that several people in high positions were all aware of the unethical practices being done but, all decided to turn a blind eye. In the next few paragraphs, we will look at the events that led up to the fall of a company that was at the height of its growth and how all of that would change within minutes.

During the late 1800’s and early 1900’s a series of laws and campaigns were instated to prevent forest fires. It was believed that forest fires would greatly damage the timber industry due to the loss of trees the forests would suffer as a result. The longer these campaigns persisted, the worse the forest fire breakouts became, and the forests continued to degrade. Many animals were also displaced and threatened as a result of these intense fires. Eventually forestry researchers and conservationists started looking at what fires did to the various ecosystems. They found that fires actually promote the growth of healthier, stronger trees by burning the weak trees and providing more nutrients for the soil. By suppressing fires, the forests experienced large amounts of degradation, and many animals were threatened by the loss of sustainable habitats. Controlled burns every few years actually benefits all the organisms living in that ecosystem, however, in some places it’s nearly impossible to burn. After so many years of fire suppression the leaf litter has accumulated to such large amounts that any fire started would burn to hot and high for the forest to survive.

This week, the Learning Team read and discussed the Skills Exercise at the end of Chapter 10 in the text. This exercise deals with learning how to delegate, or assign authority, to another person in order to carry out specific duties. In other words, delegation allows employees to make decisions. This is a summary of the points we covered:

Ethical challenges happen anywhere in a work place, but managers often deal with ethical issues the most. Managers have to worry about their employee’s actions and also their own. In the business world today, there are more rules and regulations to follow to keep the professionalism. When employees or even the boss go against the rules and regulations set, it could lead to dismissal from the business. In this paper, there will be examples of what the IMA expect from companies. People often do not think that practicing ethical behavior in the work place is in important, but the IMA oversees everything that you do.