Ethical decision making-Manish Padhi

Ethical decision making ethical leadership

Business ethics

Business ethics (also corporate ethics) is a form of applied ethics or professional ethics that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that arise in a business environment. It applies to all aspects of business conduct and is relevant to the conduct of individuals and entire organizations.

Business ethics has both normative and descriptive dimensions. As a corporate practice and a career specialization, the field is primarily normative. Academics attempting to understand business behavior employ descriptive methods. The range and quantity of business ethical issues reflects the interaction of profit-maximizing behavior with non-economic concerns. Interest in business ethics accelerated dramatically during the 1980s and 1990s, both within major corporations and within academia. For example, today most major corporations promote their commitment to non-economic values under headings such as ethics codes and social responsibility charters. Adam Smith said, "People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices." Governments use laws and regulations to point business behavior in what they perceive to be beneficial directions. Ethics implicitly regulates areas and details of behavior that lie beyond governmental control. The emergence of large corporations with limited relationships and sensitivity to the communities in which they operate accelerated the development of formal ethics regimes.

Ethical decision making

One confusing process that everyone encounters everyday is ethical decision making. People may not notice this but it is constantly being used.Any discipline is greatly affected by how people utilize decision making and how they incorporate ethics in that process.Businesses, medical issues, political issues are only some of the genres where this could apply. But what does it take for a decision to be ethical?Experts say that if a decision is morally and legally accepted by the larger community, then that decision is ethical. The questionable term in that definition is the word ‘legally’.

There are some ethical decisions that might not conform to the rules and regulations of the government but may still be classified as morally and ethically correct. The term ethics is used to describe a set of standards and principles which dictate how a person acts and behaves.

All persons with strong characters live with their own code of ethics. People make decisions every single day. These decisions might differ from each other but most decisions are chosen to do what is right.

A person’s set of principles may differ from another person’s views. This is because of the influence that the person acquired while growing up. Family is one very great source of principles. Culture and religion may also dictate a person’s set of standards. Experience is one of the best ways to learn about ethics too. Through experience, people will realize the effect of a decision to themselves and to other people as well.

Professionally speaking, a formal code of ethics is usually rolled out by companies to assist employees in their decision making dilemmas. These codes are created by the company to make sure that everybody is treated equally and employees respect each other’s rights. Since ethical decision making is very helpful in the business level, it is imperative for companies to create an ethics team who will formulate a code of ethics.

There are also ways on how to effectively make an ethical decision. The very first thing to do is to identify if there is an actual problem. This is important so that you will be aware that this problem needs your attention. Then identify if it is an ethical issue or not. Relevant and accurate information must be gathered carefully. Remember, jumping into conclusions because of personal intuition is not what ethical decision making is all about. Evaluate all of the alternatives based on the information that has been gathered.

Different approaches like Rights Based approach, Utilitarian approach, Common Good approach, Virtue approach and Fairness or Justice Approach can be used. After thorough thinking, make the decision. The process of thinking may take some time but making the actual decision should not be delayed. Longer periods of evaluating the problem will just lead to mental exhaustion which will hinder a person from thinking correctly. After the decision has been made, examine the effects of the choice that you have made. Reflect on the lessons that you have learned from the experience and apply it to the next challenges.

Also, think about how your decision would affect the other parties. Before choosing which decision to make, examine who will benefit and harm from this action. Always make sure that the final decision will end up reducing harm. Check your core values for accuracy. Are you sure that what you thought was right and wrong are correct? Do not be afraid to ask for help from a third party who is not involved in the process. A good test if you were successful in ethical decision making is the Golden Rule. The effect of your decision to others will also affect their decisions on you.

Moral and ethical decision making

One of the defining features of an ethical conflict is that it involves being pulled between two or more objectives, values, or ideals which often elicit strong emotional reactions. The competing objectives or values may both be ethical in nature, as in the conflict between loyalty to a friend and duty to report that friend’s unlawful behavior. Alternately, one of the competing values may be ethical (e.g., the desire to help a person in need or in danger) while the other is pragmatic (e.g., financial prudence or selfprotection). In either situation, a moral or ethical conflict more than other conflicts often has a strong emotional component. One of the challenges decision makers face in such situations is the need to integrate their emotional reactions to different choice options with their cognitive evaluations of the possible or expected outcomes of these options. Following this definition of an ethical decision, ethical or moral decisions do not simply constitute a specific content domain of decisions that parallels and complements other content domains such as financial decision making or recreational decision making. Instead, ethical decisions can occur in any substantive content domain; putting it differently, many decisions across content domains include ethical aspects or considerations. The factors that contribute to whether a specific decision is being construed as an ethical issue or a health or financial issue are themselves an important topic of empirical investigation that have implications for the ethical training and education.  Morality can be defined as a system of judging acts in light of an ideal or a code of conduct. Moral judgments involve judgments about what somebody (either the decision maker or another person) should do in a certain situation. Haidt defines moral judgments as judgments about the actions or character of other people, using as a standard of comparison the moral prescriptions and ideals of one’s culture or subculture, which are frequently formalized in written or unwritten codes of conduct. Most scholars agree that moral or ethical decisions need to be intentional and in response to a sense of obligation that is shaped by an ideal.

Ethical Leadership

Ethical leadership is leadership that is involved in leading in a manner that respects the rights and dignity of others. “As leaders are by nature in a position of social power, ethical leadership focuses on how leaders use their social power in the decisions they make, actions they engage in and ways they influence others”. Leaders who are ethical demonstrate a level of integrity that is important for stimulating a sense of leader trustworthiness, which is important for followers to accept the vision of the leader⁷. These are critical and direct components to leading ethically⁴. The character and integrity of the leader provide the basis for personal characteristics that direct a leader’s ethical beliefs, values, and decisions. Individual values and beliefs impact the ethical decisions of leaders⁹.

Leaders who are ethical are people oriented , and also aware of how their decisions impact others, and use their social power to serve the greater good instead of self-serving interests. In ethical leadership it is important for the leader to consider how his or her decisions impact others. Motivating followers to put the needs or interests of the group ahead of their own is another quality of ethical leaders³. Motivating involves engaging others in an intellectual and emotional commitment between leaders and followers that makes both parties equally responsible in the pursuit of a common goal. These characteristics of ethical leaders are similar to inspirational innovation, which is a style com transformational leadership. Inspirational motivation “involves inspiring others to work towards the leader’s vision for the group and to be committed to the group”. Similarly, ethical leadership “falls within the nexus of inspiring, stimulating, and visionary leader behaviors that make up transformational and charismatic leadership. Ethical leaders assist followers in gaining a sense of personal competence that allows them to be self-sufficient by encouraging and empowering them.

Ethical leadership in organizations

In organizational communication, ethics in leadership are very important. Business leaders must make decisions that will not only benefit them, but also they must think about how the other people will be affected. The best leaders make known their values and their ethics and preach them in their leadership style and actions. It consists of communicating complete and accurate information, where there is a personal, professional, ethical, or legal obligation to do so. When practicing ethics, you gain the respect and admiration of employees, with the satisfaction of knowing you did the right thing. If you never make clear what you want, and expect, then it can cause mistrust.

Being unethical in the workplace can include anything from taking personal phone calls while at your desk, telling someone the "check is in the mail", when in fact it hasn't even been written yet, and even taking office supplies home for your personal use. Most organizations create an ethical code, which is usually a list of rules that tells you what behaviors are right and what are wrong in the company.

For your organization, you might want to let employees know your values right off the bat.