Ethical Decision Making

Ethical Decision Making

Ethics is a set of moral principles that set forth people’s actions when in conflict with having to examine and decide what is right or wrong, what is legal or illegal, and what is proper or improper to do. Every business action and decision we make during the course of our lives could indicate when a situation has a wrong or right implication. Most people tend to make business ethical decisions based on personal interest, economic status, professional values, and social influences.

I strongly believe there is an explanation to why we do all the things we do. According to Plato “everything happens for a reason.” For example, a person is lying on his resume in order to get a new job to support his family. Readers can see on this example that, the ethical defensible reason for this person to lie on his resume was the fact that he or she needed to be able to support his family. He or she probably thought it was ok to do so because it could save his family from being evicted from their home. Does that mean it is ok for everyone to lie, of-course not. But, many people do have a low morality and they do not know how to take for granted some of these personal values. Supervising the well-being of people, showing respect for self-governing, expressing honesty & loyalty to people, obeying the law, refusing to take advantage of those who are in disadvantage, and doing well to prevent harm (Colero, Larry. 1997). Other experts suggest that ethical decision-making depends on communication systems training & books, company incentives given to employees to promote job productivity & good behavior, and business culture which dictate how people interact with each other and share ideas (Coughlan, Richard. 2003).

Although, I agree with some of the previous ground rules, I think that in general, ethical decision making should not be based on personal motives, cultural rules, society laws, religious believes, political influences, company’s policies, means of communication, specific ethnicity group & their values, and personal experiences. There are many cases in which people do not seem to have the professional and ethical ability to comprehend written policies, and handle a variety of ground rules of dos and don’t. Most people do not have the critical thinking skills to deal with multiple interpretations of a bad economic or social issue, competing ethical options to resolve a problem. Sometimes, people do not even know how to put together incomplete information to isolate a business problem. They just do not know how to make and implement decisions effectively (Colero, 1997). Besides, when all of the above factors represent a challenge to some people, they tend to find ways to cheat the system. For example, the majority of American corporations have codes of ethics or business policies in place that must be followed by all their employees. These rules are suppose to dictate the behavior of employees, company objective, information disclosure, harassment, confidentiality, inside trading, diligence, employees responsibilities and rights, and avoiding a personal clash of interest (Colero, 1997) .

However, having this business ethics’ codes do not guarantee that all employees are going to comply with those rules. What good is it to have these rules in place to govern any company, if they are not going to be enforced properly by senior management members who have the power to make harsh decisions? Probably, the issue is that some collaborative assume that because they have power, they can get away with anything (Josephson, 1997). For example, a president of a country ignores the fact that his people might become concerned about him deciding to use his presidential power to borrow money from the social security funds and investing it for his own benefits and repaying the money back later, with interest and after he has made some profit.

Moreover, I would like to refer to the Enron’s case to further explain what could happen when an already established code of ethics is violated. Enron’s CEO was in violation of the company code of ethics when he let his personal interest to interfere with the company’s goals. According to TV news channels like CNN that followed very closely the Enron’s case, its chief executive was knowingly investing company money for his own personal benefits and driving the company to a big draining debt. The CEO wanted to cover up his misleading actions with the excuse that the company should not disclose information about the institutions’ financial status to its shareholders because it could bring some bad business to the company’s future. The company could also lose its current contracts with the government. In reality, I think

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