...Ethical Decision Making Ethics are principles that define behavior as fair and proper and they are concerned with how a moral person should behave when it comes to making an ethical decision (Josephson Institute of Ethics, 2002). Evaluating and deciding among competing options is often key in making a fair choice since principles do not always dictate a single "moral" course of action. The decision of whether to lay off workers to enhance profits or to cut corners on quality to meet a deadline are examples of some choices regarding ethics business owners may face (Poznak Law Firm, 2003). The use of extremely low-wage foreign workers, like in the Nike organization case, is a current concern and the subject is a complex one. There are many valid differences of opinion regarding what constitutes ethical behavior and how ethical decisions should be made and the subject is a complex one (Poznak Law Firm, 2003). There are always pros and cons involved with any choice and the decision itself can be quite time consuming. When it comes to deciding whether or not to use cheap labor to cut costs, businesses must examine the ethics behind their decision-making processes. Four approaches that business owners commonly use to analyze ethical dilemmas are the utilitarian approach, which focuses on taking the action that will result in the greatest good for the greatest number of people; the moral rights approach, which is concerned with moral principles, regardless of the consequences;...
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...Title First and Last Name College Lead problem in a toy manufacturing company Our toy company has plans for shipping our elementary toy collection at the end of the week. One of our products has failed the quality control testing. The product that has failed was found to exceed the legal limits of lead that is set laid down by the federal government. The test found that the amount of lead was slightly beyond the U.S. lawfully acceptable boundaries for children aged 7 and below. According to Parboteeah and Cullen, (2013), Lead is a harmful substance that has several health problems. Some of the challenges caused by lead are neurological damage, hearing problems, delayed mental and physical development and learning disabilities when ingested by children. Young children are more vulnerable to the harmful effects caused by lead because they mouth and share many objects that they come across. The cost of replacing the toy (whistle) and conform to the guidelines laid by the government is projected to be $100,000. There are three possible alternatives that our company can embrace to address the whistle problem. The first option that the company can take to address the whistle problem is to ship the toys as planned after two weeks. The toys will be transported with the lead amount exceeding the amount that is dictated by the government of the United States. It is possible that the even if the toys are considered unsafe...
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...Ethical Decision Making Lisa Stanley Grand Canyon University: HLT 305 April 18, 2012 Ethical Decision Making The ethical dilemma here is about a six year old child rush to the hospital for medical treatments. The six year old symptoms consist of convulsions and violent vomiting while attending school. The attending physician made a diagnosis of Meningitis and suggested medical treatment. However, being the parents are both Christian Scientists and decided against medical treatment, but the attending physician initiate medical treatment anyway causing a lawsuit by the parents against the and hospital. Since both parents are Christian Scientists, practicing Christian Science, It would be in the physician best interest to respect their wishes. Christian Science teaches Christian Science teaches that it’s never God's will for anyone to suffer, be sick, or die. Instead, it shows how God is entirely good, and therefore his will for each of us is only health and life (Christian Science, 2012).If I was in the position of the physician and hospital, I would respect the parent’s wishes. We should respect others beliefs and or religions because we never know when we may be put into a position to utilize our religion or belief, and besides it may save us a lawsuit in the long run. In this particular situation Contextual Features would be appropriate for use, because it covers all grounds for the parent’s wishes to be follow among other things that may have hin-dered them...
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...Ethical Decision Making Throughout the course of this term, I was introduced to a plethora of new Information. Initially, we were taught that there are a series of different ethical lenses that can be used in decision making. There are four different Lenses, they are: 1. Rights Lens. In this Lens, the core point for decision making is “An action is ethical if I fulfill my duties and do the right thing as I claim my individual rights.” – (Ethical Lens Inventory.) 2. Relationship Lens. In this Lens, the core point for decision making is “An action is ethical if it supports a framework for continuous systemic ethical improvement for both the organization and the institutions supporting it.”- (Ethical Lens Inventory.) 3. Results Lens. In this Lens, the core decision making point is “An action is ethical if good ends – good results – come from the action.” – (Ethical Lens Inventory.) 4. Reputation Lens. In this Lens, the core decision making point is “An action is ethical if it is consistent with the habitual development of sound character traits including habits of thoughtful reflection, good intentions and noble human virtues.” – (Ethical Lens Inventory.) After completing different ethical scenarios using the different lenses, my preferred lens is the right and responsibility lens. What is interesting about this is the fact that it was predicted that this was indeed my preferred lens after completing the Ethical Lens Inventory. Throughout my working career, I’ve found that...
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...Ethical Decision Making in the Military Ethical Decision Making in the Military Lawren John Doyle Business Ethics 323 Professor Smith July 25, 2012 Thesis The American public is bombarded with ethics violations on all levels, including corporate scandals, university cover-ups, and wasteful government spending. Ethical leaders are becoming important now more than ever. If basic, common sense ethics had been exercised, the economy would not be in the situation it is in today. The military has been known for creating exceptional leaders, but just like any other organization, there is always room for improvement. In the military, it is extremely important to make ethical decisions. Leaders are entrusted with hard-earned taxpayer dollars and the lives of America’s most valuable asset, people. This paper focuses on the importance of making sound ethical decisions. Leaders operating overseas must use ethics as a cornerstone in their decision making process to ensure commanders are able to maximize resources and to promote a culture of integrity for soldiers to emulate when they become leaders. During a recent deployment, our Task Force conducted a series of Joint Combined Exercise Training blocks to build relationships with foreign allies. One of the well-respected platoon leaders began writing inaccurate reports that embellished the positive points and left out the negative points to demonstrate his superior management skills. When others in the team were asked to...
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...Ethical Decision Making We make so many decisions every day, most are rash and not thought about. We feel overwhelmed when it comes to making decisions. If we stop and use the seven steps to making ethical decisions. We end up with thought out decisions and feel less stress making these decision. Then seven steps are, Stop and think, this is one of the most important ones. Stopping and thinking about how to act allows us time to gather important facts. We can better problem solve and find what resources are available to us. Clarify goals, make sure you know the short and long term goals. Determine which wants and don’t wants are important. Sometimes fulfilling immediate wants can hurt our ultimate future goals. Determine facts, gather adequate information to support choices. You can only make good decisions if you know all the facts. Develop options, by now you know what you want to achieve. Make a list of options, this is a set of actions you could take to face the issue. You may need to talk to someone you can trust to come up with options that are fair. Consider consequences, make sure to consider consequences of all options and to all persons involved. Filter your choices through each of the Six Pillars of Character: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship (Joseph). Choose, make your informed decision as to what action you will take. Monitor and modify, watch to see if your end result is producing the intended result. If not...
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...Ethical Decision Making Method 25 November 2012 The ethical problem began when I found some papers marked “SECRET” between SFC Sharp’s desk and the wall that had been certified by him as being destroyed. This is classified as a security violation. When I had confronted SGT Day, his reaction was to pretend that the situation did not exist and ignore the problem stating “as far as I know those documents were destroyed two weeks ago”. In this particular instance, the first thing that I would do is review the unit SOP and Army regulations pertinent to the safe guarding and destruction of classified documents. AR 380-5, paragraph 6-22 states “Commands will establish procedures to control all “SECRET” and “CONFIDENTIAL” information and material originated, received, distributed, or routed to sub–elements within the command, and all information disposed of by the command by transfer of custody or destruction.” AR 380-5, paragraph 6-29 states “Records of destruction are not required for “SECRET” material”. Since the Army Regulation states that it is up to the command on how to destroy “SECRET” and “CONFIDENTIAL” documents, I would review my Unit SOP. Depending upon what the Unit SOP stated would then govern what steps were required to take next. Some of the ethical values that are being compromised in this situation are Loyalty, Integrity and Duty. Loyalty towards your supervisor is always good as long the supervisor is living by the Army Standards and Regulations. You should not...
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...Ethical Decision Making Brian Minton HCS/335 14 SEPT 2015 William Bross Ethical Decision Making Everyday we are faced with decisions that can make an impact in our lives and the lives of those who are around us. Decisions that I have made have been the difference between life and death for some people, literally. By working in Emergency Medical Services (EMS) as a Paramedic I have impacted countless lives and in doing so I have had to make some tough calls. Sometimes not only do you have to address the patient but their family as well. Most calls start out normal. A patient feels sick, they call 911, report their complaint to the dispatcher, then the dispatcher will send the closest ambulance to the patient. Most of the time this is how EMS winds up at someones door. However, there are times when family will ask you (EMS) to check on their family because they haven't heard from them in a few days. This is more likely to happen in small, rural communities. This is what happen to me. My partner and I made our way over to check on this elderly lady with her family behind us. As we approached the house we saw multiple newspapers on the step. Thinking the worst we entered the house. It was dark and no one answered when we called out. We found the elderly lady had passed away at least a few days prior. We contacted police as per protocol and we advised family. Her teenage grandson wanted to see her. We tried to advise against it but he was convincing enough to...
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...Seven Steps to Ethical Decision Making: 1. Stop and Think: The basis of counting to ten when angry does a great job in summing up this principle. Being ethical is more than just knowing right from wrong, it is about the all-encompassing decision making process. If you are making those critical decisions while at a vulnerable state, it could have severe adverse effects on the organization as a whole. 2. Clarify Goals: The long term concept of this step is the most important in my opinion. Reaping the reward in the short term is always a nice feeling, but there could still be the trouble in the long term if the ultimate goal is not met. 3. Determine the Facts: I think that the most important consideration with this step is the looking at the big picture concept. If you only take one opinion to build your case off of that is the determining factor of your decision, then how do you know that the decision is sound? Taking in all of the facts, ideas, and information will help to ensure that the best decision was made. 4. Develop Options: The communication piece is a great concept for this step. I think that sometimes someone who is truly unbiased is the best to talk to. Someone who can truly look from the outside looking in and be honest. Multiple opinions don’t hurt, but I think it is all about the quality of the opinion that matters the most. 5. Consider Consequences: There are consequence to everything. For every action, there is an equal and opposite...
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...about an ethical decision-making process it seems logical to think about how decisions in general are made by people. Decisions can be made on a programmed or nonprogrammed basis. Programmed decisions assume that the decision-maker already dealt with similar decisions before which now causes automatic reactions. Nonprogrammed decisions are more complex because they deal with new situations. Both kinds of decisions include a decision-making process that follows various steps until it reaches the final decision. No matter what kind of decision is made, somebody must play the important role of identifying a problem and, if applicable, recognizing similar situations already occurred before. Since those steps require a certain knowledge that only experts have, the responsibility will mostly likely lie with the leader of a team, project or the whole company. Even more important is the role of a leader in ethical decision making. The goal of a leader should be to meet the needs of stockholders, customers, employees, the environment, and other stakeholders. Ethics is an essential factor in business and of successful leadership and therefore ethics and leadership should go hand in hand. Successful leaders must be aware of several organizational and individual values. The foundation is, as so often, a good character. But since there is a connection between the employees’ own values and those of their workplace, a leader must be able to use these values in ethical decision making. “Six...
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...ETHICAL DECISION MAKING AND ETHICAL LEADERSHIP To improve ethical decision making in business, one must first understand how individuals make ethical decisions in an organizational environment. Too often it is assumed that individuals in organizations make ethical decisions in the same way that they make ethical decisions at home, in their family, or in their personal lives. Within the context of an organizational work group, however, few individuals have the freedom to decide ethical issues independent of organizational pressures. ETHICAL – ISSUE INTENSITY The first step in ethical decision making is to recognize that an ethical issue requires an individual or work group to choose among several actions that various stakeholders inside or outside the firm will ultimately evaluate as right or wrong. Ethical issue intensity, then, can be defined as the relevance or importance of an ethical issue in the eyes of the individual, work group, and/or organization. it is personal and temporal in character to accommodate values, beliefs, needs, perceptions, the special characteristics of the situation, and the personal pressure prevailing at a particular place and time. Ethical – issue intensity reflects the ethical sensitivity of the individual or work group that faces the ethical decision – making process. Research suggest that individuals are subject to six “spheres of influence” when confronted with ethical choices – the workplace, family, religion, legal system, community...
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...Values and Ethical Decision Making Importance of Value Alignment Between an Organization and its Employees Core values are the basic principles to govern our ideas and actions we practice in our work organization. Any successful organization has to create its own core values because those principles are going to sustain their success and determine it as a great place where employees enjoy working. It is not important if the Core Values are many or few in numbers, what really matters is their meaning and power that they have over every employee. This list of values is going to define the only path to follow by every member in the organization. Therefore, society is going to identify the company according its core values. Many times people say that the brand is an expression of the core values of any organization because each company develops a specific core values according to its necessities and goals. Some focus on the customer service, others on the profits. At Intercos for example, where I work, there are six values in the basic list. However the first and most important is the “value for the customer: Creation of new and value products for our customers” which displays the real importance that the customers should have to each employee in Intercos. Each employee should know perfectly the company’s core values and have the courage to act on them on behalf of the common good. Sometimes excellent workers have their own personal values, which is not necessarily bad, but simply...
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...Delegation and Ethical Decision Making Student’s Name Institution Date Question 1 Delegation Delegation is a process by which a task’s responsibility and authority is transferred to individual who accepts the transfer. It is based on effective up-down and down-up communication in an organization or unit. However, the delegator retains accountability for the tasks delegated (Lipe & Beasley, 2004). The five rights of delegation are the right task, circumstances, person, communication and supervision. Considering the right task, a task may only be delegated if the delegator has responsibility and authority over it and if it has not been delegated to them. From the right circumstances, a task is appropriate for delegation if it does not involve personal information or confidential issues that the person is not allowed to access. Considering the right person, tasks that require specific skills, knowledge and attitudes can only be delegated to a person who has such qualities. The right communication implies that a task will be appropriate for delegation if there are clear instructions and information concerning it. Lastly, a task that requires a certain level supervision and monitoring, cannot be delegated unless that level of monitoring and supervision is available. These rights of delegation are applied in decisions concerning what tasks a manager will delegate and to whom the tasks will be delegated (Lipe & Beasley, 2004). Question 2 Ethical Dilemmas The...
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...Ethical Decision-Making Process Dawn Brough CTU Criminal Justice Ethics / CJUS260-1202B-02 Professor: Jill Hudson Abstract Throughout this paper I will be giving two different options that I could take as an officer of the law that was present during the brutality abuse, performed by my partner, towards a criminal for child molestation. The criminal has been sentenced for 3 years to a rehabilitation facility but is also suing the department and the officer for damages afflicted on him the date of arrest. For these two options I will provide a brief explanation of the benefits and consequences for each option. I will also apply specific factors to the scenario and explain how the standard of objectivity applies particularly as it relates to personal feelings. I will finally state how I would personally respond under these particular circumstances with an outline of my decision-making process using ethical decision-making guidelines and address the counterpoints to my arguments and why I decided against them. There are two options that I could take since being subpoenaed from the court to appear at the trial regarding my partner who physically abused a criminal who was caught red handed by myself and my partner for molesting a little girl. I could one, take the vow of silence towards my partner and state that I saw nothing and lie under oath. Potential consequences of this is that I could be reprimanded by the court and be suspended from my job without pay...
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...understanding of the attitudes’ and motivation’s of others insomuch that his or her perceptions are influenced by the values he or she has (Robbins and Judge, 2011). Each person within an organization brings his or her own values to the organization, which contains individual interpretations of what is right and wrong implying a preference for certain behaviors and outcomes thereby influencing the attitudes and behaviors of an organization (Robbins and Judge, 2011). As noted by Yukl (2010), “[i]nfluence is the essence of leadership, and powerful leaders can have a substantial impact on the lives of followers and the fate of an organization” (p. 408). The personal values and ethics of the leaders of an organization often drive the values and ethical behavior of that organization (Yukl, 2010). Thus, it is paramount the values of organizational leaders are consistent and in line with the values of their organization (Yukl, 2010). Alignment of Personal and Organizational Values Our team researched and evaluated the organizational values and ethics of Sutter Health. Sutter Health is a not-for-profit network of physician organizations, hospitals and other health care providers (Sutter Health, 2008). Sutter Health focuses on enhancing the well-being of individual in the communities they serve through a not-for-profit commitment to compassion and excellence in health care services (Sutter Health, 2008). The Ethics Awareness Inventory of our...
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