Ethics And Ethical Decision Making In Organizations

The Importance of Ethics in Organizations

Discuss about the role of ethical decision making in becoming an effective manager.

Ethics and ethical decisions are essential in any organization because it offers the management and the employees’ proper direction of arriving at good decisions without infringement of any laws that get the organization in lawsuits. It as well takes care of the people around as well as the community. In this essay, a review of the related literature concerning ethical decision making gets examined. The management that is effective gets measured by the quality of decisions they make and that a right creates a positive consequence. In the utilitarian perspective, a course of action taken properly is an action that endeavors to ensure maximum happiness. A manager’s role is to ensure that the employees are aware of the company’s ethical codes, monitors the behavior of the employees in relation to the expectation of the organization of the expected behavior. Moreover, the manager has the responsibility to counsel and help employees experiencing ethical dilemmas. Besides this, the many are also responsible of upholding the ethical standards in the course of making a decision and on they are obliged to follow different professional codes of ethics based on the responsibilities, the role, and training. The role of making decisions requires a manager to have skills and capabilities which get learned or acquired. It is established that the traits exhibited by an individual are related to an ethical decision that a person makes for the organization. A responsible leader ensures that decisions made are for the good of all the people concerned. Additionally, an intelligent person uses the Intelligence to invoke the power of reasoning and thinking so that ethical decisions get reached; these are coupled with the analytical mind, articulate trait, and balance and self-adaptive. 

In knowing my skills and capabilities, I carried out an evaluation using the Big Five Personality Test, emotional intelligence test as stress management indicator tool. The results indicate that my managerial traits are good in other areas and not worst in some areas. The areas of concern are the emotions, planning and organizing teams that require improvement. I have set a plan for improving these traits.

The Relationship between Ethical Decision Making and Effective Management

Ethical decision making is acts of coming up with decision that is in line with set regulations so that no decision affect others or the surrounding. The guiding principles of an individual’s behavior are ethics as well as morals. The cultural practices, social norms, as well as religious influences, shape these morals. The process of making ethical decision entails the assessment of ethical implications of an action to be undertaken (Lawton & Páez, 2015). The reason is that the decisions made have an ethical dimension because they have an effect on others. It is therefore imperative that managers ought to have own ethical and moral beliefs so that this act as a guide when encountered by difficult decisions (Craft, 2013).

Related Literature Review of Ethical Decision Making

According to Hassan et al. (2013), ethical decisions entail a number of considerations that entails utilitarian approach, virtue approach as well as fairness and justice appraoch. VanMeter et al. (2013) pointed that in ethical philosophy, there are a number of ways of systematizing, defending, as well as recommending whether something is wrong or right. An action that is right is one that creates a positive consequence. In the utilitarian perspective, a course of action taken properly is an action that endeavors to ensure maximum happiness. On the other hand, Schwartz (2016), disputes it and state that there exist gray areas in the most ethical decision because there is no clear-cut decision that can be ascertained through objective consideration of quantitative analysis. Bateman, Valentine & Rittenburg, (2013) point out that there is a need for the use of judgment, interpretation, and application of set values to determine the perception and estimation of consequences that might arise while Ruiz-Palomino & Martínez-Cañas (2014) established that ethical decision entails the selection between good and better of bad and worse. Additionally, Mudrack & Mason, (2013) augmented that the thinking of people involved as well as the nature of decision to be made is another aspect to consider and in such cases a consensus is always an option to follow so that no party get hurt unaware in the process and that the choice is in line with the organization’s set values.

The 4 Approaches in Ethical Decision Making

The Utilitarian Approach: The actions that are ethical are those that present the greatest good as opposed to evil. In the analysis of issues with the use of utilitarian approach there is the identification of the causes of action, the impact of the action (positive or negative) and select the action with greatest benefit. In this approach, the consequences of actions get focused on basing on utility, considers that people identify the benefits and harm. In the two actions, an ethical action is one that produces more benefits as compared to harm (Craft, 2013).

The Virtue Approach: The approach assumes that there are ideals that people are expected to follow which give the full development of humanity. These ideals get discovered through the reflection of the kind of potential person one endeavors to become. These entail virtues such as honesty, compassion, courage, fidelity, fairness, prudence, self-control etc. (Craft, 2013).

The fairness and Justice approach: This is based on Aristotle that, ‘equals should be treated equally and un-equals unequally.” This examines the treatment given to people in the same way and that the treatment whether it is favorable or discriminatory is wrong. People ought to be treated in the same way unless there is a moral difference that is happening between them (Craft, 2013).

Approaches to Ethical Decision Making

The Big five OCEAN

This is quite often employed to assist in getting an understanding of the consumers as well as the segments of these consumers. It is as well utilized by HR in evaluating potential employees. These are taken to be the traits that make up a person’s personality. Each of this gets highlighted.

Openness: Individuals who get the chance to learn new things quickly and appreciate new encounters for the most part of their learning score high. Openness incorporates characteristics like being shrewd and creative and having a wide assortment of interests.

Conscientiousness: Individuals that have a high level of conscientiousness are dependable as well as prompt. Attributes incorporates being well-organized, methodic, as well as careful.

Extraversion:     Extraversion qualities incorporate being; vigorous, assertive, and talkative (at some point seen as candid). Extroverts get their energy and drive from others, while introverts people are self-propelled get their drive from inside themselves.

Agreeableness: These people are warm, friendly, humane and helpful and the attributes incorporate being caring, tender, and thoughtful. Interestingly, individuals having low levels of agreeableness might be more secluded and distant.

Neuroticism:  Neuroticism identifies with level of negative feelings. Individuals that score high on neuroticism regularly encounter passionate flimsiness and negative feelings. Qualities regularly incorporates being touchy and tense.

The of Role Manager in Ethical Decision making

Yang, Ding & Lo (2016) asserts that the managers are in positions that hold them accountable for the ethical conduct of the people reporting to them. In carrying out this role, they ensure that the employees are aware of the company’s ethical codes. Additionally, the manager monitors the behavior of the employees in relation to the expectation of the organization of the expected behavior. Huhtala et al. (2013) moreover, add that the manager has the responsibility to counsel and help employees experiencing ethical dilemmas. Besides this, the many are also responsible of upholding the ethical standards in the course of making a decision and on they are obliged to follow different professional codes of ethics based on the responsibilities, the role, and training (Ruiz-Palomino et al., 2013). In interactions with the stakeholders, the managers are responsible for providing ethical direction on decisions planned or action to be taken in relation to ethical considerations. Furthermore, the role of the manager is to implement changes in the company’s ethical codes and guidelines which may be as a result of internal determination with respect to the experience of the workforce (Shapiro & Stefkovich, 2016). 

The Role of Managers in Upholding Ethical Standards

The Capabilities/Skills for Good Ethical Decision Making

Neubert, Wu & Roberts (2013) assert that a good manager must have intuition which is a skill essential in permitting one to come up with the good ethical decision with the use of past experience as well as personal values. This is based on reality as well as perceptions. In the use of intuition one get to utilize the inner feelings more so when there is a strong feeling towards a particular line of action and if there is a justification for the feeling (Neubert, Wu & Roberts, 2013). While this is true, Gotsis & Kortezi (2013) augments that reasoning and critical thinking is another skill paramount for good decision making because there is use of solid facts as well as figures that weighted based on a particular bearing of the situation. In this skill, there is no application emotional or issues of past occurrences in making ethical decisions because facts and figures get employed. The criticality of the situation requires a critical thinker coupled with the good reasoning of facts and figures all weighted for an all-inclusive decision (Gotsis & Kortezi, 2013). Additionally, Chen & Hou, (2016) point out that communication is another aspect that is most essential in decision making because one is needed to communicate effectively in order to pass the message to the target people whereas Simpson, Clegg & Pitsis (2014) dispute it saying that ethical decision is based on the four approaches in making ethical decision in which one is able to understand. In view of these, I agree that that one must good intuition, well reasoning and thinking skills, employs good communication skills and to apply the four approaches of ethical decision making.

The relationship between personality traits and ethical decision making

According to Demirtas (2015), the traits exhibited by an individual get linked directly to an ethical decision that a person is going to make for the organization. A person who is responsible for the character is by no means a person who can be responsible for his own actions (Gotsis & Kortezi, 2013). A responsible leader ensures that decisions made are for the good of all the people concerned. Additionally, an intelligent and wise person is one who can use rationality in making an ethical decision (Kalshoven, Den Hartog & De Hoogh, 2013). Intelligence guides this person to invoke the power of reasoning and thinking so that ethical decisions get reached; these are coupled with the analytical mind, articulate trait, and balance and self-adaptive (Simpson, Clegg & Pitsis, 2014). On the other hand, an individual who is organized, focused, a good listener and persistent makes good ethical decisions based on these traits combined. In this respect, personality and ethical decision making are proportionately related since an individual will apply the personality traits in coming up with good ethical decisions (Chen & Hou, 2016).

Tools for Self-Evaluation of Managerial Traits

Summary

Ethical decision making ensures that there is effective management in the organization. The manager has the biggest role in making sure that decisions made are ethical. It is evident that personality traits and good ethical decisions have a relationship which is augmented by the individual’s capabilities or skills.

Evaluation

The world we live in encompasses competition and competitiveness in order to stay ahead in business undertaking. In this respect, a manager being a person to steer changes through strategic planning and implementation has to be upbeat in managerial competencies. In line with this and for my comparison in becoming a global manager in this dynamic competitive environment, I evaluated myself in order to see where I stand in my managerial skills. I employed the Big Fiver personality test, stress management competency indicator tool and emotional intelligent test.

In the analysis through the Big Five Personality test too which examines the five personality traits, the results indicates that I am high in extraversion and low on conscientiousness (see Appendix 1). As per the literature, extrovert people like to be in settings where there are larger group of people. The characteristic of such a person is seen through talkative nature, assertive and very outgoing. I being in this category of extroverts, I am attracted towards groups and this aggravate me the most and I like constant actions. The excitation in me is when I have personal interactions in a social gathering and I enjoy sharing ideas. In relation to the outcome above, I am capable of bringing vision, assertiveness as well as energy when in the role of a manager in a team. The results of low conscientiousness mean that I am poor in at setting better goals and working towards attaining. This is true because in some instances I am much disorganized and do not follow the rules and norms and this is a disadvantage in my personality. In order to be a successful as a manager, I need to remain persistent and responsible in management if tasks

In the evaluation of stress management with the use of stress management too, the result (see Appendix 3) indicates that I am very good in the management of individual within a team. This is true because I am very social and very accessible for my team members when they need my help. A good manager is capable of managing stress in a team by talking to them and examines issues from an individual perspective. I have the capability of instilling confidence within a team and encourage the team work even if the morale is low. This is because I being a social person, I have a relaxed approach augmented with humor when under pressure which a good trait for a global manager in creating a good environment free from stress at the workplace.  Additionally, it is apparent from the results that I am poor in managing emotions while under stressed conditions. However, I am bad at managing emotions during stress and this is a negative trait that I do not want within me because I would like to be of integrity and manage situations in the work place so as to be respectful as well as honest to the employees. In the managerial perspective, a stressed manager will not take into consideration the employee and does not follow the codes of conduct of the organization and will get to force things to happen even if there are issues that require attention of a relaxed manager.  This is a weakness that is going to have a negative impact to the leadership style, bad perception from the employees and leads to poor performance from the employees. The impact will not be good for a global manager as well as on a personal level as an individual.

Skills and Capabilities for Ethical Decision Making

In the evaluation of my emotional intelligence (see Appendix 3), I have low score in motivation trait and high is self-awareness. When I am around people, I understand that my actions and my poor emotions affect people who are around me. In the global perspective, I talk things that I am aware of without being ashamed which is coupled with sharing my strengths and weaknesses. The low emotional skills make me distracted and this makes me hard to get motivation of myself in a stressed condition. This is going to impact on my performance when given new assignments at work thus impacting on the team as well as the productivity of the organization. The only solution is to work alone. This is in contrary to the expectations as well as capabilities of a global manager which is going to impact me on becoming a global manager.

Plan

In the endeavor of becoming a global manager, the task is to carryout assessment and analysis of individuals in the roles of global management positions. Additionally, I am required to think and reason like a global manager bestowed with a managerial role in a big organization. In order to attain this position, I am developing a plan that focuses on improving my weaknesses identified from the evaluation test undertaken and to make them my strengths. The plan is to set short term as well as long term goals which are higher in order to make me oriented to achievements as opposed to failures.

The short-term goals are undertaken during my studies at present. In the beginning of each semester, I work toward building low conscientiousness. As per Wihler et al (2017), conscientiousness people are punctual, organized and plan their saving well, dress smartly, dependable, polite, finish what they started, plan their day, and eat healthy among many attributers. In this respect, I will be punctual and organized. I will set plans and schedules for daily basis so that I follow on them strictly. This is going to make me disciplined. In case I experience irritation or frustration I note it down. This will give me the room to think of a positive situation concerning the present situation. This is going to give a different perception of seeing issues and thus transform my moods and hence giving me a control over my emotions.

In the management of my low emotions, I will have to select a person I normally do not get along with well so that I work with him or her. I will set my ego as well as pride a side and let courtesy and respect dominates. In case the person is becoming rude and unprofessional, I will give him or her explanation that I do not like being treated in that manner and leave the situation in peace.

The Link Between Individual Traits and Ethical Decision Making

In the process managing my motivation traits, I will strive to share ideas as well as assistance in motivating my friends together with ensuring that I get motivation from them as well. I will keep monitoring the progress of my skills on daily basis in order to ascertain that I am following the correct track of becoming a global manager. When there is a deviation from the normal track, I correct and nurture. The skills developed in the short term goals are going to make me an effective as well as efficient global manager.

The long term goal is to land a job immediately on completion of my degree. This is going to allow me test if my managerial skills as well as capabilities if they are meeting those of a global manager. While on the job, I am going to set goals, plan and work towards attaining them in the organization to test my low conscientiousness. Even if my goals are not met, I will change to more attainable goals instead of getting discouraged. At the place of work, I will adhere to the organization’s rules as well as regulations and to contemplate on the behaviors that are expected for me while on the job. I will adhere to the deadlines of work; make the team responsible in meeting deadlines. The completeness of work and quality is essential in a team and I will ensure that my teams are following for the sake of the company’s success which will build my motivation traits.

When there are disappointments, given that this is my weakness is the management of emotions which is an area that influences negatively on productivity, I will take time and try to find out the reason why things are not happening as planned. I will try to extend the deadline while working on areas that need attention. Additionally, I will not get discouraged but plan for a more attainable goal while emphasizing on the mission and vision of the organization to the team members. I will focus and encourage the employees on constant improvement while working as a team in relation to the dynamic changes in the competitive market.

Conclusion

In the essay, it is apparent that ethical decision is essential for making an effective global manager and that skill are essential in making good decisions. Ethical decision making ensures that there is effective management in the organization. The global manager has the biggest role in making sure that decisions made are ethical. It is evident that personality traits and good ethical decisions have a relationship which is augmented by the individual’s capabilities or skills. These skills are learned and acquired. In my evaluation, I established that I lack the controlling individual emotions affects and, organization and team building because I am extroverted but cannot use my critical thinking skills to create coercion and building a team. Also, when in a team, I am so assertive and want to dominate in every aspect of the conversation. This is a hindrance to the well-being of the team; therefore, I have the objective to get build emotions as well as team building skills according to the prepared plan.

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