Ethical and Fair Decisions

¶ … ability to make good choices between two or more competing options is the primary requirement of being ethical. Over the years, academicians and researchers have identified six traits or pillars of character that help in ethical and fair decision making which are within the limits of legality. These six traits include trustworthiness, responsibility, respect, caring, fairness and good citizenship.

While being ethical is applicable at almost every step in life, in business e=being ethical or taking ethically correct and legally binding decisions are influenced by economic, professional and the social pressures. Ethical and fair decision making also come along with a number of excuses that not being able to do so. These excuses often are put forward to cover up for a decision that could be considered as unethical or unfair and claim to be influenced by environmental factors including economic, social or regulatory and legal.

Researchers like B. McDowell, author of the book titled "Ethics and Excuses: The Crisis in Professional Responsibility" claims: "not only do excuses offer the most illuminating way to understand the true nature of ethical problems, they also suggest ways of solving them" (McDowell, 2000). Often decisions taken by business and company executives are judged not only by a measure of ethics but also by a measure of them being fair and within legal limits and hence there are excuses to justify such decisions for not being equitable or just or fair.

Conflicts in making decisions that are just or fair as well as ethical are often influenced and impacted by social and economic pressures in business. These factors often create conflicts in decision making which thereby necessitates the measurement of such decisions in terms of being ethical, fair and within legal limits (McDowell, 2000). Yet other researchers over the years have identified and formed certain frameworks that can help business and managers take ethical decisions.

For example, the Consequentialist framework for taking decisions that are ethical and just is based on the focusing on the future effects of a decision and a particular chosen course of action. In such situations, a decision would be termed as being ethical and just is the end result is the best that could have been attained with the resources available. The aim of this framework is the desire to produce the best (Ferrell & Ferrell, 2009).

On the other hand, the Duty framework of taking ethical and fair decisions is focused on the duties and the obligations that are expected in a given situation. Decisions would be considered to be ethical is the decision maker takes into consideration the ethical obligations about what things one should never do or always do with respect to a particular situation. In this framework the goal attained or the consequence is of little importance as long as one adheres to one's duty.

This framework of ethical decision making goes well when there is a conflict with law or a regulations as it is universally accepted that every individual and business should abide by the law and hence the duty as a law abiding citizen becomes paramount and economic and social pressures are becoming secondary considerations (Tsalikis & Peralta, 2114).

For example, if one has to follow a moral duty of maintaining certain environmental norms that are not mandated by law or regulations, then following them despite some additional expenses is an ethical business decision. There are other frameworks for taking business decisions that are both ethical and fair such as the Virtue framework where the character traits - positive or negative, that motivate in decision making is considered.

But are ethical decisions always fair, just and equitable? This is a question that has been tormenting researchers and practitioners for long. Giving every individual what he deserves or their due share is defined as being fair. Being just and fair are almost identical in their descriptions except for the fact that in fairness, the desires and aspirations are given more prominence while just majorly deals with reference to a standard of rightness.

Ethical decisions with regard to the fairness of decisions often arise when they are considered in relation to what one believes an individual or a group should be given and what that individual or group expects or wants. Such justice equity or fairness often arise in business when the resources are scarce and have to be distributed among the people. A classic example is the incentives or promotions for employees. Such decisions often transcend the boundary of ethics only and border on being fair and just or even equitable.

As financial resources for business is scarce -- or always assumed to be scarce, its distribution also creates conflicts and many might feel that they have not been fairly treated with respect to incentives or promotions for example. However, it is also assumed that ethical decisions cannot always be fair or equitable for everyone. Take the example of a company that is not doing well and has to.