Ethical decision making in professional contexts

Introduction
Ethical dilemmas take place when a circumstance necessitates one to choose amongst alternatives that generates a values conflict amongst the various organizational stakeholders. One of the major contemporary ethical dilemmas is the use of social media. In the present-day organizational setting and the advancement of technology, social media has become a significant business marketing tool, and it a fundamental part in the lives of personnel (Massotte, 2017). The progressing nature of social media implies that it is becoming more challenging to make a distinction between personal and professional within the organization in terms of a social media setting. This paper will examine this ethical dilemma using the PLUS ethical decision-making model as a guide.
Application of the PLUS Ethical Decision-Making Model
Step 1: Define the problem
The first step of the model encompasses defining the problem. The most important stage in any decision-making process is to make a determination as to why a decision is called for and ascertain the desired results (Ethics & Compliance Initiative, 2018). Regardless of the numerous benefits that social media brings to organization, there continues to be several risks associated with its use including the misappropriation of organizational resources, conflict of interests in addition to vilification of others. It paves the way for breach of confidentiality and conflicts of interest. Another associated problem is the organization’s use of social media in monitoring employee conduct and behavior and whether such actions are ethical or not.
Step 2: Seek out relevant assistance, guidance and support
The second phase encompassing searching out resources that might be helpful in making the decision. In this case, the resources employed comprise of professional guidelines and organizational policies and codes that delineate the ethical conducts that ought to be followed by organizations.
Step 3: Identify alternatives
The key to this particular phase is to ascertain as many solutions as possible to the problem at hand. There are different alternatives for dealing with social media within the organizational setting. These comprise of the following:
1. Prohibit the use of social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter in the workplace entirely.
2. Encourage employees to use social media in the workplace devoid of any prohibitions
3. Separate the professional from the personal
Step 4: Evaluate the alternatives
This phase of the decision-making model emphasizes on evaluating every alternative and ascertaining the prospective positive and negative consequence of each one of them (Ethics & Compliance Initiative, 2018). The first alternative is to prohibit employees from using the social media platforms in the workplace as a whole. The main advantage of this alternative is that the company will not face any ethical problems regarding employee privacy and online vilification. However, the key shortcoming of this particular alternative lies in the fact that the lack of incorporating social media into the corporate setting means that the organization loses out on the numerous advantages of social media (Stafford, 2016). The second alternative is encouraging and fully permitting the use of social media within the workplace. The key advantage of this approach is that the organization will be able to fully capitalize on the advantages of social media as a whole. Some of these advantages comprise of increasing brand awareness, increasing website traffic, and also boosting sales. In spite of these benefits, the main shortcoming of this alternative is that fully permitting social media use implies that the organization opens up the risk of facilitating wrongful business practices and activities that may have an adverse impact in the business. Some of the information posted by employees can be damaging to the organization (Stafford, 2016). The third alternative is separating the professional and the personal. The strong suit of this alternative is that the company will be able to capitalize on social media during work hours and at the same time limit personal use during work hours and any personal use during work hours can be geared towards promoting awareness of the corporate brand. The shortcoming of this approach is that distinguishing between professional and personal use can be vague and ambiguous (Zgheib, 2014).
Step 5: Make the decision
The best alternative is the third one, which takes into account separating the professional and the personal. This is for the reason that this alternative ensures that the company makes the most of social media and at the same time ensures that company time is also maximized. Personal use of social media company during working hours ought not to be restricted. However, the employees should be motivated and encouraged to restrict it in the same manner that they limit their personal calls while at work and also the use of the internet. In addition, the use of social media during work hours should be in line with the marketing and public relations practices and aims of the business.
Step 6: Implement the decision
Implementation of the decision is to lay emphasis and practicing what will and what will not be accepted by the organization. This takes into account writing policies and practices that will be enforced on an everyday basis in order to ensure that all parties are on the same page and facilitate in sustaining consistency in practice. These social media policies and procedures for employees is an effective approach to making certain that they employ these sites in a suitable manner and restrict their personal use in the course of the working hours. At the same time, implementation should encompass being adherent to legal and regulatory standards. That is, the employees should ensure that they do not disclose confidential or non-public information. At the same time, the company should adhere to Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which ensures employee privacy. Posts and likes on social media are perceptible and therefore the employees should be informed that the company will see and monitor the information they post about the company (Massotte, 2017).
Step 7: Evaluate the decision
Each decision is purposed to resolve a problem. The ultimate test of any decision is to determine whether or not the problem at hand was solved. The most ideal approach of evaluating the decision is through employee surveys, employee feedback and also through return on investment in social media.




References
Ethics & Compliance Initiative. (2018). The PLUS Ethical Decision-Making Model. Retrieved from: https://www.ethics.org/resources/free-toolkit/decision-making-model/
Massotte, P. (2017). Ethics in Social Networking and Business 1: Theory, Practice and Current Recommendations. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.
Stafford, J. (2016). Managing Social Media in the Workplace: On Ethics. Eastern Washington University. Retrieved from: https://sites.ewu.edu/cmst496-stafford/2012/06/12/managing-social-media-in-the-workplace-on-ethics/
Zgheib, P. W. (Ed.). (2014). Business ethics and diversity in the modern workplace. New York: IGI Global.