Organizational behavior trends and contemporary developments

Ethics in Organizational Decision Making

The phrase "business ethics" is often cited as an oxymoron. However, the accountancy scandals at WorldCom and Enron have demonstrated that departments cannot exist in ethical isolation from other departments within any business organization. Rather the executive and accountancy departments must be informed of one another's doings, and the common employee cannot ignore the effect of corporate misdeeds upon his or her company survival's and thus his or her secure pension plan. The negative publicity garnered by the excesses of such CEOs as Martha Stewart, regarding a private scandal of insider trading, and the CEO of Tyco and his public accusations of embezzlement also highlight that businesses must have formal ethical codes in today's evolving organizational climate of increased media and even stockholder scrutiny.

Scenario: Cite a specific example (from work, industry, media etc.) where ethics played a role in an organizations behavior

The increased scrutiny upon business ethics caused one notable educational organization, namely the Harvard Business School, to exercise its ethical decision making in a particularly rigorous capacity regarding admissions. The AP Press noted that when one candidate for the coveted MBA at Harvard, after writing numerous essays about the need for business ethics, made a decision "late at night, with his laptop propped in front of him in bed," when "instructions on a Web site promised business school applicants like him an early online peek at whether they'd been accepted," and "intrigued, he began typing," only one "minute later he'd accessed the Harvard Business School's admission site, though all he saw was a blank page. That split-second decision cost the 28-year-old New Yorker a chance to attend the school this year." (AP Wire, 20050 in a blanket rejection issued Monday, "Harvard dashed the hopes of 119 applicants, as did MIT who followed suit Tuesday, rejecting 32 applicants that used a method of computer hacking a method detailed in a Business Week online forum to try to get an early glimpse at admissions decisions in top business schools...It seemed to us you would have to have pretty bad judgment or pretty bad ethics not to know you were doing something wrong," an MIT admissions officer said. "If you don't realize you shouldn't do that, something's off." (AP Wire, 2005)

Thus, the ethical decision making even of potential business school candidates, in the cases of two top schools had a deleterious impact upon the decision-making of the admissions office, regardless of the candidate's credentials, or even their intelligence in terms of using the designated method. Although available through a respected business publication, this was no guarantee of the ethics of the hacking method, believed Harvard and MIT, although Duke, Stanford, and Dartmouth's decisions regarding the matter are still pending, as they consider the availability of the information to perhaps exculpate the hackers.

These students had a choice. They could have waited until the published date of their decision. They chose to exercise these steps," Lee Metheny, chief executive and president of Apply Yourself, a Fairfax, Va.-based online application and notification program company used by all the schools. But Sanford Kreisberg of Cambridge Essay Service, which helps students apply to elite U.S. business schools, said although the applicants made a stupid mistake, Harvard was guilty of "ethics grandstanding," and said that "while the business world is getting battered by stories of ethical failures -- such as fraud or excessive salaries -- Harvard can make a point by taking on an easy target," in the form of the students. Still, MIT countered "Our mission statement talks about principled, innovative leaders and we take the principled part seriously." (AP Wire, 2005)

Part II. The impact of technology on work-related stress

Work should be growing less stressful -- given the ubiquity telecommuting, and the increased swiftness and interconnectedness of technical innovation that connects the individual to the workplace via the Internet. (Olson, 2003) However, the easier it becomes to get 'connected' to work, quite often the more the stress of the workforce bleeds into the quality life of one's home and the higher the expectations demanded of conscientious employees.

Cite a specific example (from work, industry, media etc.) where technology played/will play a role in an organizations behavior

For example, the connective nature of work enabled by the Internet, specifically with high-speed connections such as broadband, and when complimented with wireless phones, video conferencing, and other technologies, have enabled some workers to be better connected to the office during times of personal stress. One might say the upside to this is that a mother who has just given birth can telecommunicate to her office virtually as soon as she is conscious. One could also say conversely that the downside to this is that she might very well be expected to, by her boss.

Because of the Internet and telecommuting, organizations may feel more comfortable hiring workers with unconventional lifestyles that allow them to live at a distance from their office -- such as mothers with many children or people who work multiple jobs or live at a fair distance from the company. Telecommuting is no longer just simply for high-powered executives who have to travel a great deal but still wish to exercise management over their companies.