The importance of values on ethical decision making in business

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The Importance of Values on Decision Making

The following pages focus on providing an analysis of the application of ethical in several types of activity. The Introduction presents the points-of-view used in this paper. The following section focuses on using several models in answering the questions addressed by the Christensen article. The Ethical Decision Making Guide section is intended to discuss the ethical guide that I find useful in my situation. The Ethical Guide Application section provides some examples of different situations where this ethical guide was successfully applied. The Key Concepts section discusses some of the concepts that I became aware of during this course. The Conclusions section presents some of the most important issues addressed by the paper.

Introduction

The values, morals, and ethics that people have present great influence on their behavior. This refers to their behavior in their personal lives, but also to their behavior at work or in business situations. In addition to this, these values influence people's decision making process. Specialists in the field have identified the fact that people make their decision based on the values they have. Therefore, if an individual's value of great importance is represented by money, that person is likely to make their decision based on factors that help them get more money from that decision.

People have different values. The fact that the communication process between people does not reach its objectives is also determined by the fact that certain individuals are not able to understand the fact that other people have different values, which leads to different objectives in the case of these people. The values that individuals have determine the objectives they want to reach, but also the strategies they develop in order to reach these objectives. Therefore, people should focus on identifying their values. This is because in numerous cases people can think they have certain values, but they actually have other sets of values in comparison with what they think they have. This incongruence leads to personals conflicts and does not allow people to reach their objectives.

Ethical Decision Making Guide

The consequentialist approach refers to normative properties that present importance through their consequences. Specialists in the field have developed numerous theories on this issue (Stanford University, 2011). The consequentialist theory is characterized by a certain level of relativity that makes it difficult to be applied in decision making processes. Therefore, individuals with ethical guides based on consequentialist theories prefer to think of the consequences of their actions when making decisions.

However, the consequentialist model does not seem to take into consideration the numerous implications of business decisions. This is because there are situations where the consequences of certain decisions seem favorable, but the efforts they determine are too high and reduce the importance of these consequences. It is important to think of the consequences of people's actions, but this does not mean that people should develop ethical decision making guides only based on consequentialism.

The process of developing an ethical decision making guide is very complex. In my case, the development of such a guide is the result of numerous years, of ethical standards that have formed from childhood through adulthood. This means that my ethical guide is based on the values and morals I have formed in childhood and that have developed in accordance with my age and experience.

The ethical guide that I am trying to use in the business environment I work is based on maximizing the benefits of all parties involved in business decisions. This is because I think that if everyone has a lot to win from certain business situations, they will be more satisfied. This determines them to be motivated in doing business with me. Therefore, I try to focus on the benefits that business situations can provide to others, and not just to my company. This issue is acknowledged by people I do business with. In other words, they understand what I am trying to do. They value such behaviors. This helps increase their loyalty. In addition to this, it helps get certain bonuses and price reductions from them. This is important in improving the company's performance.

I think that the ethical guide I should use in my job is a combination of models studied in this course. This is because I think that each of the models studied, like the consequentialist, deontological, and virtue ethics, addresses important issues that must be applied by individuals in their work but also in their personal lives. Therefore, the ethical guide I have developed is based on these models, and on selecting the issues that apply to my situation. However, I think that the deontological model is the most important in my case.

The ethical guide I have developed is based on the deontological assumptions established by peers in my profession. It is important to focus on the rules established by others in this business (Porter & Kramer, 2011). This is because integrity is very important in my business field. In addition to this, it is important that people at work trust you. Therefore, in order to trust you, it is important to show these people that you play by their rules. In other words, I must work by the rules established by others in my profession.

I have also expanded these rules in order to develop an ethical guide that would allow me to use it in most business situations. In order to reach this objective I have borrowed values from the ethical guide I use in my personal life and adapted them in accordance with the requirements of my job. This ethical guide is intended to help me improve my performance.

In addition to this, the ethical guide I have developed relies on consultations with the people involved or affected by my actions. This is because I want to make decisions that are ecological for all parties involved. In other words, I want my decisions to produce benefits to all the categories of people they affect. If they cannot produce benefits for everyone, it is intended that they do not produce negative effects. This is a difficult objective to reach in certain situations.

Therefore, it is important to consult with all the parties involved when making such decisions. This is because I cannot always identify the issues determined by my decisions. I must consult with other people in order to ensure I make an ethical decision. In my business activity I usually consult with my managers. I trust their judgment and I know I can rely on their experience. In addition to this, I prefer to also consult some of my colleagues. This usually takes place in situations that other colleagues have experienced. Their advice and input are useful in making such decisions.

The fact that I consult the parties involved allows me to identify problems that I cannot identify by myself. This helps increase the number of options. It also leads to developing better strategies (Messick & Bazerman, 1996). In order to reach this objective, it is important to have high quality information. Therefore, I prefer to consult these people in order to benefit from several points-of-view.

The ethical guide I have developed also focuses on reviewing the company's codes of ethics and of conduct. These are complex guides that can provide answers to important ethical dilemmas. However, in certain situations, these guidelines and principles can be interpreted in different ways. These interpretations can make it difficult to make an ethical decision in each case. In such situations, my ethical guide recommends that I study similar situations that have affected the company. I focus on the decisions made in these cases, in the strategies developed in order to address these situations, and in their consequences. Based on these issues, I determine which strategy can provide ethical results.

In addition to this, I evaluate the various options that I have in making certain decisions. This also refers to the consequences of such decisions. This process requires that I take into consideration the consequences on all the parties involved. I intend to make decisions that can improve the situation of the parties involved. However, in certain situations, these decisions can be good for the company, but not so good for the customers. These are situations where it is very difficult to make an ethical decision. In numerous situations, people prefer to make decisions that are good for the company. They are not very interested in their decisions' effects on their customers' situation.

I also think that it is important that the strategies developed by people are flexible. This means that these strategies must be able to adapt to different environmental factors. This is because it is recommended to develop several strategies intended to address different conditions determined by the business activity. In other words, these strategies must refer to different possible consequences. The complexity of decisions that must be made in the business activity has determined me to develop an ethical guide that is based on a combination of the consequentialist, deontological, and virtue ethics approach.

Ethical Guide Application

In order to determine the usefulness of such an ethical guide, it is important to test it in different organizational situations. I had the opportunity to apply this ethical guide several times at my job. Such a situation took place a few months ago, when I was supposed to develop strong relationships with some of our business partners. Some of the objectives I had to reach in this case referred to convincing this business partner to invest in our business. The investment level was high, and our partner was not sure whether the investment was worth it.

The issue in this case is that the investment was associated with important risks. However, if the business partner knew those risks, it was obvious that they would not invest. But our company needed this investment in order to expand the business. Therefore, I had to decide whether I should tell the business partner about the risks of the investment, which would most likely lead to not investing in this business, or to not tell the business partner about the risks so that they would invest, which could have led to them not gaining the necessary return on their investment.

In order to make an ethical decision, I decided to talk to some of my colleagues. They did not help me a great deal. They were not sure of what it was best to do in such a situation. Basically, they did not want to take the risk of telling me what to do because of the great implications of this decision.

Therefore, I had to talk to some of my managers that were not involved in the project. They also had difficulties in expressing their opinion. Some of them told me to not tell the business partner about the risks of the investment. This is because they wanted them to invest in developing the company's activity. Other managers advised me to tell the client about the risks and let them decide what it was best to do. I was not sure of what I was supposed to do. I did not want to lie to the client and determine them to invest in a high risk activity if they did not know about this. But I also wanted this money for our company.

Therefore, I developed another strategy. I decided to tell the business partner about the risks of the investment. In addition to this, I worked with my colleagues and managers on developing another business opportunity that would help our company expand our activity, but not as much as the other investment. The business partner appreciated the fact that I told them about the risks of the investments. This increased their trust in our company and its employees. As a consequence, the business partner decided to invest in the other business opportunity that we developed. This means that I made a decision based on my ethical guide, but at the same time I managed to determine the business partner to invest in our company.

Another situation where I had to use the ethical guide I have developed refers to the company's relationship with certain employees. Our company needed to hire a few employees because during a certain period the activity was very intense and we needed more personnel. But the company only wanted to hire them on a temporary basis. The company's managers wanted high skilled personnel in this case.

The problem was that high skilled personnel were not interested in temporary jobs. I was supposed to participate in the selection and recruitment of these employees. Basically, I had to identify such people and to determine them to get a job at our company. I knew that if I told these people that the job was temporary they would not be interested. Therefore, the solution was to not tell them that the jobs were temporary. But I considered this to be very unethical.

I did not know what to do. I could not talk to my managers because they had recommended that I convince these high skilled employees to get a job at our company by not telling them that the job was temporary. I decided to talk to people in human resources activities in other companies. Basically, I wanted to know how they usually find and convince highly skilled employees, and what they would do in the situation I described.

Their different answers were of no great help. Some of them recommended that I tell them that the jobs were temporary, while others recommended that I did not tell them. Based on my ethical principles I knew that I could not lie to them about the job. But I also had to satisfy the requirements of the company's managers on getting highly skilled employees. Therefore, I knew that I had to develop another strategy that would allow me to make ethical decisions, but that would also satisfy the managers' requirements.

The strategy that I developed was represented by hiring some of these employees on a regular basis after the temporary period that the company required them. I decided that it was better to tell them that the jobs were temporary, but that after this period the employees with the highest level of performance could be hired on a regular basis. Therefore, this increased their motivation level, because they wanted to be hired on a regular basis. In order to reach this objective, they had to improve their performance. The managers agreed with this strategy. This allowed me to successfully apply to ethical guide I developed in order to help me in these situations.

Key Concepts

There are numerous concepts that I became aware of during this course. Some of the most important concepts are represented by the eight steps to decision making process, the consequentialist approach, and Kohlberg's cognitive moral development framework. These concepts helped improve my knowledge in the field of ethics and on the behavior of individuals in certain situations.

I consider that these concepts are very important. Their important is revealed by situations in the business activity, but also in the personal life, in relationships with family and friends. I think that in order to develop successful relationships, it is important that they are based on trust and integrity. In order to reach this objective, it is recommended to develop a set of ethical principles. I think that this should be important from childhood, when parents should orient their children's actions towards ethical issues. This is because during this period of development individuals shape their ethical principles.

I think it is important to develop an ethical guide that helps people make ethical decisions. This is because the numerous implications of complex decisions make it difficult for most people to select the most ethical strategy. But if they have strong set of ethical principles that they normally use in most situations they can ensure that they are satisfied by their job, that their families are a source of happiness, and that they stay out of jail.

Conclusions

The field of ethics is one of the most important knowledge fields that individuals should approach. The importance of ethics, values, and morals is reflected in the decisions that people make that affect their lives and the lives of others. In many cases, it seems that individuals are not aware of the implications of their decisions. Therefore, they do not allow much importance to making decisions that are ethical for all the parties involved or affected by the decisions making process.

This means that people should develop an ethical guide based on the principles that they find useful in their situation. But this is not an easy objective to reach. This requires that people study the rules and regulations in several fields, and decide what ethical codes they should apply in their situation. It is important that individuals develop ethical guides when making decisions in order to improve their performance.

Reference list:

1. Consequentialism (2011). Stanford University. Retrieved August 24, 2011 from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/consequentialism/.

2. Christensen, C. (2010). How Will You Measure your Life? Harvard Business Review. Retrieved August 28, 2012.

3. Trevino, L. et al. (2004). Managing to Be Ethical: Debunking Five Business Ethics Myths. Academy of Management. Retrieved August 28, 2012.

4. Porter, M. & Kramer, M. (2011). Creating Shared Value. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved August 28, 2012.

5. Trevino, L. et al. (2000). Moral Person and Moral Manager: How Executives Develop A Reputation for Ethical Leadership. California Management Review. Retrieved August 28, 2012.

6. Messick, D. & Bazerman, M. (1996). Ethical Leadership and the Psychology of Decision Making. Sloan Management Review. Retrieved August 28, 2012.