Ethical principles for addressing organizational issues

Responsibility Project

The short film selected by the author of this paper for this report was the civility in politics video. While this may seem to some to be limited to governmental institutions and situations, there is a lot of creep with politics into business and non-profit organizational situations and dynamics all of the time. Some of those are customary and normal while others are abnormal and potentially explosive. The author of this report will touch on all of those as the author answers the questions. The author of this report is asked to explain why the issues in the film are important, what role do external social pressures have in influencing the organizational ethics of a company/organization, how might these issues be important to the personal and organizational decisions of an organization and its people and what the relationship is between legal and ethical issues in the film.

Discussion

The issues in the film mentioned above are important because politics and the increasing incivility that pervades politics in the modern context is also starting to pervade into the inner reaches of organizations, how people do (or do not) talk to each other and the decisions that are made due to the internal and external pressures conveyed as a result of people feeling the need to proselytize and enforce the new social norms of the day, no matter who disagrees with them.

On that note, external social pressures are very thick nowadays. Some may view that as specious but when one of the owners of Chick-Fil -- A is roundly condemned, on political and moral grounds for his condemnation of gay marriage or when just about any Christian/Catholic organization resists the ObamaCare birth control mandate in any sort of form is criticized on the same sort or premises, it is clear that politics, religion and morality, as it's defined by the many people who speak on the matter, is not even remotely close to being limited to political corners of the United States or just about any other country that is having political strife. Other examples include Greece with its financial turmoil and France with its recent tax hikes on the wealthy business and residents of the country.

These issues are absolutely relevant to the personal and organization decisions of a business or non-profit because the blowback and aftermath of making the wrong decision, at least according to the larger and more prominent circles in the United States or other relevant country, can be quite damaging and the effects can be long-lasting. What makes the situation all the more complex is that defining morality and ethics as it relates to business decision, politics and religion, especially when two or three of those are melded together in the same process, can be extremely hard and it is often true that no one is satiated with the final verdict. In short, there is always a winner and always a loser, assuming there is a "winner" at all in the definition of the supposed victor.

On a related note, legal issues can be in play as well. The aforementioned contraception mandate pits legal compliance against religious beliefs and principles. Even though being uncivil in politics is generally not illegal, the condemnation and vitriol that is directed from one corner of the political spectrum to the other is simply caustic and the after-effects of such exchanges and the decisions that are made (or not made) as a result can be quite problematic on a number of levels.