Applied Business Ethics and Awareness

Question: Discuss about the Applied Business Ethics and Awareness. Answer: Ethical Dilemma Essay Description of the ethical dilemma: During the first year of placement as a trainee manager in a firm (non-governmental) of UK, I had deal with a case of racial discrimination. A vacancy has been developed in our company for the post of account manager. Our company has the intention to promote an existing employee. One of the candidates is white man named Jack with bachelor degree in accounting. He has advised the company for financial cases for the last five years. There is also another candidate, who is African-American employee name William. He has a masters degree in law and accounting. The management team had promoted the white male candidate for the position of account manager. Our management had also decided to allow a junior employee to work together with him. It had created an ethical dilemma in our organization. Most of the applicants started to believe that they are not selected for the post depending on their race, rather than on a lack of qualification or job experience. As a young graduate trainee manager, I had very limited experience. In addition, I did not possess the required knowledge to resolve the issue myself. As, I had just joined the company, I also felt uncomfortable to ask my seniors to help me to resolve the issue. As the company had assigned me to handle this job, I think I could do the work. However, if I have more experience in managing conflicts and critical situations, then I might have done this job more appropriately. I personally feel that an organization should be partial to any employees in circumstances. Punishments and rewards should be given to employees depending on their performance and behavior rather than race, sex, gender and religion. Any type of discrimination has severe impact on both organizational performance and employee performance. Hence, gives rise to ethical dilemma. For this reason, as a responsible and efficient manager, I need to find some effective strategy to solve the issue related with racial discrimin ation and bring back the normal working environment in the company. Justification: According to Lgar and Witteman (2013), racial discrimination can be referred to the unfavorable treatment of employers towards an individual or a group of individual due to their race or any characteristics related with their race like texture, skin color or hair color. It can be perpetrated by an employer toward a worker or applicant of the same race or against an applicant or worker of different race. It also includes making or supporting others to make derogatory remarks or racial slurs or displaying racial-offensive symbols (Husted Husted, 2012). In this case, most of the applicants think that they are not selected for the post due to their race. This issue had severe impact on the performance of the company. Most of the skilled and talented employees had lost their motivation to work for the company and started to think about leaving the organization, as they did not want to suffer the same fate as William. However, Jack was selected in this post due to his exper ience and assistance with the company for the last three years. None is willing to understand that. It gives rise to an ethical dilemma. Ethical solutions: In order to solve this ethical dilemma, it is required to take care of some major fundamental principles. They are such as integrity, confidentiality, professional behavior. I have to provide fair judgment to all people involve with the case. I have to act in straightforward manner. I owe the responsibility to maintain confidentiality of information of the staff involved with it. I have to show professional behavior as a responsible manager in order to solve this ethical dilemma. I have decided to take some key principle to solve the ethical dilemma related with racial discrimination. They are mentioned below: I will develop a team to analyze the selection procedure of Jack (the white man) for the position of account manager. I have to make sure that the committee remains neutral and transparent during this investigation. I will recommend the board of directors to recruit an Anti-Racism Contact Officer. So, that anyone can approach him on an informal basis, if they found any case of racism in the company. I will develop a grievance procedure to make sure that every employee receives confidential and sympathetic approach. However, no action will be taken unless the complainant requests it. I will make sure that confidentiality is preserved at every stage of the investigation. I will discuss this situation with the Anti-Racism Contact Officer who has been hired and trained specifically to solve this kind of ethical dilemma. I will develop policies (Anti-Racism policy) to support and promote mutual respects between employer and employee who came from different cultural background. I will tell employees, that if they found any discrimination at workplace, then they should personally talk to me. I will make sure that their identity remains secrete. In order to solve this problem, it is required to identify all the relevant facts. As a manager, I need to consider the applicable laws, regulations and legal assistance required in this case (Husted Husted, 2012). In order to develop proper solution for this ethical dilemma, I have to analyze my proper role as manager to handle this type of employee issue. It has been found that, as operation manager, it is my responsibility to maintain efficiency of operation within the organization (Lgar Witteman, 2013). I also have to take care of the well fare of employees as well. I have found that, my connection with the employees and owners can also be considered as a significant factor in this case study, as both of them have contact with me. I would not be able to avoid any of them. I had been found that social consensus has made the decision harder for me and caused personal dilemma. However, the result is hard to predict. I have be aware of the fact that consequences of my action as manger could be harmful not only to any employee, but also for the organization or me. The possible course of action to solve this ethical dilemma has been mentioned below: At first, I have to check relevant facts related with this case study. Then I have to clarify the selection strategy and promotion strategy with various personal departments. I can also take legal advices as well. I can use Maxim as the subjective principle or ground rule of action. It is a thought that I can apply to motivate employees to work ethically. In accordance to Kohlberg's stages of moral development, I have identified three major stages of moral reasoning. They are such as pre-conventional, conventional and post-conventional stages. Development of these complex stages can help me to motivate my employees to work ethically. I can discuss this issue with my colleagues and conduct meeting with all employees. I will also discuss this situation with the Anti-Racism Contact Officer as, he is hired and trained specifically to solve this kind of ethical dilemma. Together we will develop policies (Anti-Racism policy) to support and promote mutual respect within the company. Additionally, I need talk with Jack personally to get detailed information about these issues. I will organize a team meeting to take advice from my subordinates about possible solutions for this ethical dilemma. As a responsible manager, I need to talk with other employees, who required to be reminded about proper conduct. According to Kohlberg, employees need to develop morality in two stages. It provides the basis for moral development in various contexts. There is figure given below describe stages of moral development. I can use egotistic approach and put aside the interest of the company and employees, and priorities my own goals and interests as manager. It will help me to take morally right decision. Consideration of all the issues and identifying solutions can enable me to show that I am behaving professionally as manager. In addition, I also take attempts to resolve the difficulties faced by my subordinates to work in the company due to their race or cultural background. Above all, I have to act fairly both towards Jack, other staff members and owner of the organization. This approach will help me to solve the problem within the timeframe. I can take help form others to get the best solution. As the manager, I have to implement Jones ethical theory model in order to develop ethical and discrimination free working condition. On the other hand, I can also use utilitarian approach, which can help me to find out the best result for majority of the people (Werhane et al., 2013). Portfolio of Evidence The Ethical Leadership Debate In this section of the assignment, an ethical leadership debate had been developed among Mei-HuaFelung, Mike Gustavsson, Deshi Chen and Jan Edwards. In order to discuss about the importance of ethics at work place, Jan mentioned that she is concerned about the fact. According to her point of view, most of the graduates are extremely focused on increasing profitability of an organization. Rather than improving their people management skills and becoming genuine people, they are more focused on working their way up to the company ladder. She feels that it is the fault of the educational system. Business schools develop graduates, who are becoming meat of the grinder for most the large international companies. Deshi Chen has supported this approach taken by business schools and talked against Jan. Deshichen see any point of wondering about ethical leadership. He had said that there is not point of adding this topic in the syllabus of modern business. According to him, leadership is about letting a job done and making a business more profitable. He is not happy about teaching of ethics or ethical leadership. He is thinking that there is no point of adding different codes of corporate ethic. All western companies are only concern about two things. They are profit and market share. For this reason, According to Deshi, ethical leadership has very little to do with real life business. However, Mei-Hua feels strongly about ethical leadership. She believes that professionals in recent years have had a very poor image from the press due to their ethical conduct. According to her, accountancy as profession has very strict code of conduct that she and her company always follow. Mei-Hua opines that maintain strong code of ethical leadership can help a company to develop ethical working environment. Deshi asked Mei-Hua about the tax cases of her company WCP. As the senior manager of the organization, Mei-Hua was involved in developing various tax avoidance schemes. These schemes literally helped the company to save millions of dollars. Deshi asked her whether it is an ethical approach or not. Mei-Hua believes that there is nothing wrong with this approach as the government has created these tax rules and they playing by the rule; not breaking them. In this concern, Mike mentioned that his point of view had become disillusioned related with ethical leadership. According to him, Anna (his daughter) changed after she joined Alfaraft AB. According to him, Anna was changed from someone who used to take care of social issues to someone who focused on her next bonus payment. According to him, Anna has send bonus making message get-rich-quick to her subordinates. According to Kohlberg, an individual progresses from the capacity for pre-conventional morality to the capacity for conventional morality and toward attaining post-conventional morality. Few people are only able to achieve it. Mike had supported Jan by saying that the existing education system and all the international organizations have provided less emphasis on ethical leadership style. At first, He thought that Alfaraft AB had a well written code of ethics that everyone follows as the company has contributed in many local Swedish charities. Now he is worried about the type of business environment that exist in the organization. According to him, this type of company takes fresh idealistic type graduates from Business schools and transforms them into greedy bonus seeking machines. Corporate ethics and terms such as ethical leadership have no meaning for them. He had also mentioned that in order increase awareness about corporate ethics and ethical leadership, he had participated in his first occupy protest during the year of 2011. They have occupied the ground flow of the Alfaraft AB building in Goteborg. They were protesting against the huge financial investment made by major organizations that were sup plying dubious third world regimes. Most of these organizations ignore maxim (moral rules) that can motivate individuals to work ethically. They must have to follow the ethical development formwork provided in maxim. They are such as 1) Type of action 2) Condition under which the action is done 3) reason to achieve the action. After analyzing the debate, that presents most of the companies and business schools (especially in Western world) do not provide much emphasis on ethical leadership and corporate ethics. According to theoretical model of ethical decision making by Jones, most of the organizations pride less emphasis on characteristics of the ethical issue itself. This culture needs to be changed. Companies need to work more ethically in order to make the world worth living. The seminar Case In the seminar, various cases of ethical dilemma had been discussed. However, the case study of Borries has been selected to make an analysis on ethical dilemma. The essence of the case study is that Borries is an employee (account executive) of a young middle-sized advertising agency of Germany. The company operates in a competitive market in which unable to meet deadline can cause substantial penalty to the organization. Borries is all set to go for a vacation with his girlfriend. The holiday is very important for Borris in personal perspective. However, one month before the holiday, his manager bring him the new that, a customer of Borries has bring forward the product launch. After a difficult conversation with his girlfriend, Borries cancelled his holiday. However, his friends did not support the fact that he has given up his holidays and jeopardized his relation with his girlfriend. They also do not think that the company has no right to cancel his leave as he had not taken a l ong leave for a huge time period. However, unlike his friends, Borries is satisfied with decision. According to him, he had done his best to protect benefit of the company and the client. Now this case study has to be analyzed based on normative ethical theories. Bateman et al (2013) stated that, it is systematic approach to explain ethical and moral phenomena. Jones (1991) mentioned that, in order to provide moral judgment about a case study, it is required evaluate some elements mentioned by the normative theory. They are such as individuals motive, individuals intention, character of individual, actions taken by the individual and action consequences (Crossan et al., 2013). These elements are analyzed below for the case study. In this case, the motive of Borries to balance what is right for the organization and the client against what is right for everyone else. One the other hand, the company management tires to enhance their relationship with customers. Intention of Borries is to do best for the company and the intention of the company is to develop more contracts with that particular client in future. Borries can be characterized as loyal to the company. He is also very much job-oriented. On the other hand, the company can be characterized as customer oriented. Hence, Borries had taken the decision to cancel the leave and jeopardized his relation with his girlfriend. According to Jones (1991), this type of obligations like cancelling holidays is not ethically right for a company. Management has no right to cancel a pre-planned holiday of an employee. However, this decision taken by the organization can be justified. A maxim is part of an individuals thought process for every rational action, indicating in its standard form: (1)the action, or type of action; (2)the conditions under which it is to be done; and (3)the end or purpose to be achieved by the action, or the motive. According to Borris, the company takes this decision considering future relationship with the customers and there is no wrong with that. In accordance to the normative ethical theory, it can be mentioned that Borries and the company has same type of point of view. Hence, this decision taken by the company is not ethically wrong. In addition, the company has compensated Borris well (financially). However, this type of decision is not applicable for all employees as most of them valued their personal life more than company goals and its future planning. Work-life balance is more important for them compare to financial benefits. Hence, it can be stated that this decision is not justified in broader perspective and it could have negative impact on other employees as well. Interpersonal and Team-working skills There are two major skills, which helped me to improve my interpersonal skills and team working skills. I personally think that Emotional intelligence quotient is high. Craft (2013) stated that, interpersonal skill is related with social graces, personality traits, personal habits, languages and friendliness. I believe that in todays job market technical skill is not enough. We have to go beyond the call of duty and to show that we have what it takes to fit within the culture of the organization. I think my interpersonal skills have complemented by my technical skills, social interactions and enhance my job performance. There are certain characteristics of my interpersonal skills that help me to conduct this module in time. They are such as self-confidence, positive attitude, capability of problem solving, time management skills and adopting with pressure condition. I believe in doing preparation before starting any task. I had done ample research work in order to conduct this module appropriately. I can say that preparation is the key behind my self-confidence. In addition, it also helps to improve the condition of my mental health. I take motivation from real life conditions and apply it in my work. It also helps to enhance my attitude toward work and others. I have developed efficient strategies to balance the time for all part of the module. I have developed effective way to deal with pressure and stress. I am use to stay clam in pressure that helped me to develop this module efficiently. There also another skill that likes to mention. That is my capability as a team player. Working as a team helped me to complete a task more effectively. My team working skill is very useful in the designing and writing part of the module. It helped me to improve leadership capability and inspired me to work for greater goods. Conclusion Finally, it can be mentioned that moral intensity (Jones, 1991) has a significant impact on the solution to the dilemma as it can help to analyze the intensity of the issue for me as the decision maker. It helps to find out the range of consequences from loss of customers to poor quality and late service of work to rewarding for quality of work. It also helps to find out different alternatives available to resolve an issue. References Bagdasarov, Z., Thiel, C. E., Johnson, J. F., Connelly, S., Harkrider, L. N., Devenport, L. D., Mumford, M. D. 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