In this particular case, I will be analyzing the president’s actions and the legal and ethical aspects of those decisions. Doing so will allow me to assess whether or not the president acted ethically. One situation that demonstrates a legal and ethical dimension is shown in the idea of skipping the safety testing of the battery. The president is under pressure to maintain the market lead for Tri-star, failure to do so would find numerous employees get laid off. The president knows that a good battery would help them gain more worldwide customers and increase their market share. Thus, the president tasks the VP of engineering to develop a new battery in time for the launch of Tri-star’s flagship phone for next year. The vice president of engineering, Mr. Cutthroat, finds out that if they perform the safety test, the battery would not be ready for launch. Mr. Cutthroat comes up with the idea of skipping the safety test for the new battery they’ve developed to have it ready for the launch of the flagship phone. Tri-star is not required by law to safety test the batteries, but by skipping the safety test would endanger the consumers. While the company may not legally be responsible, whether or not they acted ethically is different. By skipping the safety test, they are not attempting to promote good consequences and instead are promoting bad consequences. So while they may not be held legally liable, they are definitely guilty of unethical behavior. …show more content…
The president does, however, have a legal obligation to provide her employees two weeks notice should anyone get laid
Throughout your life, you’ll face tough decisions where you'll have to decide possibly against your ethical beliefs. Ethics don’t necessarily always have to involve law abiding. It’s rather about trusting your moral path and doing the right thing. Dori Meinert is the author of “Creating an Ethical Workplace” she explains the thought behind the never black or white decision making when it comes to businesses. Can businesses truly trust those individuals hired to steer their companies? It was mentioned that last year 41 percent of U.S. workers said they observed unethical or illegal misconduct on the job, according to the Ethics Resource Center's 2013 National Business Ethics Survey. Meinert’s article was not only eye-opening but very truthful since we’ve all been faced or witnessed unethical decision making. Once employees see individuals breaking the rules and regulations others will then think it's okay, which could result in employees leaving or major hoops for companies to jump through. When we tolerate misconduct we lower productivity and diminish the reputation of a company. Meinert mentioned that if
moral decisions, we will be analyzing why this scenario poses a dilemma, possible actions that
Apply the ethical decision-making model. Using the detailed analysis of alternative actions (Chapter 5, Table 5-1), create a table analyzing potential alternative solutions for your dilemma.
Many organizations have been destroyed or heavily damaged financially and took a hit in terms of reputation, for example, Enron. The word Ethics is derived from a Greek word called Ethos, meaning “The character or values particular to a specific person, people, culture or movement” (The American Heritage Dictionary, 2007, p. 295). Ethics has always played and will continue to play a huge role within the corporate world. Ethics is one of the important topics that are debated at lengths without reaching a conclusion, since there isn’t a right or wrong answer. It’s basically depends on how each individual perceives a particular situation. Over the past few years we have seen very poor unethical business practices by companies like Enron, which has affected many stakeholders. Poor unethical practices affect the society in many ways; employees lose their job, investors lose their money, and the country’s economy gets affected. This leads to people start losing confidence in the economy and the organizations that are being run by the so-called “educated” top executives that had one goal in their minds, personal gain. When Enron entered the scene in the mid-1980s, it was little more than a stodgy energy distribution system. Ten years later, it was a multi-billion dollar corporation, considered the poster child of the “new economy” for its willingness to use technology and the Internet in managing energy. Fifteen years later, the company is filing for bankruptcy on the heels of a massive financial collapse, likely the largest in corporate America’s history. As this paper is being written, the scope of Enron collapse is still being researched, poked and prodded. It will take years to determine what, exactly; the impact of the demise of this energy giant will be both on the industry and the
In my point of view, every choice has consequences. General Motors ignition switch issue has affected many families in U.S., took lives, and caused injuries to many people. Replacing the part after a decade passed will prevent future accidents from happening; however it will not replace the pain and suffrage of people who lost their loved ones. Bad decision-making, poor professional conduct and dishonesty cost GM millions of dollars. Choosing company’s financial budget over lives of innocent people is wrong. No matter how much money GM will spend on replacing the ignitions, compensating the families, going through lawsuits those lives cannot be restored. Following duty-driven ethics would have prevented the disaster from taking place.
Enron was one of the major energy corporation in America before it went bankrupt. A contributing reason to Enron’s failure was a lack of ethical management. Enron scandal proves that the company infringed the transparency, dignity and responsibility ethical principles of the Global Business Standard Codex (Paine et al. 2005). Effective management practices help businesses manage risk by reducing the likelihood of breaching the misconduct, but ethical dilemmas cause illegal or immoral activities.
The term “ethical business” is seen, by many people, as an oxymoron. This is because a business’s main objective is to make as much money as possible. Making the most money possible, however, can often lead to unethical actions. Companies like Enron, WorldCom, and Satyam have been the posterchildren for how corporations’ greed lead to unethical practices. In recent times however, companies have been accused of being unethical based on, not how they manage their finances, but on how they treat the society that they operate in. People have started to realize that the damage companies have been doing to the world around them is more impactful and far worse than any financial fraud that these companies might be engaging in. Events like the BP oil
Making good ethical decisions requires a trained sensitivity to ethical issues and a practiced method for exploring the ethical aspects of a decision and weighing the considerations that should impact our choice of a course of action. Having a method for ethical decision making is absolutely essential. When practiced regularly, the method becomes so familiar that we work through it automatically without consulting the specific steps.
Many laws have been put into place to make sure corporations act ethically, so they do not harm people or the environment. Corporations have a social responsibility to follow these laws and various other ethical actions; Johnson & Johnson, considered to be one of the most admirable companies according to Fortune, is one company that included their corporate social responsibilities in their code of ethics. Their code of ethics states that executive officers cannot financially benefit from unethical transactions or that their management must be competent and ethical (Code of Business Conduct, 2015). It is important for corporations to act ethically and hold up to their social responsibility, especially within the workplace; ethics are especially
There are four types of situations that pertain to law vs. ethics. The first would be an action that is both legal and ethical. An example of this would be a nurse carrying out appropriate doctor's orders as ordered. A nurse may also be faced with an action that may be ethical but not legal, such as allowing a cancer patient to smoke marijuana for medicinal purposes. The opposite may arise where an action may be legal but not ethical. Finally, an action may be neither legal or ethical. For example, when a nurse makes a medication error and does not report it.
An ethical dilemma is only examined in a situation which has the following conditions; the first condition takes place in a situation, when an individual has to make a decision on which course of action is best. The second condition is there must be more than one course of action to choose from. The third action is no matter what course of action is taken, certain ethical principles are conceded. In other terms, there is no perfect result. When defining what forms an ethical dilemma, it is important to make a division between ethics, morals, values, laws and policies.
The Level of Ethical Analysis: Sometimes one will run into the issue of not finding an acceptable moral to apply
In my opinion, ethics give people free will to make right choices. People have free will to make choices that are governed with responsibility, accountability, and liability. We have a responsibility to perform in an ethical manner and be accountable for our choices or actions. Regardless of the circumstances and choices we make, there are consequences if we make the wrong choice. The question of whether an action or choice is ethical or not is fundamentally based on whether something is right or wrong. From an ethical standpoint, unethical choices and risky behavior can lead to increased liabilities. The liabilities result in the loss or damage sustained by a company or other party as result of an unethical and sometimes illegal decision. Although we exercise free will on a continuous basis, we are governed by the decisions we make and my belief is that the decisions we make daily do not just affect us. These decisions affect other people, such as family, friends, coworkers, instructors, neighbors, etc. The most prominent example of ethics can be recognized in the field of technology based on the growing amount of rapidly changing legislation and acts that under consideration in order to protect people from unethical practices.
Ethical judgment is reasoning about the possible alternatives in a situation and judging which alternative is the most ethical one. A person making an ethical judgment uses reason to decide what is the best alternative to resolve one problem or to determine that one alternative is morally right and another alternative morally wrong. In short, ethical judgment is a process of considering several alternatives and choosing the most ethical one.
The following five-step model can help employees make appropriate decisions when faced with an ethical dilemma. The first step is to recognize the issue. Knowing what is the root cause and the main issue can help determine what ethical issue is at hand. The next step is to get the facts of the situation. Eliminating bias opinions and knowing the information source can increase the chances of making a good decision.