...an individual and the business. They are principles of acting ethically. When a company or an individual is acting morally, it means that they can make the right choice. Only by making a distinction between what is wrong and what is right (Carroll & Buchholtz, 2003). Business ethics is, therefore, meant to guide controversial issues in a company environment. These issues include corporate social responsibility, discrimination, unlawful practices, corporate governance, bribery or corruption, insider trading and other irresponsible business behaviors. Ethics is at times guided by local frameworks chosen by different companies. These structures act as a way of enhancing their image and public trust, but it is a requirement that values is guided by a duly constituted legal framework (Paliwal, 2006). This paper, therefore, discusses business ethics in an organizational context and also delves into ethical dilemmas, moral leadership, interpersonal skills and teamwork in an enterprise environment. Appendix A- The Ethical Leadership Debate Ethical leadership incorporates two key aspects. The first point refers to the way the leader treats and works with the subordinates in his behavior in public, and also in his actions and statements. The second point lies in the decision-making process.In the leader’s mindset, in character, in values and the leader’s ability to make right decisions when faced with ethical dilemmas (Toole, 2010). The case study is very interesting as it...
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...The Ethical Issue Stated In this case, there are conflicting responsibilities and loyalties. The medical team feels strongly that the patient (Sarah) has a mental illness that requires hospitalization to ensure her safety. Although she is not agreeable to psychiatric admission, Sarah has demonstrated significant acts of self-harm and has lost the ability in her situational stress, mood disorder, and intoxicated state to make decisions that are in her best interest. She is clearly a danger to herself, and in good faith the medical team feels that it is their duty to provide services that will protect and rehabilitate the patient, Sarah. The nurse feels as if she needs to advocate for the patient’s best interests. However, there is always...
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...to moral principles, especially those in a particular group, profession, or individual (The Free Dictionary, 2012). Individuals face many ethical dilemmas daily and how he or she responds could lead to major and legal ethical implications. In the health care industry, possessing methods for making ethical decisions is an essential part of the job. This paper will present a scenario that takes place in a medical office and if the decision of the medical assistant will affect the decision-making process, which could lead to legal and ethical ramifications. Scenario The scenario presents Jerry McCall, a professionally trained medical assistant and Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) working in Dr. William’s office as an office assistant. Alone in the office and in charge of the phones during the lunch hour of the receptionist, Jerry receives a call from a patient. The patient explains to Jerry that he is leaving in 30 minutes to the airport for an extended vacation and needs a prescription called into his local pharmacy for Valium, an antidepressant drug. The patient also explains to Jerry that he is a long time friend of Dr. Williams and that the doctor always refills Valium prescriptions for him before he flies. Jerry’s training does not qualify him to call in a prescription for Valium. Ethical Dilemma Jerry has an ethical dilemma of if he should or should not call in a prescription for Valium for Dr. William’s patient. The answer is unquestionable no. In this scenario...
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...The Mysterious Roses and Cold Feet ETH/316 University of Phoenix The Ethics Games Dilemmas this week presented “The Mysterious Roses” and “Cold Feet” simulations. For the exercise we were required to address the issues in the simulation and identify the best decision for all parties involved. This summary will review what ethical issues were presented in the simulation, the decision making steps to ethically address the issues, the perspectives and lenses that were used to make the decision, influences in the decision making and concepts that relate to my work place. The first simulation “The Mysterious Roses” presented an issue that could have potentially been a violation of the sexual harassment policy. In this simulation Bill Witherspoon, a research scientist had been sending flowers to Gayle Dornier, a Sales Representative. Bill Witherspoon had been sending flowers anonymously for the last three weeks to encourage her. Joe Williams another employee informed me that this has made Gayle uncomfortable. Gayle has requested a meeting due to a confidential matter that may or may not be related to the anonymous flowers. Due to Gayle’s request that this meeting be kept confidential, I am faced with the dilemma of what to do in this situation. The second simulation “Cold Feet”, presented a problem related to possible falsification of data. In simulation I have received an email from Nicolai Zubanov. The report he has to submit to Phillip Waters has...
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...Ethical dilemmas, also known as a moral dilemmas, are situations in which there is a choice to be made between two options, neither of which resolves the situation in an ethically acceptable fashion. In such cases, societal and personal ethical guidelines can provide no satisfactory outcome for the chooser. Ethical dilemmas assume that the chooser will abide by societal norms, such as codes of law or religious teachings, in order to make the choice ethically impossible. What Causes an Ethical Dilemma in Conducting Business? by Terry Mann, Demand Media Businesses must have ethical standards. Related Articles • How to Resolve Ethical Dilemmas in the Workplace • Examples of Making Ethical Decisions in Business • Ethical Dilemma in the Use of Information Technology • Ethical Exercises in Business • Importance of Ethical Conduct in a Business • What Is the Difference Between Ethical Business Practices & Legal Practices? In a perfect world, businesses and their employees would always do the right thing. Unfortunately, in the real world, ethical dilemmas are a common occurrence in the workplace. According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, dilemmas are situations or problems where a person has to make a difficult choice; an ethical dilemma is a problem where a person has to choose between a moral and an immoral act. Employees must deal with pressures to perform and help the company succeed as well as personal temptations to take the easy way out. In the end, workers...
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...One of the main ethical dilemmas that a store manager working for Wal-Mart might be faced with is a conflict of interest. He/she has been placed into a situation where there is no right or wrong answer, but rather a right, and right answer. Does he choose the role of being a good manager, and risk the managerial position? Or does he act upon the “unethical” commands of his superiors in favor of keeping his job? Three underlying elements further complicating his decision to make ethical choices are discussed in this essay. These are identified as self interest, greed, and obedience to authority, and will be discussed using Ghillyer’s three-step process of analyzing the consequences, analyzing the actions, and making a decision where the ethical dilemma can be resolved, or at least diminished. Self interest could have been a contributing factor to his decision making, which resulted in a class-action lawsuit, costing the company $50 million. Self interest can be categorized under one of the three ethical theories, virtuous ethics, which places its value in living life according to the commitment to the achievement of a clear ideal. For example, “What sort of person would I like to become?” An ideal goal for the manager could be to provide a shelter, clothing, and food for himself and/or his family. These are the basic innate impulses or drives in human beings, that explain the well known evolutionary theory of Survival of the Fittest. In the Wal-Mart example, this is demonstrated...
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...the study of moral values, principles, and rules, including the determination of codes of conduct as they relate to individuals and an organization (Hellriegel, 2011). Basically, ethics relates to making the best choice, knowing right from wrong, and acting accordingly. To behave ethically is behaving in a manner that is generally considered to be right or moral by society. Personal differences and preferences affect making the “right” decision, in that everyone is not the same individually or from the same “society”. Many employees in the same company will have different religious, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds. What may be “right” in one culture or society may not be “right” in another. Most of a person’s ethical development will occur long before they have come to an organization. Individuals are heavily influenced by their family, church, community, and school in determining their individual values. An organization deals with individuals whose values have already long since been established (Cowings, 2006). Organizations generally define what they think is right and wrong for their employees by having a “code of conduct”; however, a person’s own morals will directly affect decisions they make regarding an ethical dilemma (Cowings, 2006). Discuss how organizational policies and procedures can impact ethics. Generally speaking, most companies have a “code of conduct” established for their employees. This code of conduct identifies the key behaviors expected of all employees...
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...Ethical Decision Making Paper Michael D. Love PSYCH 545 Sept 10th, 2012 Erica Wansel, Psy. D. Ethical Decision Making Paper Introduction The development of ethical reasoning abilities is very important for both living an ethical life and creating an ethical world. This paper will attempt to examine the foundations of ethical reasoning. It will also to introduce some intellectual tools that can be used to gain the skills necessary for reasoning through ethical issues and problems in an insightful manner. Education is considered the moral enterprise that supports our values, beliefs and cultural norms of our society. It is important in building the character of our society and the persons involved in this are not only diverse in nature but also possess greater significance in terms of deciding the overall contents of the education system of our nation. Within this context, ethics are therefore considered as one of the prime concerns for all the stakeholders. The following is an example of a possible ethical dilemma in the psychological academic arena. “As the result of a colleague’s sudden serious illness, a clinical psychologist is asked to teach a psychological course, which is definitely outside his area of expertise. The course begins in one week. The department chair recognizes that the psychologist is not competent in this area, but he is as qualified as anyone else in the department and is the only person whose schedule can accommodate the course...
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...know how to comply with the policies in place and follow outlined guidance when facing ethical dilemmas. With consistent ethical and moral confrontation, how should individuals in a company be groomed to respond to such issues? Jacob’s Ethical Dilemma After receiving praise and a monetary reward of $10,000 for work he did not complete on his own, Jacob is facing an ethical dilemma. Jacob and his colleague, Krystal, work for a small ad company in Topeka, Kansas. The five-year-old company is in need of a profit boost and sets out to score a government contract. Jacob’s personal struggle of an ill child prevents him from contributing fully to the project. Although, his colleague is responsible for the bulk of the work, Jacob is seen as the one responsible for the contract deal after delivering the presentation. The reward will certainly help with medical expenses, but Jacob realizes Krystal is more deserving of the reward than he is. By initially accepting the praise and recognition for a job well done, Jacob dismisses good ethics by using one of these rationales: 1.The behavior isn‘t really illegal or immoral. 2.The action is in everyone‘s best interests. 3.No one will find out what I‘ve done. 4.The company will condone my action and protect me (Exploring business, 2014). Jacob, realizing the issue, should examine his personal “code of ethics” and identify that he is facing an ethical dilemma. Although he is experiencing personal strife and...
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...An Ethical Dilemma An ethical dilemma is when somebody is faced with a situation that causes them to question how they should react and if they believe that their decision is right or wrong. In life, people are faced with ethical dilemmas on a daily basis. Many times, the situation can be so complex that people want to do the right thing, but do not always follow their instinct. It can be common to go along with what is unethical due to feelings of fear from the consequences that may arise. This can happen anywhere and at anytime. Ethical dilemmas are constantly arising especially with animal experimentation. Animal experimentation is a very popular and widely used method to develop new medicines and to test the safety of products. These experiments are conducted whether they cause pain to the animal or not. In addition to causing the animal pain, these experiments can greatly diminish their quality of life. Animal experimenters are to be made aware of this ethical problem, and are instructed to make the process as humane as possible. There are two opposing sides to this ethical dilemma. The first side would be that conducting these experiments can benefit human life. The second side argues that it causes suffering to animals, the benefits to human beings are not proven, and alternative testing could always be provided. Animal rights extremists believe that those that experiment on animals have zero moral standing. However, the argument is whether conducting these experiments...
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...can impact organizational ethics by the perception of the individuals in high management and the employees working in the organization. All individuals have their own interpretation of what the rules are and the ethical climate of the organization. This thought process was first explained by Lawrence Kohlberg which define these ethical decision making process as the Stages of Moral Development. Kohlberg’s model of moral development is useful for exploring questions about how members of an organization regard ethical dilemmas, including how they determine what is right or wrong in a particular situation (Hellriegel 2009). For example, an individual in the obedience and punishment orientation will perceive things differently than an individual in the social contract stage. If a person in the lowest stage feels that there is no risk of being caught, the individual will be more likely to engage in unethical behavior, if it benefits them, as evidenced by Lionel Waters of Wesson. Depending on the level of authority the individual has in their organization, the effects of higher management influence can be great or small. Mr. Waters are in higher management and his personal impact is greater because it affects the whole company. Valerie faced this major dilemma because of her personal belief, but also because of his level in management. She was not sure if there were others in management that knew what was going. 2. Discuss how organizational policies and procedures...
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...Personal Ethical Statement By being in the Air Force, I lived by our core values of "Integrity, Service before Self, and Excellent in all we do" (1997 ). I thought that by living my life to those standards was all that I need it to make good decisions. I was very surprised with the results of the ethical lens exercise. By doing the ethical lens exercise, I was able to know my preferred ethical lens, blind spots, strengths and weaknesses. According to the ethical lens inventory, my preferred ethical lens is the Rights/Responsibilities Lens. This lens identifies individual duties as well as their rights. The Rights/Responsibilities Lens looks at the reason for acting towards a situation and how clearly my duties can be defined(University of Phoenix, 2012). With the example Mark with the computer plagiarism, I felt that making sure that Mark is treated with respect and dignity was the most important action. Mark should have had the opportunity to explain what had occurred with allegation of plagiarism. Once completing the Rights/Responsibilities Lens section, I discovered that it was my responsibility to report the suspicion to the professor first. The Rights/Responsibilities lens makes an individual aware of their personal responsibilities and you have to think with your brain more than your heart. One of the blind spots that I have is that I tend to only look at ethical issues with only one lens, the Rights/Responsibilities Lens. I was not aware of the other...
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...While ethics can be said as a important part of the care, ethics is also be said as personal. Discerning the right and wrong when facing dilemmas can be the simplest way of describing the ethics. Ethics begin with the moral reasoning of the individual and as the moral reasoning of the individual can be formed by the individual's cultural, religious, social and educational values and backgrounds. So the ethics can be personal to each individual and it may not be possible to have different individuals share identical ethical values although similarities could be possible. Like many professions, nursing also have the code of ethics to assist the professionals to resolve the dilemmas and discern between the accepted and non accepted practises. The nursing profession, like many other professions, has its own code of ethics to help the nurses to determine the acceptable and non acceptable situations and actions, the rights and responsibilities that are approved by the nursing board and society. (Garrett, Baillie, McGeehan, & Garret, 2010). The protection of individual’s rights is well defined in the code of ethics while it also set forth a standard of care for the patients under the professional care of the nurses. In this essay, the writer is attempting to discuss the impacts of one’s personal, spiritual and cultural aspects on the ethical situations of the professional nursing practice. Personal, cultural, and spiritual principles and outlook of the world and nursing philosophy...
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...Ethical Decision Making Process: The Case Study of Gentry As counselors, we are responsible for promoting the mental, emotional and physical well-being of our clients. Sometime promoting the welfare of clients is not as simplistic and straightforward as it is in textbooks. There will be times when we, as counselors, face the challenge that is an ethical dilemma. When deciding how to manage these types of situations there are ethical, legal and moral considerations. The American Counseling Association has established the ethical guidelines for counselors. The legal obligations counselors must adhere to are established by the federal government and state legislation. Moral principles that counselors reflect upon are autonomy, nonmaleficence,...
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... Ethical Behavior In this chapter we look at the ethical behavior when it comes to business management. Ethics is defined as the code of moral principles that sets standards of good or bad, or right or wrong, in one’s conduct. You learn how ethical dilemmas complicate the workplace and how high ethical standards can be maintained. Social responsibilities and governance plays a part in ethical behavior as well. Ethical behavior is that which is accepted as “good” or “right” as opposed to “bad” or “wrong”. For the reason an action is not illegal does not necessarily make it ethical in a given situation. Values vary, so that brings up the question, “What is ethical behavior? Honestly it can be answered in many ways by different people for the reason of different values.Values help determine individuals behavior. Terminal values are preferences about desired ends, such as the goals one strives to achieve in life. Instrumental values are preferences regarding the means for accomplishing these ends. Among the instrumental values held important by managers are honesty, ambition,courage, imagination,and self discipline. The value pattern for any one person is very enduring, but terminal and instrumental values vary from one person to the next. This variation is a reason why people respond quite differently to situations and their ethical challenges. The utilitarian, individualism, moral-rights, and justice views offer alternative ways of thinking about ethical behavior...
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