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Ethical Issues in Management

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Ethical Issues in Management
Jerome Brown
University of Phoenix
Business Ethics and Social Responsibility
MGT/216
Robert Gabriel
July 06, 2010

Ethical Issues in Management Performance evaluations are a very important part of a manager’s functions, which measures an employee’s results to determine if they are in line with group, department, and organizational goals. However like most managements functions hiring, firing etc. ethics can play a role in the decision making process though sometimes harder to recognize. The moral and social issues can affect a manager’s ability to make sound decisions whether arrived at through corporate policies or personal choice. The first type could rely mostly on the duty-based theory of ethics and the latter possibly on virtue based theory or any combination ethical theories. The goals of all ethic theories are do the right thing for people, and in the given situation what is best for all concerned. The ethical and morals issues that manager’s face most often involve dealing with people including themselves. It can be a conflict of interest, such as, a personal sense of ethics is contrary to achieving a company goal, or reacting unethically (usually due to stress) to achieve a company goal. As to performance evaluations, holding themselves to remaining fair and unbiased is probably the most difficult part of being a manager. Although there are generally rules, policies and guidelines as to perform this task, often personalities (personal views) can become a part of the decision process. Remaining professional at all times is the desired ideal; however, all people have some sort of bias or another, and maybe several. What is incumbent upon the manager is that they find away to put them aside, and make the decision based on the fair evaluation of the performance of an employee... Where ethics matter most here, is where

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