...Values and Ethical Decision Making Learning Team A Kevin Davis, Desmond Harris, David Stevens MGT 521 January 30, 2010 Richard Lewis Values and Ethical Decision Making Individuals and organizations make multiple decisions every day. Making decisions involves making a choice between two or more alternatives (Nickels, McHugh, & McHugh, 2010). Some of these choices are small, like what flavor of ice cream to buy, whereas other choices are big, like should a corporate executive take a bribe. Making ethical decisions is important for an organization’s success. An individual’s personal values and ethics help guide decision making. Organizational values also play a role in making decisions. Ethics awareness inventories help identify a person’s ethical perspective and how that perspective may conflict with organizational values to influence decisions. Values Evaluating personal values Norfolk Southern values can be evaluated through the individual actions, accomplishments, and achievements that have institutionalized the company’s commitment and many years of service. The personal leadership at Norfolk Southern developed the company’s long-term strategic formula for success in the railroad industry. The personal values of Norfolk Southern leaders, like former Chief Executive Officer David R. Goode, developed the company’s mission and vision and helped build a top company within the industry. Mr. Goode’s personal actions throughout countless situations helped guide the...
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...Values and Ethical Decision Making MGT/521 September 10, 2012 Value Systems and Ethical Decision Making Ethical systems combine different values, morals, and principals. Values are character traits that define individual behavior. Morals are the ideals that separate right from wrong. Principals are ideals that put values and morals into action. Together each of these components influences decisions on a business and personal level. Companies use codes of ethics to dictate employee behavior when dealing with customers, vendors, investors, and coworkers. Codes of ethics incorporate characteristics of individual value systems, including honesty, integrity, trust, and fairness. The four-step process that governs ethical behavior includes character, obligation, results, and equity; these four traits also known as CORE. The Williams Institute Ethics Awareness Inventory provides insight into individual value systems. An analysis of each individual value system provides confirmation that personal values are often the foundation for establishing organizational values. A clear understanding of these values makes ethical reasoning more effective. During the hiring process personal perspectives and preferences often go unchecked. A balanced approach is necessary when seeking to fill a vacant position. Although an individual’s ethical perspective weighs heavily to one of the four traits, evaluation of the remaining three perspectives is mandatory when making a decision...
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...Values differ greatly across generations, cultures, genders, personalities, and many other factors (Robbins and Judge, 2010). Yet, Robbins and Judge stated, a person’s “[v]alues represent basic convictions that “a specific mode of conduct or endstate of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence” (p. 145). In fact, values are the foundation of a person’s understanding of the attitudes’ and motivation’s of others insomuch that his or her perceptions are influenced by the values he or she has (Robbins and Judge, 2011). Each person within an organization brings his or her own values to the organization, which contains individual interpretations of what is right and wrong implying a preference for certain behaviors and outcomes thereby influencing the attitudes and behaviors of an organization (Robbins and Judge, 2011). As noted by Yukl (2010), “[i]nfluence is the essence of leadership, and powerful leaders can have a substantial impact on the lives of followers and the fate of an organization” (p. 408). The personal values and ethics of the leaders of an organization often drive the values and ethical behavior of that organization (Yukl, 2010). Thus, it is paramount the values of organizational leaders are consistent and in line with the values of their organization (Yukl, 2010). Alignment of Personal and Organizational Values Our team researched and evaluated the organizational values and ethics of...
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...Personal Values, Organizational values, and Ethical Decision Making Steven R. Oldham MGT/521 September 17, 2012 Thane Messinger Personal Values, Organizational values, and Ethical Decision Making Based on the results of my Williams Institute of Ethics Awareness Inventory Assessment, my own values, ethics and many years of experience in management it is my belief that all organizations should uphold the maximum standards of ethics. Business integrity should have zero tolerance for any form of corruption, extortion, or embezzlement. The highest standards of integrity are expected in all business dealings. Any form of unethical conduct has no place in a respectable and honorable organization. Any member of an organization should be instantaneously dismissed from the organization and legal action should be ajudiacated. However, I discovered this is not always the case, as I researched some unethical business dealings. In the case against KBR on human trafficking charges, K KBR: Corruption Within America’s Biggest Construction Company Formerly known as Kellogg Brown & Root, KBR is the largest non-union construction company in the United States with a history that can be found from over a century ago. Many companies are viewed as being corrupt, with greed being one of the major preceding issues resulting in this corruption; KBR is not an exception. One would think that with so many major politicians being connected to the companies, KBR would try to refrain from scandals...
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...Personal Values Decision-making based on what’s “right” and what’s “wrong” is something that people have to do every day. It could be something minor, like deciding whether or not to help your elderly neighbor unload the groceries from their car, or it could be something major like deciding whether or not an employee needs to be let go from the company. However, when the subject of ethics comes up it can seem very complicated due to the considerable differences of opinion based on what makes up ethical behavior and how ethical decisions should be made. Ethical decisions could also be more than just “right” or “wrong” because it’s based so much on what people believe, leaving some people to remain “value-neutral.” The Williams Institute Ethics Awareness Inventory Self-Assessment The Williams Institute Ethics Awareness Inventory Self-Assessment (EAI) examines who will be affected by one’s decision making based off three components – Awareness, Articulation, and Application. Awareness is the ethical perspectives that serve as the basis for making good ethical choices; Articulation is your ability to explain the principles that underlie your position; Application uses your understanding of ethical decision making to put principles into action as you approach ethical choices every day (Ethics Awareness Inventory). The EAI uses a scoring summary based off four ethical perspectives; Character, Obligation, Results and Equity (CORE). The EAI instrument provided by the University...
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...Ethical Self Assessment Abstract * As Health care executives in this globally diverse world where cultural beliefs blends with societal ethics can one truly define ethics? What might be right to one person may not be right to another person. Ethics is one of the most important topics that should be addressed not just in this industry but in every aspects of the business world. But a major challenge with ethics is that it is a very relative term. After completing the American College of Healthcare Executives Ethical Self Assessment, the author found answers to questions included in this paper. Such this paper will address what I learn about my own ethical decision making from the self-assessments. The effect of professional ACHE standards to my ethical decision making will be discussed in this paper. How my individual ethics influence my decision making will be enumerated in this paper. Finally the strategies that I can adopt to improve my ethical decision making in the future will be enumerated in this paper. Ethical Self Assessment Paper As Hermans and Oles (1994) states, “The human person not only lives in a world of values but also is able to create values on a personal perspective” (p. 569). Value to me simply describes an individual or cultural belief system an individual may have. Values are viewed as objects or ideals important to an individual, called personal, or group of individuals, culture, or family. A personal value thus refers to an individual’s belief...
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...IDEA : 1 Ethical DecisionMaking Framework Guide & Worksheets 1 The IDEA: Ethical Decision-Making Framework builds upon the Toronto Central Community Care Access Centre Community Ethics Toolkit (2008), which was based on the work of Jonsen, Seigler, & Winslade (2002); the work of the Core Curriculum Working Group at the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics; and incorporates aspects of the accountability for reasonableness framework developed by Daniels and Sabin (2002) and adapted by Gibson, Martin, & Singer (2005). Introduction Ethics is about making “right” or “good” choices and the reasons that we give for our choices and actions. Ethics promotes reflective practice in the delivery of health care. Ethics addresses the question “What should we do and why?” Another way to describe ethics is as follows. It is about: • Deciding what we should do – what decisions are morally right or acceptable; • Explaining why we should do it – justifying our decision using language of values and principles; and • Describing how we should do it – outlining an appropriate process for enacting the decision. 2 Ethical issues arise every day in health care (See Appendix A). Everyone has a role to play in ensuring the ethical delivery of care, from bedside to boardroom. Trillium Health Centre is committed to providing quality compassionate care to the community it serves. Ethical principles and values are incorporated into the way that decisions are made and care is delivered...
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...Ethical Leadership •What are the components of a comprehensive framework for ethical decision making in business? Ethical Issue Intensity Business Ethics Ethical or Individual Factors Evaluations and Unethical Organizational factors Intentions Behavior Opportunity Ethical-Issue Intensity The first step in ethical decision making is to recognize that an ethical issue requires an individual or work group to choose among several actions that various stakeholders inside or outside the firm will ultimately evaluate as right or wrong. The intensity of an ethical issue relates to its perceived importance to the decision maker. Ethical issue intensity, then, can be defined as the relevance or importance of an ethical issue in the eyes of the individual, work group, and/or organization. It is personal and temporal in character to accommodate values, beliefs, needs, perceptions, the special characteristics of the situation, and the personal pressures prevailing at a particular place and time. Senior employees and those with administrative authority contribute significantly to intensity because they typically dictate an organization’s stance on ethical issues. In fact, under current law, managers can be held liable for the unethical and illegal Moral intensity relates to a person’s perception...
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...Values and Ethical Decision Making MGT/521 July 22, 2012 Week Three Abdelmagead Elbiali Values and Ethical Decision Making Ethical decision-making involves considerations about our deepest values and commitments. It allows us to think about our relations to others and what we owe to them. While ethical decisions are often our highest priority, in the real world, they often have to be balanced against other concerns. For example, business concerns involve generating a profit and maximizing individual or corporate gain. One of the biggest problems for modern businesses is how to balance ethical goals with business goals. Should a company like Verizon work with Chinese companies in securing corporate goals? Chinese finds acceptable certain practices that American culture shuns, such as child labor. By working with these Chinese companies, Verizon can secure goods more cheaply and maximize corporate profit, but on the other hand, ethical principles would be violated. As individuals, we must simultaneously make ethical and business decisions. Resourceful thinking, we can formulate goals that share a considerable overlap with the goals of business and ethics. * Tina’s Decision-making Process * Based on the outcome of the Ethics Awareness Inventory, what is the most...
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...Read Me First HCS/335 Week One Introduction ETHICAL THEORIES AND PRINCIPLES GUIDE PROBLEM SOLVING, BUT THE DEFINITION OF ETHICS VARIES AMONG DIFFERENT INDIVIDUALS AND DOES NOT ALWAYS CORRELATE WITH THE LAW. Ethical principles of autonomy, nonmalfeasance, beneficence, and justice form the framework for solid ethical decision-making. For this reason, remember the basics as you make health care decisions. Do this by asking: Who decides? Who will it harm? Who will it help? Is it fair? These questions will keep you focused to make value-based decisions. SIMILARLY, ETHICAL THEORIES PROVIDE YOU WITH TOOLS TO APPLY TO SPECIFIC ETHICAL DILEMMAS. THE UTILITARIAN THEORY WILL LOOK AT WHAT WILL DO THE MOST GOOD FOR THE MOST PEOPLE, WHEREAS THE VIRTUE-BASED THEORY FOCUSES ON THE MORAL THING TO DO. THE DEONTOLOGICAL THEORY FOCUSES ON THE ETHICAL DUTY, WHEREAS THE TELEOLOGICAL THEORY FOCUSES ON THE CONSEQUENCES OF ONE’S ACTIONS. KEEP THESE THEORIES IN MIND AS YOU MAKE DECISIONS IN YOUR LIVES. LET ETHICAL PRINCIPLES SERVE AS A FOUNDATION FOR YOUR HEALTH CARE DECISION-MAKING. This week in relationship to the course and the program THIS WEEK, THE FRAMEWORK OF ETHICS IS ESTABLISHED BY EXPLORING THE BASIC CONCEPTS YOU NEED TO GUIDE YOU THROUGH THE COURSE. YOU ARE PROVIDED WITH AN OVERVIEW OF ETHICAL THEORIES, PRINCIPLES, AND CONCEPTS. THESE SERVE AS AN IMPORTANT FOUNDATION FOR THE ETHICAL ISSUES WE WILL DISCUSS THROUGHOUT THE COURSE. IN THE NEXT FEW WEEKS, WE WILL EXPAND OUR...
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...Ethical Self-Assessment Paper Name HCS 545 Due Date Instructors Name Abstract Ethics are paramount to the healthcare management field, and the American College of Healthcare Executives has undertaken a number of initiatives to demonstrate the organization's commitment to ethics and support its members in making ethical decisions. (ACHE, 2013). This paper will examine the influence of individual ethics on decision making within the health care industry. It will discuss what the self-assessment taught me about my own ethical decision making, the effect of professional ACHE standards on my own ethical decision making, how individual ethics influence my decision making, and what strategies I can adopt to improve my ethical decision making in the future. Self-assessment Results The American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) offers a self-assessment in which you examine yourself enabling you to learn more about yourself. The self-assessment is not a scoring assessment and therefor requires each individual to recognize the areas in which they have strong ethics, and areas that may need improvement. Any questions answered with “always” identified an area of potential weakness where ethics could be compromised. The self-assessment enabled me to see my strengths and weaknesses so that I could identify the areas in need of improvement. ACHE Standards ACHE standards have been established to help educate healthcare professionals regarding ethical decision making....
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...ETHICAL DECISION MAKING AND MORAL BEHAVIOR | | Related Links WebNote Index Leadership Overview Decision Making Values Contact information: Dr. Richard W. Scholl 36 Upper College Road Kingston, RI 02881 p. 401.874.4347 f. 401.874.2954 rscholl@uri.edu Much of the recent interest in ethics and moral behavior in business comes from Enron and Worldcom, as scholars, educators, practitioners, and the public seek to understand the behavior of executives in these firms. Many have chosen to view these cases from the perspective of ethics, that is, the behavior of these executives is seen as unethical and the explanation is that they are unethical or immoral people. Furthermore, the solution is improved moral education in business programs. “Somehow, we need to make future executives more moral or more ethical” and we can do this in the context of an undergraduate business program or MBA degree program. Some have even suggested that today’s business programs not only do not facilitate the “moral development” of students, but students leave these programs “less moral” than they were when they entered the programs. Here a couple of points to consider: What is Ethical or Moral? What do we mean by ethical decision making? Are there decisions that are not ethical in that there is not ethical component to a choice? In their review of ethical decision making, Tenbruensel and Smith-Crowe (2008) present a distinction between moral decision making and amoral decision making. Within...
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...Personal Values and Ethical Standards Nanette Chambers BSHS/332 April 30, 2012 Theresa Y. Edwards Personal Values and Ethical Standards In the business of substance abuse counseling is not easy. Counselors deal with putting people’s lives back together so that they may enter back into a productive world. However, before this takes place in understanding the development behavior in why it has come to this and how ethical principles can help others to turn their lives around in a positive way. Focusing on what is right or wrong is not the issue; it is about putting life in perspective. In using the ethical way in developing a way in teaching clients to incorporate these ethics in their everyday lives to be free and stay free from mind altering chemicals for the rest of their lives. I am in a position as a counselor to engage in the ethical manner that I must abbey by as well in making sure that the clients adhere as well while participating in the program. There are factors that play a part in substance abuse counseling field. Not only teaching to stay sober but also learning a new way of living without drugs and alcohol. The personal values that I have tried to instill in my life I try to pass it along to the clients who I see in everyday life are values taught and carried down as a child growing up. This has made me the woman that I am today in despite of the past. Values I have learned to value in my personal life that has meaning to the person I am....
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...based on ethical values, has forced business leaders to measure their decisions and actions against an ethical yardstick before taking them. This, combined with increased stress on values and principles, has made it more important for people like you and me to ensure that we make ethical decisions when faced with ethical dilemmas. Having knowledge of ethics is a pre-requisite for understanding ethical dilemmas. I make sure that I understand my company’s code of ethics and emphasis given by the company on ethical values. For this, I make it a point to sift through the document every three months. Ethical dilemma is a situation in which a person has to choose between two alternatives based on different values held dear by that person. There are different approaches to deal with ethical dilemmas: “Utilitarian”, “Deontological” and “Virtue ethics”. I value morals and principles more than consequences and thus, I adopt a deontological approach to ensure that I engage in ethical decision-making. However, having said that, I also take a holistic perspective to understand the effect of my decision on all the people involved. Deontologists always place values before consequences even if they are good. My life has been governed by values such as accountability, honesty, respect, and trust. Naturally, I consider these values more than others when faced with ethical decisions. Understanding that a particular situation classifies as an ethical conundrum and demands “ethical introspection”...
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...essay will examine and analyze whether hiring ethical people is the key factor in encouraging and producing an ethical organization. Ethics refer to the moral standards set that enables an individual to tell what is right from wrong and what is good and bad. In today’s organizations, the importance of the code of ethics is more prevalent than ever. Code of ethics consists of various factors such as being honest, building trust, and upholding the ethical standards. Organizations that exercise ethical codes not only feel that it is a way to portray a positive image to the stakeholders, but also because it highlights its own organizational virtues and values. It is believed that such culture could cultivate and encourage more ethical behavior for the employees in the organization (Stevens, 2008).Code of ethics are also used to articulate the restrictions for the organization, and to set a benchmark of what is acceptable and unacceptable, boosting responsibility, and conveying the standard expectations demanded from the employees as well as the leaders in the organization (Stevens, 2008).The ethical codes can be described as an effective tool to promote ethical behavior in the organization(Stevens, 2008).However, researchers have came up with reports that hints that the practice of ethical codes are unproductive and they have failed to create an impact in an employee’s behavior(Stevens, 2008). One of the studies suggested that ethical codes are not suitable and were ineffective especially...
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