Making decisions in business ethics Flashcards
What are descriptive ethical theories?
seek to describe how ethics decisions are actually made in business, and what influences the process and outcomes of those decisions.
What is an ethical decision?
- the process of evaluating and choosing among alternatives business decisions in a manner consistent with ethical principles.
What are the main factors in deciding the moral status of a situation? (3 things)
- Decision likely to have a significant effect on others
- Decisions likely to be characterised by choice, in that there are alternatives
- decision is perceived as ethically relevant by one or more parties
What is the ethical decision making process? and what is its relationship with normative theory?
- Recognise moral issues
- Make moral judgement
- Establish moral intent to act
- Engage in moral behaviour
normative theory primarily relates to “make moral judgement” as it can be made to consideration of rights, duty, consequences.
What factors influence whether any normative theory is used by an individual? ( 2 types with 3 and two things underlined)
- Individual factors:
- birth (age, gender)= too simplistic
- national and cultural characteristics: different backgrounds, different values. (hosted 1980 mental programming.)
- acquired by experience and socialisation (education, personality, attitude) - Situational factors: particular features of the context
- authority
- bureaucracy
- culture
- moral intensity and framing
- work context
- the issue itself including
What are the limitations of ethical decision making models? (3 arguments)
- not straightforward or sensible to break model down into discrete units
- Various stages related or interdependent
- National or cultural bias
What are the international perspectives on ethical decision making?
- individual factors influence ethical decision making= strong US and Asian bias (focus on individual actors)
- situational factors originated by european authors. (focus on design of morally functioning institutions)
What is cognitive moral development (CMD)?
- the different levels of reasoning that can be applied to ethical issues and problems.
- it is an individuals locus of control that determines the extent to which they believe they have control of the events in their life
What are the stages of cognitive moral development?
- Obedience and punishment: right and wrong based on expected rewards and punishments from authority figure.
- Instrumental purpose and exchange: “you scratch my back i scratch yours”
- Interpersonal accord, conformity and mutual expectations: live up to what is expected of them from close peers
- Social accord and system maintenance: individuals consider expectations of others upon action
- Social contract and individual rights: assess right and wrong based on basic rights, values and contracts of society.
- Universal ethical principles: decisions made on self-chosen universal ethical principles
Distinguish between personal values, personal integrity and moral imagination?
Personal values: moral principles and standards of a person
personal integrity: defined as an adherence to moral principles or values
moral imagination: the creativity in reflecting on ethical dilemmas
What are the situational influences on moral decision making?
- Moral intensity and framing: the degree to which people see an issue as an ethical one and the degree to which it is perceived differently based on how the issue is framed (e.g. language)
- Systems of reward: ethics stands less chance of being repeated when it goes unnoticed and unrewarded.
- Authority and bureaucracy: people do what they are told or what they think they are being told to do. bureaucracy can surprise moral autonomy, distance and deny moral status.
- Work roles and organisational roles and cultures: what to value, how to behave, ways of talking, acting dressing or thinking.
- National and cultural context: look at the nation i which the decision is taking place and not the nationality of the individual
What are the number of rationalisation tactics, which justifies ethical decisions?
- Denial of responsibility “its none of my business”
- Denial of injury: “no one was really harmed”
- denial of victim: “they deserve it”
- Social weighting: “you have no right to criticise us” “others are worse than we are”
- Appeal to higher loyalties: “ we answer to a more important cause”
- Metaphor of the ledger: “its alright for me to use the internet for personal use at work, as i work over time”
What are the individual factors and their likely influence on ethical decision making? (4 different types)
- Moral imagination: A new issue for inclusion with considerable explanatory potential
- Personal Values: Significant influence – some empirical evidence citing positive relationship
- Locus of control: Limited effect on decision-making, but can be important in predicting the apportioning of blame/approbation
- Personal integrity: Significant influence likely, but lack of inclusion in models and empirical tests.
What is Whistleblowing?
Intentional acts by employees to expose, either internal or externally, perceived ethical or legal violations by their organizations
The bureaucratic dimension of organizations has been argued to have negative effects on ethical decision-making, what are these negative effects?
- suppression of moral autonomy;
- instrumental morality;
- distancing;
- denial of moral status
