Ethical Decision Making (Research Paper Sample)

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Ethical Decision Making
Ethical Decision Making refers to an analysis and the consequent action on an issue causing moral dilemma with regard to individual and cultural values. It also refers to the process of making choices that are beneficial to all parties involved. Quite often, people choose to do what is ethical as opposed to legal. However, some ethical decisions can lead to legal action according to an organization’s legal policy CITATION Arc91 \l 1033 (Carroll). Within organizations and societies, sanctions are often imposed on people who fail to observe ethical standards; the respective laws may dictate the penalty for those found guilty of unethical behaviors. Almost all unethical behaviors are illegal CITATION OFa05 \l 1033 (O’Fallon and Butterfield).
Recent interest in moral behavior and ethics in business mostly comes from attempts by scholars, practitioners and educators, and the public to determine what influences the behavior of executives. Many people choose to view these behavior cases from the viewpoint of ethics; the behavior of the executives is viewed as unethical. They are usually dismissed as unethical or immoral people. In addition, the solution is superior moral education in trade and other business programs. There are suggestions from some quarters that today’s business programs do not facilitate students’ moral development of students and sometimes leave make students less moral than they enrolled for the programs CITATION OFa05 \l 1033 (O’Fallon and Butterfield).
There is a difference between moral decision making and amoral decision making CITATION Arc91 \l 1033 (Carroll). People can act both ethically and unethically. Most people argue that the social scientist should not decide what people should do with regard to ethical or unethical behavior CITATION OFa05 \l 1033 (O’Fallon and Butterfield). However, they generally acknowledge the significance of identifying criteria by which decisions are made. It is hard to define ethical behavior; there are many definitions, but most rely on using some standard of ethical actions from which individual’s behavior can be judged CITATION Sco93 \l 1033 (Vitell, Nwachukwu and Barnes). All standards are subjective and cultural in nature; they are also subject to intensive debate.
Moral behavior refers to acts aimed at producing kind and/or fair outcomes; it is comparable to prosocial behavior. Most individuals can identify behavior as ethical if goal identification is the source of motivation, that is, behavior can be labeled moral if it leads to positive outcome for others. Moral motivation is founded on empathy, moral affiliations, and principles CITATION Sco93 \l 1033 (Vitell, Nwachukwu and Barnes). If people accept the notion that moral behavior has an element of helping others (as opposed to egoistic motives), then there is need to examine the relevant other. An ethical decision can be referred to as decision that is acceptable in society, both morally and legally CITATION OFa05 \l 1033 (O’Fallon and Butterfield). Consequently, this definition creates a social standard of behavior based on cultural, community or organizational standard as opposed to an absolute standard. This creates confusion on what stand to use when one standard is being used in over-lapping reference groups CITATION Arc91 \l 1033 (Carroll).
Personally, a functional conceptualization of ethics should create a distinction between legal and ethical behavior. These two are among the numerous social control mechanisms used to curb unwanted social behavior. Additionally, laws and ethical standards often coincide, supplement, strengthen and even conflict with one another.
In my final year in high school, the principal was involved in a cheating case that denied me the first position in my Midyear examinations. It involved a student named Ashton, a son of the school’s principal, the principal himself and a physics teacher who altered Ashton’s Physic’s grade. The Physics teacher was a close friend of the principal. The matter was known around the school’s premises and tainted a negative image of the administration. The principal defended the school policy feverishly, arguing that teaching was not allowed in the school. However, a...