Basic Ethics

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Basic Ethics
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Is it Ethical

• Hire a recent College Graduate and then tell them
  due to financial constraints that no longer
  needed?
• Monitor employees use on the internet?
• To tell/not tell food purchasers about the
  product other than basic ingredients in product
  labeling (GMO, How animals were raised,
  irradiated, etc).

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Ethics is concerned with these issues.

• Notice All of these are legal.
• Ethics goes beyond legal issues. Many of the
  cases in the book are legal issues. Clearly
  unethical. But ethics is much more than
  corporate wrong doing.
• Individual ethical decision making and corporate
  wrong doing are related but very different
  issues.
• Whistleblowing. What do you do when others are
  doing immoral things with corporate misconduct?

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Ethics

• A set of moral principles or values.
• Book suggests its has a relative or personal
  component.
• Ethics also has culturally appropriate absolute
  or widely shared values.

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• My values may be different than your values. I
  may value community more than personal freedom.
• Both are concerned about ethics but sometimes
  very different kinds of ethical issues will be
  important to them.

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examples

• Internet usage
• Ethical to buy drugs from Canada?
• Firms using child labor overseas where legal in
  that country.

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P.94

• Ethics and decision making. We make choices. We
  have the choice to do things.
• As we will find out pressure and politics abounds
  in many organizations.
• Do you chose to make
• As leaders You make choices. Can do so
  considering financial issues alone, ethics alone,
  or both in combination.

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Example

• Case P. 109. What do you do?

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Discussion about Process

• What did you consider in making your choice.

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Decision Making Paradox

• Speed at which you make decisionless likely to
  consider ethical implications.
• As a manager often pressured to make decision
  quickly.
• How many people have had a supervisor promise or
  imply they would not do something and then do it
  anyhow?

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Managing time urgency is important

• It takes time to consider ethical implications.

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Decision Making process.

• Most should have had course on Decision Making.
  Tell me the steps to ideal decision making in
  your own words. Depending on book no less than
  five steps.

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Takes time to follow the process

• Ethical overlay.
• Gather the facts. Information and ethics are
  related. Hard to be ethical if going by hearsay
  from unreliable sources.

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What kinds of facts would you like to get
regarding Irwins Case.
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Define the ethical issues and stakeholdersCombine
steps 2 and 3

• Are there legal issues to consider?

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• Deontological concerns (doing the things right
  is the process fair, honest etc)
• Consequentialist concerns (making the right
  choice)
• Example with product recall problem.

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Stakeholders

• List of people directly or indirectly influenced
  by choice. Direct are easier to identify.
  Indirect is also important.
• Identify concerns issues. Each may have and
  develop sympathy/empathy for those concerns.
• Even ones for whom you have little concern.
  Bucky Wolford and the mall.
• Very important for any ethical issue.

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• Other examples already raised.
• Hire a recent College Graduate and then tell them
  due to financial constraints that no longer
  needed?
• Monitor employees use on the internet?
• To tell/not tell food purchasers about the
  product other than basic ingredients in product
  labeling (GMO, How animals were raised,
  irradiated, etc).

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To me this is most important step in ethical
decision making.

• Firm bottom line is it. Anything that makes
  money is OK.
• Vs This choice influences many people.
• It may harm some of those people.

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Identify the consequences of different
alternatives

• Which stakeholders would likely be harmed by
  different alternatives.
• Linked to alternatives.
• Think what would others say if what I did got to
  be publicly known?
• Think long vs short term consequences
• Symbolic consequences
• Secrecy

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Identify Obligations

• What types of commitments have been made/implied
  to different stakeholders.
• Implied is very difficultbut Need to be careful.

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Consider your Character/Integrity

• Tough choices. Purist vs practical
• Is this an issue that is significant enough to
  influence your reputation, credibility, etc.
• If so then its very important that ethics be
  considered.
• If not, reputation is not important to you or
  something not relevant to reputation.

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The real Rub

• Think creatively to find a win-win solution to
  manage the needs of different stakeholders. This
  is the hardest part.
• If not, win win then think would you be
  embarrassed if the choice became public
  knowledge? Would others disapprove of it.

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Choices

• Some fast decision can be ethical
• However, the process takes time. Likely to
  compromise ethics to solve some tangible problem.
• Thus, choices. Lazy people are more prone to
  being unethical. In many cases You can get by.
  But what is your overall reputation? Will your
  leadership effectiveness by compromised?

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At this point Ethical Extremes

• Dont care about ethics. Dont believe it
  matters. Its all about money and success. As
  long as its legal and makes money anything I do
  is OK.
• Effective Leaders by definition have to be
  ethical.

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The course will influence you differently
Depending on your attitudes towards these
extremes.
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Book Assumes you have want to link Effective
Leadership
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Book offers advice in dealing with ethical
dilemmas

• Be prepared.
• Look at company code of ethics
• Corporate values towards ethics
• In practice, what are managerial values of
  others. What have others done in the past? Is
  there a standard practice. Ask questions.
• Do the practices differ from what you feel you
  need to do at a gut level (does it seem wrong to
  you).

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Snap decisions

• Internal warning systemheed the call.
• Ask for time
• Are their policies?
• Solicit advice
• Would you be embarrassed choice became public
  (New York Times Test).

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Lets go through the case again

• Follow the decision making process.
• How does this inform our choices.
• I expect you to apply this in every case.
• Identify stakeholders. Which stakeholders are at
  risk with different alternatives.
• Is there a win-win scenario.
• How do I soften negative consequences if I must
  choose one stakeholder over another.

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Summary

• What did you learn about Ethics and decision
  making. What are your take home points? Lets
  develop a list.
• Partially for me and partially for you.
• What is vague or unclear?