The moral and ethical issues faced by managers

Ethics is all about rules that dictate human behavior and social interaction (Chryssides & Kaler, 1993) Ethics in any business is very important due to the advance in technologies and therefore increase in competition from other similar organizations. For a give business organization to be ethically valued in the society, it must comply with these principles and stand at a better position in handling the stiff completion. Business organizations may opt to employ any means to increase says without considering the impact on the consumer of the product. They may use promotional adaptations where the details of the product are not revealed and hence the customer may end up defrauded. Managers must ensure that a business organization is ethically approved in the society and does not earn itself a bad reputation. Business ethics should satisfy three parties in the organization; customers, employees and the employer (Aqbata, 2009). Managers ought to ensure that each party is satisfied when an organization administers these principles. They should ensure these values are satisfied within the organization, between the employer and employees and between the employees. Ethical issues that managers should address include discrimination of the employees, giving out the customer’s details by the organization to the third party without the consent of the customer in the written form, and customers’ details can be changed at any time by the company wherever the customer feels so. We sometimes violate the ethics without notice since they have become a habit. For instance, a doctor may give out the patient’s information to a third party which is a major violation of ethics by professionals. Managers should ensure that the contents used to market products should not violate the ethics. Employees in a company hold different ideologies and cultures and these should be managed well to see a good working environment. Managers should strive to maintain ethics in an organization, to the customers and to the public and devise means to avoid these ethical issues (Aqbata, 2009). According to Chryssides & Kaler (1993), practices that are not morally right may be bad for any business. However, an action viewed in business perspective may differ from the one viewed in a moral perspective because of the impact they may have on the business. Sometimes lying, fraud, deception and theft may add economic value the business. Managers need to ensue that a business is run in accordance with the moral norms if at all the moral actions are meant for common good. There should be respect for each other, respect for truth and respect for cooperation and helpfulness in any business organization. Different communities hold on different moral practices and therefore there is no moral practice that is more important than the other. A business must have its code of moral ethics stipulating what it terms as immoral and what is morally accepted.

Explain how the relationship between social issues and ethically responsible management practices relates to your topic.

Ethically responsible management is a practice that leads to realization of better returns by any business and therefore it must be addressed with greater seriousness by the managers. Ethical behavior means doing something because it is the right thing to do and would be beneficial to the business organization (More & Wesley, 2003). However, reliable indicators are needed to measure the performance of a business in the non-financial areas and lead to the realization of business success. The relationship between good financial performance and the indicators of corporate responsibility is positive but not definitive (More & Wesley, 2003). Verschoor’s research work has shown that companies that adhere to the set ethics realize better returns than those that do no observe any ethics. A study conducted by the institute of business ethics was carried out to find out if ethical observation in a business affects the overall performance of the business organization. The institute used accessible code of ethics to draw a relationship between ethical adherence and business financial performance over a period of four years. The result indicated that returns of the companies that had established code of ethics were much better than those that had no ethics to guide them. It was also established that the economic added value for the companies that used code of ethics was more than for those companies that relied on no code of ethics. Companies with code of ethics were more secure in that they experienced less volatility than those that did not have any codes of ethics to guide them. This attracts capital below the cost which is a good indicator of consistent management and therefore a business can be assured of longer period of service. Those companies that are committed to conducting business ethically have much higher turnover than their counterparts that did not use any code of ethics. It is clear than business organizations that adhere to their code of ethics do much better than those that do have (More & Wesley, 2003). Having code of ethics in a company is the begging of ensuring a well managed company or any business institution. Managers must therefore ensure business organizations have code of ethics and all social issues affecting the business are accorded the priority it deserves.

3. Provide a workplace example of an ethical dilemma related to your topic. What legal aspects did management face during this dilemma? What legalities governed or should have governed the decision?

Last year as John was working for TechBiz Company as a systems administrator, he used to have a lot of free time because responsibilities were not too many. He developed an excellent small website of a particular business in town using the Company’s computer in my office. It was very nice that everyone who came across it admired it because of the nice interface and the functionalities a user could accomplish with it. His friend Maxwell advised him sell the website without the notice of his employer Company because it would bring him a lot of cash within a very short period of time. It was an excellent opportunity to make a kill but he had developed it using the Company’s computer and he made it at the time he was supposed be working. It was a real dilemma that left John confused the next move to take. Every business organization must ensure that there are fair trading practices within the organization (morebusiness.com, 2007). This helps to curb deceptive practices in the organization and prevent economic injury to the business when employees engage themselves into practices that do not add value to the organization. Fair trading entails using of the company’s asset without its knowledge or its benefit. The company must stick to moral and ethical code of practices to see these practices are dealt with to prevent the business from sinking. It is important that all business organization with the goal of long-term profit making must have a stipulated code of ethics that guide the employees, customers and the employers in terms of their behavior towards the organization. All employees need to get well versed with these Companies’s code of ethics and comply accordingly to avoid unnecessary conflicts in the work place. The decision that John could have adopted is a bit hard to arrive at because for one, what he was doing ethically and morally wrong. He was doing his own business while the company was running at a loss because of the stolen time and resources. John could have read what the Company’s code of ethics states before embarking on his mission of designing the website. The code of ethics for any Company states clearly what one is supposed to do and when and what not to do within the Company’s premises.