Management

Your assignment # 2 relates to an “Ethical Consideration” from chapter 3 ” Decision Making, Problem Solving and Ethics” by Mosley, Pietri and Mosley, designed to reinforce the learning objectives of the course, and in conjunction with the final exam will provide a measure of your material’s knowledge and critical thinking skills.
Your question analysis and preparation will require for you to complete the reading for Chapter 3

* Answer the following: Explain the role of ethics in the supervisor’s decision making process and ethical organizations.

* Your answer must be written in an APA Style of Writing, no less than 3 full pages of written content.With multiple academic resources and citations to support the writing content.

ANSWER

Explain the Role of Ethics in the Supervisor’s Decision Making Process and Ethical Organizations.

Introduction

Ethics are the standards of right and wrong used to prescribe what humans ought to do in terms of obligations and rights (Gutterman, 2020). The sets of moral principles are used to guide an individual’s behavior. Ethical supervisors are considered a bridge between the employees, clients, and the company. Companies have ethical responsibilities that go beyond obeying laws, ensuring profitability, and enforcing the company’s policies. This paper will focus on the role of ethics in the supervisor’s decision-making process and the development of an ethical organization. Supervisors have the role of maintaining moral principles concerning their activities and choices.

Ethics are considered moral principles that guide an individual’s behavior (Ferrell and Fraedrich, 2021). Cultural practices and social norms shape these moral principles. Therefore, ethical decision-making is the process of examining the moral implications for every course of action. The leaders of an organization have a duty to uphold high ethical behavior and conduct standards. Uphold high levels of ethical conduct involves linking ethical behavior with the ability of the leader to make sound and ethical decisions. Ethical principles applied within an organization facilitate the corporate and individual priorities beyond enrichment of shareholders and profit. Ethics tend to impact the leaders to make effective decisions and protect the organization from unethical behaviors.

Ethics should be the backbone of every decision made on a personal level by supervisors. Ethical individuals act with integrity and make choices that are consistent values. Ethical people can inspire trust in others and be trusted and relied on when making the right choices (Melé, 2019). Supervisors have a high level of moral development and play fair in making decisions. Ideally, decisions made by the supervisor affect the employees and the organization. In such a case, supervisors must settle on moral options that put employees and key stakeholders in the frontline. Ethics in the decision-making process sustain and generate trust demonstrate responsibility, respect, caring, and fairness. These conducts offer a foundation for making better decisions through setting ground rules of behavior. Ethical decision-making is essential in building the trust necessary for supervisors to motivate the success of an organization.

Supervisors rely on the principles of justice, rights, care, and utility to make ethical decisions. Supervisors have to eliminate and perceive unethical alternatives and choose the most ethical option. Supervisors rely on the principles of justice, rights, care, and utility to make ethical decisions. Supervisors must eliminate and perceive unethical options and select the most ethical alternative. Some of the ethical principles that supervisors have to consider include universalism, utilitarianism, justice, rights, virtue, ethical relativism, and common good approaches.

The utilitarianism approach focuses on being morally right to produce the greatest good (Constantinescu and Kaptein, 2020). The actions of the supervisors have to be morally right, considering the net benefits over the costs. Universalism considers the risks and welfare of all parties when considering outcomes and policy decisions. The supervisors have to take in human beings, their values, and their needs. The principle of rights is based on moral and legal rights. Therefore, supervisors have to get a sense of individual rights in the workplace.

Justice is served when all individuals have benefits and opportunities. Therefore, to be ethical, supervisors have to practice fair decisions and ensure that the decision will have equal advantages and opportunities. Virtue ethics are based on practical wisdom, truthfulness, well-being, and happiness (Sison et al., 2018). Supervisors have to ensure that their decisions make employees feel good and happy. The universalism principle considers the risks and welfare of all parties considering the outcomes. The needs of individuals who are part of the decision should be identified, and the choices have to protect their welfare.

Supervisors should be concerned about others both outside and inside of the organization. Supervisors not only follow laws but also adhere to the ethical codes of practices that are developed by society and the organization. They have a personal set of ethical principles used to control their actions. The individual set of ethical principles are values that supervisors consider in everything they do. The principles of personal ethics include autonomy of others, beneficence, justice, and honesty. They need to respect and have concern for the autonomy of others.

Autonomy addresses the concept of independence that supervisors must consider when making rational and sound decisions. Non-maleficence is the concept of not causing harm to others. When making decisions, supervisors have to ensure that they do not cause unintentional harm or engage in actions that cause risk or harm to others. Beneficence focuses on benefiting others and supporting several moral rules that defend the rights of others (Robinson, 2019). The ethical principle of justice and fairness is interpreted as equitable and fair actions by the supervisors in decision-making. They have to be honest and willing to comply with the law in their decision-making process.

In summation, ethics play a great role in the supervisor’s decision-making and development of the ethical organization. Ethical leadership should be at the forefront of the organization to guide leaders on upholding ethical vale and communicating ethics and values within the organization. Supervisors have to take responsibility for the code of ethics to make effective decisions. It’s important to seek resources such as organizational policies and guidelines to rule out unethical decisions.

References

Constantinescu, M., & Kaptein, M. (2020). Ethics management and ethical management: Mapping criteria and interventions to support responsible management practice. In Research handbook of responsible management. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Ferrell, O. C., & Fraedrich, J. (2021). Business ethics: Ethical decision making and cases. Cengage learning.

Gutterman, A. (2020). Ethical Management. Available at SSRN 3833970.

Melé, D. (2019). Business Ethics in Action: Managing Human Excellence in Organizations. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Robinson, R. M. (2019). Relations of Virtue. In Imperfect Duties of Management (pp. 65-88). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Sison, A. J. G., Ferrero, I., & Guitián, G. (Eds.). (2018). Business ethics: A virtue ethics and common good approach. Routledge.