Business Ethics CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER TWO
Ethical Decision Making: Personal

and Professional Contexts
Cont…
• It is very important to know who you
are. To make decisions. To show who
you are.
Malala Yousafzai
•
• Nearly all men can stand adversity,
but if you want to test a man’s
character, give him power.
• Abraham Lincoln
Cont….
• After reading this chapter, you will be
able to:
• Describe a process for ethically
responsible decision making.
• Apply this model to ethical decision
points.
• Explain the reasons why “good” people
might engage in unethical behavior.
• Explore the impact of managerial roles
on the nature of our decision making
A Decision-Making Process for Ethics
• The first step in making decisions that are ethically
responsible is to:
• determine the facts of the situation. Making an
honest effort to understand the situation, to
distinguish facts from mere opinion, is essential.
• Perceptual differences surrounding how
individuals experience and understand situations
can explain many ethical disagreements.
Cont…
• Knowing the facts and carefully
reviewing the circumstances can
go a long way toward resolving
disagreements at an early stage.
Explain the principle based or rights based
framework of ethics
• STEP ONE: Identify the Problem Name the
problem clearly.
• Where is the conflict?
• What is causing the qualm, uneasiness, or
apprehension?
• Who are the legitimate stakeholders, and
Cont…
• What does each have at stake?
• How much time is there to arrive at a
decision?
• What are the relevant resources at the
team's disposal?
• Why is there conflict and/or
disagreement amongst team members
and/or the patient and/or family
members regarding treatment or
placement options?
Cont…
• STEP TWO: Acknowledge
Feelings
• What are the “gut” reaction,
biases and/or loyalties?
• What are the intuitions about
the issue?
Cont…
• STEP THREE: Gather the Facts
• What are the ethically relevant facts?
• Have all the relevant perspectives
been obtained?
• Who else do we need involved in this
decision-making process?
• What do the institution’s policies or
guidelines say? What does the
relevant law say?
Cont…
• STEP FOUR: Consider Alternatives
• What are the alternative courses of
actions?
• What are the likely consequences
of each? Consider all of the
benefits and the risks/ harms
associated with each alternative
Cont…
• STEP FIVE: Examine Values
• What are the preferences of the
person (or the people) receiving
care? Are other values relevant?
• Which of the values conflict?
• How do the values of the
organization inform the ethical
issue?
Cont…
• STEP SIX: Evaluate Alternatives
VALUES Rank all relevant values
i.e., Values of the organization:
Respect Teamwork Compassion
Social Responsibility
Explain the concept of human rights and
how they are relevant to business
• Human rights are basic rights and
freedoms that protect us all.
• They are based on dignity, fairness,
equality and respect.
• Businesses have a significant impact on
the way we live our life and enjoy these
human rights, whether it’s as an employee,
a customer or simply living alongside
companies that share our cities and towns.
Cont…
• When people think of human
rights abuses associated with
business activities they may think
of sweatshops in foreign countries
where child labour and unsafe
working conditions are
commonplace.
The business case
• Aside from it being the right thing to,
it also makes good business sense to
respect human rights.
• Businesses can find themselves
involved in lawsuits, suffering
reputational harm and missing out on
business opportunities and
investments as well as the chance of
recruiting the best new employees.
Distinguish moral rights from legal rights
• The main difference between
human rights, legal rights and
moral rights lie in their aim and
impact on the individual
Cont…
• Human rights are those that
emphasize the universal rights any
person can enjoy and, legal rights
refer to the rights a particular
person is entitled to enjoy legally
as enforced by the
state/government whereas moral
rights emphasize the universal
ethical rights /guidelines the
people can follow.
What are Human Rights
• Human rights are the universal rights
any human being can enjoy.
• The United Nations defines human
rights in the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights charter as the ‘Human
rights are rights inherent to all human
beings, regardless of race, sex,
nationality, ethnicity, language,
religion, or any other status.
Cont…
• Human rights include the right to
life and liberty, freedom from
slavery and torture, freedom of
opinion and expression, the right
to work and education, and many
more. Everyone is entitled to
these rights, without
discrimination.”
What are Legal Rights
• Legal rights refer to a set of rights
formulated by the legal system of a
government. They are given as privileges to
the citizens of that particular state.
• Thus, they are those liberties or protections
of individuals that are originated through
the laws. Hence, they are bestowed onto a
person by given legislation of a country.
Similarly, they can be modified, repealed,
and restrained by the same laws.
challenges to principle based ethics
• Someone's wrong can be your right,

which means your right will definitely,
at some point, be someone else's
wrong. Most of the time, the “right”
choice is subjective.
Cont…
• In business, many of these ethical
challenges appear in the form
of bribes, conflicts of interest,
issues of honesty and integrity, and
whistle-blowing.
• Describe and explain virtue based
framework for thinking about
ethical character

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CHAPTER TWO

Ethical Decision Making: Personal

• Someone's wrong can be your right,

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