Reflection on Ethics (Essay Sample)

Define ethics. Ethics means customs or usage or character. I define ethics as how you decide what decisions are good or bad. Business ethics is a subset of applied ethics and it deals with the morality of business decisions. This is important because the tone is set at the top of the organization. Managers, team leaders, and employees on each level of the organizational chart will look at the CEO’s behavior as a model for how they should perform in the business. 

How Good People Make Tough Choices by Rushworth Kidder is considered a good common-sense way of looking at ethics. Dr. Kidder provides guidelines for making important decisions in situations where trust is tested and fear is high, allowing deviations from the right path to creep in. Ethical lapses or moments in time when we don’t use our best ethical fitness can be career-ending moves and Dr. Kidder cautions the reader of the ways ethical lapses can happen: 1. Violation of law 2. Departure from the truth 3. Deviation from moral rectitude. It’s appropriate to set a code of conduct and have a common understanding of what is appropriate for business operations and after that is established, everyone should know about this code of conduct.

Ethical decision-making is based on the premise that logic and emotions are needed to make good ethical choices. When we’re in a position to make ethical choices it’s vital to compensate for our ethical blind spots. Using a decision-making model can be an insurance that we aren’t operating in those blind spaces. Kidder’s 9 checkpoints, Nash’s 12 questions, or The Lonergan/Baird method are models that we can use to identify and evaluate courses of action. Depending on the professional arena, you may find that professional codes, or rules of conduct for members within a profession, govern the actions of people in that industry. 

It is up to the leader to create an ethical organizational climate. Everyone learns to admire the ethical officers of the organization. The example that the leader sets for us can cast a shadow or light with their power and status. We are all looking for an ethical leader, and moral compass to show us or guide us in operations. An ethical leader has virtues of courage, optimism, integrity, loyalty, caring disposition, and humility. An unethical leader has the consequence of casting shadows over a business and sometimes an industry. There is no one-size-fits-all ethical climate. Ethical leaders and ethical organizations generally recognize risk and how to mitigate it, low tolerance for destructive behaviors, justice, integrity, trust, focus, and strong organizational leadership. 

Tools that leaders use to create ethical organizational climates are core ideology, codes of ethics, socialization, and ethical learning. The core values or identity of the organization and core purpose along with the purpose statement should inspire organization members. Codes of ethics generally address what is acceptable for the business-like conflicts of interest, records of assets and money, outside relationships, and employment practices. The leader’s duty is to ensure that the greatest amount of good is accomplished as a result of conducting business. Leadership is expected to adapt to new ways of teaching. Leaders are encouraged to be mentors that can train up or help to develop their staff while building the company culture. Culture is the standards, ideals, and moral codes, that create that unique atmosphere in an organization. 

The transformational leader or the ethical leader is considered to be a visionary, they take pride in ‘setting the tone’, challenging staff to be exceptional in contrast to a transactional leader who uses the more antiquated, punishment/consequence-led approach. Leadership uses mission statements to tell the company who we are, what we do, when we do it, how we do it, and why. While the vision statement is who we want to be and where we are going. 

What is the leader leading? The point of the industry is to be profitable, capitalism. How do we know that companies are behaving in ways to promote the greatest good? Organizations must assume stakeholder focus, corporate responsibility, and sustainability. Leaders oversee making money for their investors or stakeholders while upholding moral and ethical character and committing to economic development that meets the needs of current society without damaging future generations’ opportunity to meet their own needs. A socially responsible corporation must be concerned with Epstein’s 9 pillars of sustainability – ethics, governance, transparency, supplier relationships, financial returns, community and economic development, the value of products and services, employment practices, and protection of the environment.

I understand ethics, ethical leadership, and moral compass as the framework for how to be a good business-minded person, and make a profit while benefiting the most amount of people and hurting the least amount of people, in a fair and equal opportunity.