Reflection_Paper

Running head: ETHICS REFLECTION PAPER Ethics Reflection Paper Every day people are constantly in the process of making all kinds of decisions. Whether those are big or small decisions, most of them are shaped by their own values and views of what is right or wrong, good or bad, which by definition represents what is commonly known as ethics. According to the Ethics Awareness Inventory, the basis for ethical decision-making is formed by four core values, which are character, obligation, results and equity, CORE. These broad categories represent an ethical philosophy that individuals’ use when making either professional or personal ethical decisions. A business just as an individual has a personality, a character, and a set of values that guide and influence the business’ decision making dynamics. Therefore, the author finds important to look for a balance of values and ethics between the leaders of a business and the business itself. If an employee’s ethics agree with the company’s, then this employee will experience a sense of belonging and will believe in the mission, product or service the business is offering. On the other hand, if an employee finds the company’s ethics in disagreement with his or her ethics, then this employee will experience dissonance. The Ethics Awareness Inventory describes the first value as character/virtue. This characteristic focuses on developing a strong principle of good moral. A person with good morals displays a strong behavior and beliefs of honesty. In addition, individuals who base their ethical perspective on character, seek evidence of virtue and traits such as honor, justice, and integrity. Furthermore, this group of people focuses on what is good to be instead of what is good to do. The second characteristic is obligation, which is described as an individuals duty or obligation to do what is considered morally right. From this perspective ethical decisions must be appropriate under any circumstances, respectful, committed to promote individual freedom and allow individuals to make their own choices. In addition, fostering this personal growth represents achieving efficiency through organization and social structure that can at times dehumanize ethical decisions. The third characteristic is results, which tends to base its perspective on the results and consequences of the person’s actions. An individual who falls in this category believes that actions should be directed to promote the greatest good for the highest number of people. The last characteristic is equity or relativism, which is described by the concern for the instability of knowledge, human judgment, and the lack of people who is qualify to determine what is right or wrong. Therefore, this perspective suggests the idea of no absolute standard for right or wrong. As far as the author’s inventory scores are concerned, her ethical profile were most closely and equally aligned with character, obligation and results, and least closely aligned with equity. This means that the first three values play equal importance and reflect most agreement with the author’s ethical profile. On the other hand, equity reflects values least in agreement with the author’s ethical views. In addition, thinking back to the beginning of the Master in Business Administration program (MBA), the author has noticed an improvement in her ethical perspective and she has experienced the progress in personal and professional decision making. This change has been encouraged in part by the MBA program as well as by professional trainings at work. Now at days more companies are taking responsibility and giving ethical practices the importance it deserves after many financial scandals have gone public. According to the descriptions above, the author considers her scores to be quite accurate with her views and values in respect to ethical decision making. Once again, in a business environment is important to find equilibrium within these four perspectives as it could represent detrimental consequences if they are ignored. A clear example of how damaging unethical practices could be is the Enron case. In this particular example this corporation ended by filing bankruptcy and Arthur Andersen, the audit and accountancy firm Enron worked with, lost most of their customers and had to close down. Moreover, employees and shareholders received limited returns in lawsuit, regardless of losing billions in pensions and stock prices. These are just few of the consequences a company faces when they are making unethical decisions and lacking social responsibility. Just as the Enron scandal, there have been many other corporations facing similar or worse consequences, which have brought a positive attention to the role of ethics in public and private businesses as well as social accountability to employees and shareholders. Hence, ethics are concerned with right or wrong, fair or unfair, good or bad, responsible or irresponsible. Ethics addresses character as well as action, public policy, and personal matters. Therefore, an ethic-centric organization should follow an ethical code of principles in conducting business and managing its every day operations. Such practices will allow companies and organizations to incorporate ethics in their strategic planning process and position themselves as strong and successful businesses. References Ethics Awareness Inventory. (2009). Retrieve June 19, 2010, from https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/classroom/ic/classroom.aspx Ethical Choices in the workplace. (2009). Retrieve June 19, 2010, from https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/classroom/ic/classroom.aspx