Assignment 3 Ethical Motives

Introduction

More often than not, employees are faced with ethical dilemmas at the workplace. In this case, their decisions have far-reaching effects on their relationships at the workplace and also in their personal lives. This essay seeks to employ ethical decision-making at the personal level in one’s choices at the workplace. By applying the four stet-process to the ethical decision, one takes, the employee’s motives will be established with regard to the action taken.

Ethical dilemma instance at the workplace

Workplace pressures or personal circumstances may give rise to ethical conundrums for employees. For instance, an employee in the financial department discovers that their immediate boss is pilfering the company’s resources. The employee raises the issue of the misconduct with the boss, and the boss silences them and even threatens dire consequences if reported. This employee is at crossroads regarding what action to take. They risk losing their job if they report it to the fraud team. But still, the employee can leave whisper it to another employee who raises the issue through the company’s anonymous reporting channel. But what will motivate this worker to make the right decision which obviously is reporting the matter, whether themselves or through another party (Weiss, 2014, p. 98)?

Ethical decisions such as the one facing this employee may involve looking broadly at the individual’s personality, maturity, traits and styles that could affect such a decision (Weiss, 2014). The first tenet of ethical decision-making motive may be a productivist’s one. Here, one views ethical decision-making as being motivated by rational self-interest and fulfilling personal interests. This is based on rewards and punishments such as promotions and demotions (Weiss, 2014, p. 96.). By exposing the misdeeds of the immediate senior employee, the worker may be rewarded with a job promotion, and this may motivate him to raise the matter (CleanGovBiz, 2012). Whereas the employee would still have felt the urge to raise the matter even in the absence of the reward due to moral conviction of the right course of action, the availability of a reward system could also function as a motive for the decision made.

The philanthropist approach to taking the right decision when in an ethical dilemma makes an employee feel that it is their moral duty to do so rather than doing it for self-interest (Weiss, 2014). In the absence of rewards for raising the issue of financial mismanagement, the junior employee is motivated by their personal conviction that it is their moral duty towards society and the greater humanity to reveal misgivings that could be judged as immoral.

Commitment to justice and the willingness to risk everything else as a result of combined moral hope and courage may be a driver to do what is right. A person may view themselves as the ultimate path towards attaining justice for the rest, and only by exposing the evils committed themselves can justice be achieved. This means foregoing everything and even putting their interests on the line for the sake of justice (Lincoln, 2012). The employee could be motivated by their conviction that failing to report their boss involved in financial misconduct would be allowing them to go unpunished for their mistakes. This could make them risk losing their job as threatened by helping bring them to book; otherwise, their conscience would reproach them.

Lastly, there could be a sinister motive for making the right decision in such a case. Let’s say; for instance, there has been bad blood between the employee and their boss. The employee knows that by reporting the boss, they will be punished or even sacked and sued by the company. The employee decides to report not because it is their moral responsibility to do so but because they want to avenge the treatment they have received previously from their boss. Such an action is not founded on virtue ethics but personality traits seeking ill rewards but, in the long run doing something right. It may be argued that such a person does not act in the interest of the organization or for the sake of ethical conduct but only on the motivation of achieving the goal of revenge (Weiss, 2014). It is highly likely that if they got along well with their boss, such an action could not have been taken.

References

CleanGovBiz. (2012). Whistleblower protection: encouraging reporting. Geneva: OECD.

Lincoln, S. H. (2012). Ethical decision making: A process influenced by moral intensity. Annapolis, Maryland: VADM Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership.

Weiss, W. J. (2014). Business ethics: a stakeholder and issues management approach (sixth ed.). San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com

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Assignment 3 Ethical Motives

With this assignment, please direct your attention again to personal-level (not company-wide) ethical choices in the workplace. Motives are a key consideration in ethical decision making.

Assignment 3 Ethical Motives

On page 96 in Chapter 2 of your course text (see attached file), the author offers a four-step approach to analyzing your own ethical motives in a specific situation. In this assignment, apply this four-step process as a tool to determine your own motives. Applying this knowledge is a good first step toward building the skills necessary to complete this same type of process when analyzing your motives at work or your organization’s motives in ethical decision making, designing social responsibility programs, and formulating organizational policy.

Support your choices with cited concepts from course readings and two reliable professional sources.

Review the Ethical Motives Scoring Guide to understand the grading criteria for this assignment.

Ethical Motives Scoring Guide

Submission Requirements

Your paper should meet the following requirements:

• Written communication: Written communication is free of errors that detract from the overall message.
• APA formatting: References and citations are formatted according to current APA style and formatting guidelines.
• Length of paper: 500–700 words, or 2–3 typed, double-spaced pages.
• Font and Font Size: Arial, 10 point.