BEM3009 – Ethics and Organisations
Exercise One
When faced with an ethical issue how do the individuals involved in the dilemma make their decision?
When you are asked to give your opinion or make a choice – what guides you?
One thing that gets referred to repeatedly isa Manager’s personal value, the moral compass that directs choice.
Values can be defined as the principles that matter to the individual- examples would be honesty, community, education, harmony and many more.
It is proposed that these values guide our decisions and shape behaviour, I want you to take a look at a list of personal values and ask yourself; what are the five key values by which you live your life.
You can source many lists on the internet – most are attached to companies wanting to sell you inspirational leadership courses, but resist the hard sell and engage with the list.
After going through this exercise and reflecting upon your list, I would like you to explore the online academic journals to see what the literature has to say about the role of personal values in ethics.
Choose one paper that appeals to you, read and take notes.
Essential journals to consult:
Academy of Management Review
Business Ethics - A European Review
Electronic Journal of Business Ethics and Organisation Studies
Journal of Business Ethics
Journal of Management Studies
Complete the critical enquiry log below – make sure to delete the red wording and SAVE your file.
Use the questions as sub headings and leave them in your final document.
Critical Inquiry Log 1: Spend time reflecting on the values exercise and critically appraise the role of values in your life. Then move on to the academic literature and see what your research can uncover about personal values.
It is expected that over the next ten weeks your critical enquiry will build a wealth of knowledge, understanding and skills which you can use in your final essay in addition to your career going forwards.
Guidance is given in red – please delete this and save your file for later submission.
PERSONAL VALUES
- To what extent have you been exposed to ethical decisions in your university life (past 4 years)?
Use the questions as sub headings and type directly into the form – aim for paragraphs rather than sentences or bullet points. The act of writing can be a very powerful to unpack your thinking. Often it is through the process of reflective writing that we find the meaning from our experiences - an essential part of leadership development.
University has been the first time I have been properly exposed to ethical decision making with a large degree of independence (previously, at school or work, there has always been a sense of right or wrong instilled by parents, teachers, managers etc. who effectively define a the correct way to act in any given situation). The mian example that comes to mind is the decision on who to live with, and this is the one which I will elaborate on below. Other decisions have come relating to group work, for example where one member has joined the group late and/or not contributed and would receive the same marks as the rest of the group (in the group there were conflicting opinions on how to react to the situation, as there was no effect on our own marks for extra work undertaken or others marks who may not have contributed).
- Think of a particular ethical dilemma -- what was the incident?
Take time to describe the incident, where did it take place, who was involved and what happened. Get into the habit of unpacking your thinking and writing full descriptions.
One decision faced at university is that of who to live with for the coming year (or two). After living with four people in second year that I had been in the same halls of residence, choosing who to live with in final year was a difficult decision to make. Whilst I was happy with two of the housemates I was currently living with, the other two were at this point in a relationship and one of these had become fairly obnoxious to live with (a viewpoint shared by the other members of the house). Also, four friends from another house had informed me that they would not be living with their current housemates who they had also failed to get along with. These four, however, were three boys and a girl (two, again, in a relationship) and were not particularly keen on living as a four. Finally, a last girl had been informed that she would have to find another group to live with after her current housemates left for placement years. My decision, therefore, affected my own situation for the following year, as well as a number of other people.
My current house, with my persuasion had allowed the addition of three new people (the two in the relationship and the girl who had been on her own) and so two guys had been left to sort out their own situation.
For me, the perfect living situation would have been to live with the two current housemates and allow the two guys from the other house to replace the couple I was currently living with. However, this would have left five people without a group to live with and, whilst I did not enjoy living with them, I was still friends with them and would not wish to leave them (or anyone for that matter) in such a difficult situation.
- What decisions did you have to make?
What choices were you faced with, what were the challenges in making those choices
Here, it was impossible to completely satisfy everyone – I had the option of bringing the two houses together completely, but it would prove very difficult to find a house large enough to house ten people and would be a big risk combining 3 groups of people who may or may not have got along. Also, I had the option of moving out, to live with the two guys from the other house, and leaving the others to decide on their own situation.
Ultimately, the decision came down to staying with the current house and disappointing the two guys who had been effectively stuck in limbo, or helping out the two guys and disappointing my current housemates who were still assuming that I would live with them.
- How did you know what to do?
This section is really important because you need to move into reflection, really try and get underneath your decision. What beliefs or assumptions do you hold, where do they come from. What shapes how you think?
Here you are taking the meaning out of the past experience (this takes practice)
Clearly this was a situation where I was out of my comfort zone and had no past experience of. In any situation, I would be disappointing at least two people and I found it very difficult to predict the outcome which would make me happiest.
Eventually, the decision was made to live with the two guys who were without a house. I believe that it was the only outcome which was possible in the end – leaving two people on their own would have been far worse, in my eyes, than leaving my current housemates who already had a group of seven to live with.
The decision to move out represented me helping out some friends and trying to make sure that everyone solved their basic problem of finding a place to live – the outcome may not have been the preferred choice for everyone, but the basic problem of housing 10 people from various groups was solved.
Here, I chose to simplify the decision to make it easier – when I looked at it I realised that it would be impossible to completely satisfy everyone and so it would have been futile to attempt this. However, I firmly believed that it was much more important to ensure a couple of people were not left in a difficult situation (finding a two person house may not have been possible and they may have been forced to split up or move back into halls of residence) than to attempt to decide based on how happy I would be in either situation.
The easiest decision to make, and the one that I did make, was the one in which everyone person had a place to live – a fundamental requirement for every human being. Therefore, it was an easily justifiable decision as I could say that everyone’s basic need to have a house had been satisfied.
Also, by placing myself in the position of the others, it was easy to realise the ‘correct’ decision. If I had needed a friend to help out with regards to the living situation, I would have been worried about having nowhere to live and therefore extremely appreciative to have the situation sorted out.
- Which people were significant in making your choice – why?
The four main people who helped shape the situation and decision were the two I was currently living with and the two who I chose to move in with. When it came to deciding I was felt like I was deciding which set of people to disappoint by moving out (or not) and was worried that my decision may be construed me showing a closer friendship to one group or the other. Values such as loyalty and close relationships were called into question, and it was very important to me to show my current housemates that I valued their friendship despite my decision, whilst also showing a loyalty and friendship to the two who would be my future housemates. As explained previously, it was fairly easy to justify to the people who I was leaving behind and, as friends, they of course understood.
7. Would you do anything differently – why?
In hindsight, I would have reacted far earlier to the situation and attempted to improve the situation by combining all of the houses, either through one large house of ten or two houses which were very close together (preferably the second option, as I could live with those who were cleaner, tidier etc. whilst being close to the friends who I was slightly less keen on living with).
Now relate your answers to the personal values exercise below.
My Personal Values
1. Self Esteem
2. Dedication/Loyalty
3. Close relationships
4. Security
5. Accomplishment
What do I believe shapes my values and how do I feel when my values are compromised?
Move on to a review of the research related to this exercise.
You will need to use the online electronic journals to search for a suitable academic paper
Resource used – go to the electronic library and search the academic journals, using a search engine like JSTOR. Select a paper related to the topic of values, read it and write your review in response to the questions below.
Full title of paper: (e.g. Journal of Business Ethics –Fritzsche, D and Oz, E. (2007) Personal values’ influence on the ethical dimension of decision making)
When and where was it written – how does this affect what is being argued?
What ideas can I take from this paper?
How did this paper further my understanding of values?
How does this paper contribute to my understanding of ethics and organisations?
What question remains unanswered for me?
Review of lectures(choose one or two)
You can choose any lecture from across the module, if you write your review straight after the lecture you will be amazed at just how many ideas you will have. Use these ideas to shape your enquiries and the research for your final essay.
What was the topic?
Accounting for Corporate Social Responsibility
What were my reactions to the argument or logic that was presented?
In Tim Macartney and Dr Petros Vourvachis I have enjoyed two of the most passionate and enjoyable lectures/lecturers in my time at university (with apologies to other lecturers).
Studying for an Accountancy and Finance degree, I found the topic of ‘Accounting for CSR’ particularly interesting as, at a first glance, it seemed to be a complete contradiction of what I had so far learnt with regards to basic financial reporting.
A basic understanding of accounting required the effective communication of financial performance to users of financial statements (IFRS states that primary users of these statements are present or potential investors, lenders and other creditors). However, these primary users are generally only interested in bottom line profit and so I could see no room for CSR in a report aimed at such users.
Accounting standards are aiming to provide a harmonised method of accounting internationally through IFRS and the inclusion of CSR in accounting standards seemed counterintuitive to me. This is because it would be the complete opposite of harmony – it seemed impossible to cover all scopes of CSR and would therefore increase the amount of manipulation and variety in what companies did or did not report. Any attempt to add a ‘CSR standard’ seemed to be doomed to failure, as different companies (with different environmental, HR, risk policies etc.) would be opposed or favourable to different aspects of the standard. In the end, I believed that it would be nigh on impossible to create such a controversial new standard, given the difficulty already seen in harmonising existing standards.
Another problem highlighted was the ‘comply or explain’ element which is present in many cases (particularly in Corporate Governance). Here, I felt that whilst some companies would be persuaded to comply with CSR requirements, other large companies could simply ignore them using a poor explanation (or even get away without an explanation).
With regards to voluntary initiatives, such as the Value Added Statement in the 1970’s onwards and the more recent Global Reporting Initiative, the main problem highlighted by Dr Vourvachis was that such measure were/are never put into law. This resulted in the initiatives becoming short-lived trends, which were used extensively by companies who were keeping in with the fashion of the time to improve public image. I can see this as a good way, from a company’s perspective, to improve their image (in particular by putting more effort into meeting the requirements of other stakeholders).However, I also felt that such measures could be used to merely satisfy stakeholders in the short term, deflect attention away from, for example, bad financial performance.
The main point I took from the reasons to disclose CSR was that companies want to avoid the negatives of not participating. It seems that the reasons are usually to avoid a bad image from the public, government etc. rather than from a genuine care for the issues it is reporting on. In fact, it can usually be related back to the desire to maintain a profit and competitive advantage, rather than out of ethical/moral thinking (which is probably just a dream held by individual employees – if these employees, however, were the CEO or Chairman etc. then I could see how a company could act ethically for the ‘right’ reasons).
What ideas or questions can I take from this lecture?
In theory, I agree with the conclusion drawn by Dr Vourvachis that ‘it is up to each and every one of us to do what we can.’
By reporting on CSR, I think that there could be a significant change in the way that companies are run, as CSR and other stakeholders are forced to the forefront of the companies’ decisions. However, I also believe that it is extremely difficult and impractical to provide a framework for such reporting which covers every aspect – leaving such practices open to problems such as manipulation and short termism.
My main problem with the idea, is highlighted in Dr Vourvachis’ research, is the problem of short termism.
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