Ethical issues in dealing with both local and global environment

Business ethics is what drives firms to act responsibly while addressing social and environmental issues. Transparency, decision-making, social networking, surveillance, and privacy concerns are just a few of the major ethical challenges that constantly come up in both domestic and international business environments. The steps for resolving ethical conflicts at work are to first recognize the issues, then look for alternate courses of action, and then make a decision on how to resolve the conflict. The complexity of an organization's ethical challenges typically results from regulators' regulations being established, stakeholders from various backgrounds, and the world's ongoing complexity. As per the scenario, George is facing the compliance and governance dilemma. The utilitarianism, virtue, and rights and obligation theories demand George not to submit to the CEO’s side deal. The virtue and utilitarianism theories both believe that a moral is correct so long as there is a right basis, while the difference is that the former holds that one is righteous if he has the majority’s goodwill while the latter does not.

Ethical Problems in the Local and Intercontinental Dealing Environments

The domestic and global business environments alike usually face a lot of ethical issues in their management and daily operations due to the legal and business principles that are under their governance. The business ethics also known as the corporate ethics is the application of moral principles to govern the behavioral activities within the firm management. The majority of the consumers both locally and internationally anticipate the companies to function in a responsible manner to tackle the social and environmental problems. Most clients always quit a company if they realize that it is operating in an irresponsible and illusory comportment. The companies follow good dealing principles so as to draw talent and to limit the financial accountability in their establishment.

The first ethical issue that always crops up in the local and global business settings is the transparency which is the practice of straightforwardness in all the operational aspects of a company whether positive or negative. The leaders can make their businesses more transparent by emphasizing on good practices from the entire angles of their operations such as the conduct of employees, the inside traditions, and the mutual objectives (Bernstein, 2016). Decision-making is also another issue in the business environments. The ethical decision in the firm dealings should be by protecting both the employees and the clients’ rights, making surety of the fairness and justness of all the business transactions. The aim should be the protection of the public good apart from building a bond of the protection of the individual values and beliefs (Oster, 2017).

Social networking is also an ethical issue that usually arises in the domestic and international business. The problem stems from the employees using social sites such as Facebook and Twitter thereby leading to the breach of confidentiality, conflict of interest, and the misuse of the organization’s resources among others. The surveillance and privacy are other crucial issues in the business environments when it comes to the balancing of the individual worker solitude with the protection of the company health. The companies employ the use of such technology to recover the lost communications, to limit the legal liabilities, and to protect their sensitive information.

The organizational ethical dilemmas are a collective experience in almost all the business sectors and knowing how to solve them can be rewarding as it increases the effectiveness of the decision-making and at the same time helps in placing the business on the right side of the law. The first and foremost step in dealing with the workplace ethical dilemmas is the identification of the issues. The second phase is to identify the alternative routes of the deed as every problem affords not only one opportunity. When the ethical issues’ handling is precautious, it usually leads to the resolution of the personal and business dilemmas. Once the identification of the alternative has taken place, it becomes easier to take another step in resolving the matter. Making ethical decisions requires the application of moral reasoning skills which comprises of various methods such as egoism, utilitarianism, enlightened self-interest, and the rights and obligations (Workplace Ethics Advice, 2014).

Most organizations always suffer from the complexities of the ethical issues such as compliance and governance and in the decision-making which of late has become trickier as the world gets more complicated than it was initially. Making the right moral decision has even become more intimidating as many people collaborate more efficiently under the oversight of controllers and their ever-changing rules. The acceleration of numerous aspects of commerce has enhanced the number of those participating who are from diverse backgrounds. Those involved have no common language, edification or spiritual belief nonetheless; they are all stakeholders in a fast moving procedure thereby adding yet another layer of difficulty. The regulators also expand their scale and interest thus promulgating rules which further bring complexity in the decision making of the organizations (ETHICAL LEADERSHIP, 2017).

The best way of dealing with the complexities of the ethical issues is first to become aware of the legal and regulatory environment as the rules are vulnerable to different interpretation. Most stakeholders interpret them to their favor, and therefore, it is advisable to have an accurate understanding, implications, and the associated risks of the rules. The second step is the assessment of the nature of the probable danger as whether high, low, or medium. Managing ethical complexities means that the decisions made must withstand the public scrutiny which means the consideration of what is important as per the public opinion.

According to the scenario, George is facing the compliance and governance dilemma as the CEO as the intention of doubling the device’s price which is in contrary to the prior agreement between the company and the business. The law demands industries to conform to the environmental laws and the federal regulations, and nobody has the right of asking any employee to tamper with the code (Oster, 2017). The law expects all the directors and company officers to be compliant with the set policies.

George should apply virtue ethics theory and act in their accordance and be truthful to the government as per the agreement and also be just to the customers by not agreeing with the CEO in doubling the price. The rights and obligations ethics theory expect George not to accept the CEO’s deal as it demands of him to use the ethical judgment in evaluating the rights of others which is the consumers as per the scenario. The clients have the right to purchase the product at a normal price and not as the CEO intend. The utilitarianism theory commands George to look at the harms and benefits doubling the price might cause to the customers and not him so he should side with the customers by opposing the idea (Workplace Ethics Advice, 2014).

The similarities and differences between the virtue theory and the utilitarianism theory are as follows.

Similarities

Differences

They both believe that an act is moral if there is a sound basis in mind.

Utilitarianism theory does not consider the result if the action is morally undertaken. As for the virtue ethics when better alternatives are present, and the end is unjust, then the ruling is that the action is immoral.

Both theories believe that it is only through logic that the world’s correct understanding is possible.

Utilitarianism argues that the ruling of morality is by law and convention of actions, while virtue ethics believes in the judgment of morality as a variance between the boundaries.

Both theories believe that some actions are fundamentally immoral.

Virtue ethics holds that a person is righteous if he has goodwill for the majority while the utilitarianism ethics don’t believe in that.

The theories believe that the morality of the action of an individual is through the judgment of deeds and not by the outcome. The second similarity argues that the use of emotions alone in making moral claims is too subjective and should not be the case. The third similarity reasons that the bad decisions that can affect people should never be taken whatsoever. The first difference according to the utilitarianism is that irrespective of the turnout of choice taken an act is always moral if it was that way from the start. But for the virtue ethics, the option of taking adverse action for the greatest good is not a just decision. The second difference is that the utilitarianism theory believes that morality is all about codes of actions and the law whether wrong or right, but the virtue theory looks into the extremes of the good and bad without considering the law. According to the last difference, virtue theory believes that moral is measurable while the utilitarianism claims that it is false and virtue is something unquantifiable whose determination was by the law and can never change (Williams, 2015).

References

Bernstein, R. (2016, November 29). 5 Current Ethical Issues in Business | November 2016. Retrieved from http://online.shorter.edu/business/current-ethical-issues-in-business/

ETHICAL LEADERSHIP. (2017). Managing complexity and ethical decisions making. Retrieved from http://www.ethical-leadership.co.uk/complexity/

Oster, K. V. (2017). List of Ethical Issues in Business | Chron.com. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/list-ethical-issues-business-55223.html

Williams, B. H. (2015, August 14). What are the similarities and differences between the ethical theories of Aristotle and Immanuel Kant? | eNotes. Retrieved from https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/compare-contrast-virtue-ethical-theories-aristotle-376099

Workplace Ethics Advice. (2014, May 28). How to Handle Ethical Issues in the Workplace - Workplace Ethics Advice. Retrieved from http://www.workplaceethicsadvice.com/2014/05/how-to-handle-ethical-issues-in-the-workplace.html