Business Ethics

An Ethical cycle refers to the process involved in developing a moral problem and
developing a possible solution to these problems. The solutions involve the use of ethical
judging and moral problem-solving. Moreover, it is a tool in structuring and improving moral
decisions by making a systematic and thorough analysis of the moral problem, which helps to
come to a moral judgement and to justify the final decision in moral terms.

Step 1: Moral Problem Statement- It is important to realize now that whatever choice you
make, someone or something will always be harmed by your choice. In the event of a moral
dilemma, you cannot obtain an outcome that satisfies all parties. For instance, the above
incidents where one of my employees has been accused by an unknown source of stealing
office supplies. All the employees in my department will be directly impacted by the
resolution of the problem and all the employees of the company will be indirectly impacted
by the resolution of the problem. The moral issue is that stealing is morally wrong.

Step 2: Problem Analysis- In this analysis one form a picture of the content of the moral
dilemma. The following questions are important here: what are the facts and which are still
missing (and why)? What norms and values and other ethical matters are involved (if it
concerns something business, you can think of a code of conduct)? Who are involved, what
are their interests and who should act? Employees are impacted by the problem. The moral
value is the unethical behaviour of stealing. The relevant information includes only one
source. As a result, additional information needs to be obtained which could include:
obtaining information from other employees, trying to identify if a large quantity of office
supplies has been taken, determining the reason for the employee to steal the office supplies.

Step 3: Options for Action- This phase describes as much as possible which actions can be
taken to deal with the moral problem. There are several action strategies that can be applied.
In the first place, this is the black-and-white strategy: in this strategy, only whether or not to
do the action is considered. In addition, you have the strategy of raising awareness at a higher
level: in this strategy, the action is raised at a higher level, for example management. It is also
possible to opt for the strategy of cooperation: this involves examining the possibility of
cooperation with other parties involved, which creates a win-win situation. Finally, there is a
whistleblowing strategy: the problem is made public externally. Options would be developed
once the manager is comfortable with the level and quality of information pertaining to the
issue. As this point, the manager could confront the employee if he or she believes there is
enough evidence. Alternatively, the manager may drop the issue if the evidence does not
warrant any further investigation. confront the subordinate personally and advise him in a
nice way and tell him that his action is wrong, and if he still continues it i will warn him that
his doing will be reported to the management.

Step 4: Ethical Judgment- In this phase look at the moral acceptability of the options for
action. You first look from your own perspective, thoughts and intuition. The step-by-step
plan also adds that you then assess the issue from the formal frameworks of ethical theories
of consequences ethics, ethics of principles, virtue ethics and ethics of care. If you find it
interesting, you can certainly take a look at it, but for personal moral dilemmas I would stick
to your own perspective. The ethical judgment in this scenario would be two steps which
would be: whether to confront the employee or not and adjust the ethical training program
and potentially the code of ethics to ensure that stealing office supplies is clearly considered
to be unethical behaviour by the firm.

Step 5: Reflection- In this step you reflect on the choice for an action that you want to make.
The aim of the reflection is to arrive at a reasoned choice between the various options for
action. Take a critical look at the arguments for or against the action and ask yourself whether
they provide sufficient moral arguments. The reflection stage would include the final
determination as to what specifically needs to be done by the manager to resolve the issue.
Again after the final determination is established as to whether to continue with the
investigation, the manager needs to also consider whether these anonymous tips will take
place in the future if he or she does not pursue the matter further. Find prove from other
subordinate or monitor through cctv for his action if he/she still continue his doing and
proceed on the company work ethical policy to take an action.

Step 6: Morally Acceptable Action- Based on the previous steps, one has to ultimately
choose the most ethically responsible and acceptable action. One must realize that whatever
choice you make when faced with a moral dilemma, something or someone will always be
harmed. If we look at the colleague’s dilemma, we are talking about damage as in where
After the report, that colleague is known to management, may receive a warning or lose his
job. One whom reported will be known to other colleagues as a ‘tell-tale’. It might damage
their reputation if it turns out that that colleague does the work he does very well, or does a
lot in a short time and there is not much going on. If the decision that we make is a fair
decision and brings benefits to other employees and to the company, then will gladly proceed
to take that ethical actions. This is the final course of action taken by the decision maker.
Subordinate will learn lastly this is a bad way to steal and they must be suspended for some
then only they know the value of stealing so that they won't repeat the same thing next time
and also the same time must cut down their salary as a punishment for stealing.

Improving workplace ethics, and stressing integrity is important for the future success of the
company. Most business owners are busy focusing on the skills and productivity of
prospective employees but forget to emphasize integrity, honesty, and forthright behaviour.
Stressing integrity to your employees leads them to become transparent in their actions. An
environment of integrity can be created at the hiring stage by ensuring that the human
resource department addresses this principle during the interview. To sum up, ethics in the
workplace lead to positive benefits for the company, leading to improved performance and
future success.