Business organizations deal with a wide range of ethical concerns. Ethical dilemmas can affect the performance of employees and objectives of different companies. Employees who ignore existing ethical principles or codes of conduct can affect the performance of their respective organizations. The ethical concerns raised in this paper focuses on the use of a firm’s resources for personal gains.
Ethical Issue
The first question highlights various behaviors such as using company time for personal businesses, making personal long-distance calls, and taking office supplies for domestic use. Personally, I strongly believe that these practices are unethical and unacceptable. To begin with, employees should clearly understand that the resources of an organization should be safeguarded (Nelson and Quick 58). Additionally, the decision to use company time to pursue personal objectives will affect the level of profitability. This is the case because every employee should be keen to complete his or her duties efficiently.
If every employee in the presented hypothetical organization engages in such behaviors, chances are high that its resources will be depleted. The firm will also be unable to achieve its objectives. Taking office supplies for home use is unethical. This happens to be the case because such supplies are usually intended to support the business model of the targeted organization (Downe et al. 903). If such behaviors are condoned, various business processes will be disoriented and eventually affect the company’s profitability.
Analyzing the Ethical Dilemma: Individual Differences
Ethical behaviors entail pursuing positive actions that are consistent with a person’s values or social norms. Ethical individuals will be willing to work for well-reputed firms. Similarly, an individual who has a personal ethical philosophy will promote desirable behaviors that resonate with his or her organization’s code of conduct (Drumwright et al. 442). It is agreeable that people should act ethically and promote the most desirable behaviors.
Ethical principles guide employees to protect and safeguard their companies’ resources. They should also ensure their action plans support the goals of their organizations. Employees should portray different values such as integrity, respect, and openness. Individuals who maintain a sense of honesty will be responsible and act in accordance with the scope of their jobs (Gino 109). These arguments explain why the outlined behaviors would be considered unethical by many scholars.
Ethical theorists can also be used to support this argument. According to deontology, human beings should focus on morally right decisions or actions. Desirable behaviors should be the ones that are informed by a sense of obligation or duty (Ebrahimi et al. 151). A person’s intention whenever focusing on a given decision should be used to determine if it is good or not. This means that the consequences of a given action should not dictate its acceptability in the society.
The utilitarian principle goes further to support ethical decision-making processes. According to the model, people should pursue moral deeds that will result in universal benefits (Carrington et al. 28). For example, an action would be acceptable if it supports the objectives of a given organization or society.
In conclusion, employees should possess appropriate competencies, values, and attributes if they are to support their organization’s objectives. The above behaviors are, therefore, unethical since they fail to promote the agenda of the hypothetical company. People should develop appropriate ethical philosophies and examine various theories in order to make their firms successful.
Works Cited
Carrington, Michal J., et al. “The Ideology of the Ethical Consumption Gap.” Marketing Theory, vol. 16, no. 1, 2016, pp. 21-38.
Downe, James, et al. “What Determines Ethical Behavior in Public Organizations: Is It Rules or Leadership?” Public Administration Review, vol. 76, no. 6, 2016, pp. 898-909.
Drumwright, Robert, et al. “Behavioral Ethics and Teaching Ethical Decision Making.” Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education, vol. 13, no. 3, 2015, pp. 431-458.
Ebrahimi, Hossein, et al. “Ethical Behavior of Nurses in Decision-Making in Iran.” Iranian Journal of Nursing and Midwifery Research, vol. 20, no. 1, 2015, pp. 147-155.
Gino, Francesca. “Understanding Ordinary Unethical Behavior Why People Who Value Morality Act Immorally.” Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, vol. 3, no. 1, 2015, pp. 107-111.
Nelson, Debra L., and James C. Quick. ORGB: Organizational Behavior. 5th ed., South-Western College Publisher, 2016.