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Overview of Ethical Reasoning Competency
Introduction
Purpose of these Modules: Students will be able to identify and address conflicting ethical values and develop a sense of responsibility for the broad impacts of individual actions, social institutions and public policy. They will understand their role as citizens and their responsibility to work with others in promoting quality of life and a sustainable society. Social responsibility, like civic engagement, means promoting the quality of community life through both political and non-political processes. Ethical reasoning is reasoning about right and wrong human conduct.
Special Instruction for Students in Business Law (BUS2200)
Because you are in Business Law, pay close attention while going through these modules, as you be assessed on your understanding of concepts covered here.
Table of Contents
Ethics Module 1: Ethical Reasoning Basics
Ethics Module 2: Applying Ethical Reasoning to Business
Ethical Reasoning Basics
Ethics Module 1 Required:
- 1). Ethics: Time to Revisit the Basics of Ethics by G.D. Foster (article, 9 pp.)The author reviews the basic ideas behind ethics and discusses its purpose and usefulness in human society.
- 2) Ethical Decision Making by the Ethics Center (video, 3:29 minutes)Think about the last time you made a big decision. Why did you make that choice? What makes you choose one way, rather than picking any of the other options available to you? Decision making can be like an iceberg. So much of the activity happens beneath the surface, where it’s difficult to see. And, like an iceberg, if we forget about what’s happening beneath the surface, catastrophe looms.
- 3) Ethics in the Workplace: Solving Situational and Critical Dilemmas by Global Ethics Solutions (video, 2:10 minutes)"Even the knowledge that something is wrong may not be enough to help you to resist the urge to do it. There may be more variables in play than simple knowledge of the rules. The key to reducing situational dilemmas is to ask the questions: Why do we do what we do? What makes something just too tempting to resist?"
- 4) Legal Rights and Ethical Responsibilities: Concept Unwrapped by McCombs School of Business (video, 6:46 minutes)"The relationship between laws and ethics is not always clear. Legal rights to do something do not necessarily mean the actions are ethically justified."
Ethical Reasoning Basics: Supplemental Videos and Articles
Videos (Optional)
- The Importance of Business Ethics- The Business Mindset"This video covers examples of ethical dilemmas, companies involved in controversial business ethics, as well as the benefits of operating a company with high ethical standards."
- Business Law, Ethics, and Governance- Business@American"Students explore legal implications of working in today’s global business community, while recognizing the importance of social responsibility."
- Integrating Ethics: Ethical Decision-Making"Academic Technologies (AT) at The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), in partnership with the Texas Holocaust and Genocide Commission, created digitized modules designed to provide faculty with effective strategies to improve the integration and teaching of ethics into the core curriculum of any class across disciplines."
- Ethics Case Study: It was Just a Careless Mistake-Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants"David, the Finance Director of a company was alerted to the fact that major customer, Super Pte Ltd, had returned most of the goods shipped to them near the end of the last year. While David is proposing adjustments to the financial statements in order to reflect the return, his proposal is faced with stiff opposition from within his company. Would he be able to handle the situation ethically?"
- Business Ethics on Insider Trading, Whistle-blowing, Etc.- RockinlipsPlaylist of short (2-3 minutes) videos explaining insider trading,
- "It's not worth it" - Micro Film Series on Business Ethics-ICAC"Tim, a renovation contractor, has just got a job to renovate a branch of a chain restaurant and the work is supervised by the project manager Johnny. Johnny seems to be a stickler for the rules in the beginning but he later reveals his true colors by demanding Tim to offer him an unreasonably low rate for renovating his new home. Or else he would make things difficult for Tim. What is Tim going to do?"
- Moral Illusions Explained-McCombs School of Business"We’re all familiar with optical or auditory illusions and how they can affect our perception. But just as our physical senses can be tricked, our moral sense can be fooled, too. Moral illusions can lead even the most well-meaning people astray. Learning about behavioral ethics can help you uncover these moral illusions. And it can also help you learn how to guard against them."
Articles (Optional)
- Empty Ethics and Reasonable Responsibility: Vocabularies of Motive among Law and Business Students, Schleef, D., Law & social inquiry, 1997Ethical reasoning in law students and business students compared.
- An Empirical Study of Future Professionals’ Intentions to Engage in Unethical Business Practices, Devonish, D., et al., Journal of academic ethics, 2009"This paper sought to test whether student demographics (gender, age, religion, type of degree and number of courses done containing ethics) influenced the likelihood of engaging in unethical business practices."
- Case studies of corporate--related financial institutions promoting selfish interests through money laundering and associated unethical-based business practices, Swamy, M.R. Kumara, Journal of financial management and analysis, 2014"The research paper is based on case studies of major corporate related financial institutions with recommendations to come out with practical solutions."
- Compromising Long-Term Sustainability for Short-Term Profit Maximization: Unethical Business Practice, Doorasamy, M. & Baldavaloo, K., Foundations of management, 2016"This paper addresses the underlying factors that determine the extent to which organizations adopt sustainable business practices and cleaner production techniques and technologies. It had been concluded that ethics is linked to sustainable business practices, because the objectives of both these concepts are to think about doing what’s right for others and the world, including the environment."
Applying Ethical Reasoning to Business
Ethics Module 2 Required:
- 1) Toward an Applied Meaning for Ethics in Business by D. Robin (article, 12 pp.)"The purpose of this article is to offer one view of ethics in business that accommodates the mission of business. This purpose is achieved by reviewing the mission of ethics in applied disciplines like business and melding it into the mission of business in capitalistic societies."
- 2) The Impact of Ethics on Business: Two Teachers (video, 6:29 minutes)"A lot of common ethical issues in the workplace go unnoticed due to unconscious bias and this causes them to fester which ultimately ends up promoting a toxic working environment. In order to remove ethical issues from the workplace, you need to understand the most common issues so you can recognize them and adjust your practices as necessary. Here are 5 ways to avoid the most common ethical issues in the workplace."
- 3) Creating Ethical Cultures in Business: Brooke Deterline at TEDxPresidio (video, 8:23 minutes)"As Corporate Director for the Heroic Imagination Project (HIP), Brooke helps boards, executives, and teams at all levels develop the skills to act with courage and ingenuity in the face of challenging situations. This fosters leadership credibility and candor, builds trust, engagement and reduces risk."
Applying Ethical Reasoning to Business- Supplemental Videos and Articles
Videos (Optional)
- Reasoning in Ethics-Ethics Lectures"Meta-ethical questions have to do with the very nature of ethics. One set of questions concern whether moral judgments can be true or not. Another set of meta-ethical questions are related to the role that reason plays in the making of ethical judgments. We are also going to look at how ethical views are related to culture. Different cultures clearly have different views of what is right and wrong, but does this mean that we cannot make ethical judgments that holds true for all people and societies?"
- How to Make Tough Decisions: Crash Course Business"We make small choices like what to eat for lunch, but we also have to set goals, pick a career, and decide how to invest our hard-earned money. It’s not easy! We don’t want to make a decision out of fear, rather than doing what’s best for us. And we don’t want to regret a big choice and dwell on the “what ifs” either."
- Being Your Best Self, Part 2: Moral Decision Making- McCombs School of Business"Moral decision making is the ability to produce a reasonable and defensible answer to an ethical question."
- Ethical Leadership, Part 1: Perilous at the Top-McCombs School of BusinessThe moral example set by leaders has a major impact upon the behavior of their subordinates, both good and bad, ethical and unethical. Despite their career success, leaders may be particularly vulnerable to ethical lapses.
- The Era of Corporate Social Responsibility is Ending | Rachel Hutchisson | TEDxWilmingtonRachel Hutchisson's talk is about why the end of Corporate Social Responsibility is A GOOD THING. Why is it a good thing? Because it will be replaced, by 'Human Social Responsibility.'"
Articles (Optional)
- Ethical Decision Making: A Review of the Empirical Literature, Ford, Robert C. ; Richardson, Woodrow D., Journal of business ethics, 1994"The authors review the empirical literature in order to assess which variables are postulated as influencing ethical beliefs and decision making. The variables are divided into those unique to the individual decision maker and those considered situational in nature."
- Someone to Look Up To: Executive-Follower Ethical Reasoning and Perceptions of Ethical Leadership Jordan, J., Et al., Journal of management, 2013"Despite a business environment that highlights the importance of executives' ethical leadership, the individual antecedents of ethical leadership remain largely unknown. In this study, the authors propose that follower perceptions of ethical leadership depend on the executive leader's cognitive moral development (CMD) and, more importantly, on the relationship between executive leader and follower CMD."
- Values, Authenticity, and Responsible Leadership, Freeman, R. Edward; Auster, Ellen R., Journal of Business Ethics, 2011"We see being authentic as an ongoing process of conversation that not only starts with perceived values but also involves one’s history, relationships with others, and aspirations. Authenticity entails acting on these values for individuals and organizations and thus also becomes a necessary starting point for ethics. After all, if there is no motivation to justify one’s actions either to oneself or to others, then as Sartre has suggested, morality simply does not come into play. We argue that the idea of responsible leadership can be enriched with this more nuanced idea of the self and authenticity."
- Values, Spirituality and Religion: Family Business and the Roots of Sustainable Ethical Behavior Astrachan, Joseph H. et al., Journal of business ethics, 2020" In this editorial, we introduce the 10 papers included in this Special Issue , which investigate the relationship between religion or spirituality and family firm ethical behavior in various geographical, cultural and religious contexts, using a multitude of qualitative and quantitative methodologies."