Chapter 16 Ethical Decisions

1. Chapter 16Ethical Decisions • Not interested in classical unethical behavior (criminal activities) and big issues Shuttle disasters • Incorporate ethical values in a decision • List of ethical values to consider • Recognize there are ethical issues • Identify and explore ethical values in conflict • Balance the ethical issues • No right answer • Not label decision maker -- unethical

2. Ethical Issues? Tim has worked for his present employer for ten years. During this time, he has advanced from trainee to senior engineer. Until approximately five months ago, Tim’s performance had been exceptionally strong but then changed dramatically. Assignment deadlines were missed and those that were turned in were either incomplete or of poor quality. Team members were becoming frustrated because of Tim’s lack of participation. His boss is considering a variety of forms of progressive discipline.

3. Overview • Decision-making can be difficult • Multiple people • Competing goals • Multiple objectives • Uncertainty • Good ethical decisions • Recognizes and evaluates ethical issues • Appropriate balance between conflicting values

4. Ethics Definitions • Morality, norms, principles, and standards • The science of human duty (e.g. political, social, medical) • Rules of conduct • Moral principles • Rightness and wrongness of actions • Goodness and badness of motives

5. Ethical PrinciplesThe nature of right and wrong • Doing the right thing • Doing no harm • Telling the truth • Not interfering with the rights of others • Observing the golden rule Issue: From whose perspective?

6. Thesis • People strive to make ethical decisions if they recognize there is an ethical dilemma • In the best interest of businesses? • It is easier said than done • Values include sources of conflict • Bias barriers • Pressure barriers • Policy statements, codes of ethics, and laws cannot prevent breaches

7. Making Moral Decisions: Awareness through questioning • Am I addressing the right problem? • Am I aware of all of the issues? • Who will be harmed by this decision? • What is the right thing to do? • Will I regret this decision later? • Would I be embarrassed if my decision became public knowledge? • Do the long-term benefits outweigh the short-term losses? Issues: • Extent to which values are weighed • Moral standards vary among people

8. Ethical Decision-Making The Context of Decisions (Guy, 1990) Individual factors: (knowledge, values, intentions, interests) Problem Decision Maker Decision Stakeholders: Opportunity considerations: costs, difficulty, customary policy, and potential consequences self, superiors, peers, subordinates, family, and community

9. The Four Complex Questions • Which course of action will do the most good and the least harm? • Which alternative best serves other’s rights? • Which plan can I live with, which is consistent with my basic values and commitments? • Which course of action is feasible in the world as it is?

10. Values: Generally Accepted? • Caring for people in general • Prioritizing others’ needs in a social network • Respect for others • Harmony and avoidance of conflict • Honesty • Fairness • Integrity Which do you think people find most difficult to maintain?

11. Values (cont.) Generally Accepted? • Fidelity • Self-discipline • Promise keeping • Responsibility • Pursuit of excellence • Survive, sustain, and thrive • Responsible citizenship Which do you think people find most difficult to maintain?

12. Biases and Myopia • Associations • In-group favoritism Activity: Describe a situation in your experience where in-group favoritism was ethically justifiable. Activity: Describe a situation in your experience where in-group favoritism was not ethically justifiable.

13. Biases and Myopia • Conflict(s) of interest(s) • Self-deception • Euphemisms • Gifts Activity: Describe a situation in which you have observed a conflict of interest in your surroundings at work or in local government. Activity: Describe an organizational situation in which you or a colleague received a small gift from someone. What do you think the giver was hoping to accomplish?

14. Biases and Myopia • Estimating consequences • Lies • Withholding information • Ethical boundaries

15. Biases and Myopia Activity: Describe a decision in which you poorly estimated the consequences to others. What was the impact on the recipient? What was the recipient’s reaction to the decision? Activity: Describe a situation in which you know a lie was told to you or information was withheld but you wish you had been correctly informed. Activity: Describe a situation in which you felt it was ethically correct to withhold information or lie. How do you think the other person would have felt if he had known the truth? Activity: Describe a situation where you allowed some leeway or told a white lie that had ethical implications. How did you justify this decision to yourself?

16. Biases and Myopia • Don’t want to know Activity: Describe a situation where you became aware of a potentially suspect activity. What action, if any, did you take? What made the decision difficult?

17. Strategies to Counter Biases • Collect data about yourself • Implicit Association Test https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/ • Shape the environment • Broaden your decision-making • Overseas assignments • Diversify decision-making group

18. Competing Pressures • Time • Cost and profit • Peers Activity: Describe a situation where you experienced time pressure to complete an assignment that led to cutting corners that undermined other ethical values. Activity: Describe a situation where you were faced with cost pressure that had an impact on some other measure in your organization. How did you deal with the tradeoffs associated with this pressure? Activity: Describe a situation where you faced peer pressure. How did you deal with the pressure? Why did you choose to deal with the situation in this way?

19. Competing Pressures • Family • Competitive Activity: Describe a situation where you had to make a decision between work and family commitments. How did you deal with the pressure?

20. Strategies to Counter Pressures • Methodology to focus on the decision • Identify decision elements • Set priorities • Evaluate alternatives • Alternative trade-offs • Evaluate alternatives against priorities

21. Short Cases • The recently poorly performing employee (personal crisis) • Would your approach be different now? • Placing a relative in a managed care facility • Squeezing suppliers – renegotiating contracts in crisis • Pressure to achieve and ignoring future problems

22. Short Cases The design of a powertrain control module includes both hardware and software dimensions. The automotive company decided to develop a common hardware architecture that could be used on all corporate powertrains and would be the means for tailoring the performance to the specific powertrain families. The goal of this powertrain control module strategy was to achieve significant hardware cost reduction via economies of scale. The target cost for the module was $200 and Sam, a newly appointed engineering supervisor, had a stretch objective of $180.

23. Short Cases • Corporate culture vs. personal ethics • Selecting a supplier (domestic, developed country, emerging market) • The dilemma of being a lean organization

24. Short Cases Ted, an industrial engineer, was ideally suited for his next assignment. His company was under a lot of pressure to reduce their manufacturing costs. Ted had suggested that a good approach to accomplish this objective would be to apply lean manufacturing methodologies.