Ethical Analysis Paper

Ethical Decision Making

The circumstances in which we find ourselves often have more to do with the decisions we make and actions we take than do our basic character traits (p. 17)

… the situational dominates the dispositional; in other words, under the right conditions, “Good people can be induced, seduced and initiated into behaving in evil ways.” (p. 17).

Obedience to Authority: the boss need not explicitly order an employee to perform unethical activities. Employees are intuitive politicians who can infer the wishes of those to whom they are accountable and act accordingly. Second, although employees may recognize the unethical nature of their behavior, a desire to please authority may lead them to focus on carrying out instructions or fulfilling a superior’s desires without even realizing the ethical dimensions of their actions (p. 18).

Conformity Bias: people have a strong need for social approval. Overcoming peer pressure in order to criticize colleagues strategic or tactical decisions is difficult. To criticize their decisions on ethical grounds is much more difficult because of the subjective nature of ethical judgments and the implicit criticisms being made of the colleagues character (p. 18). Employees become acculturated to the day-to-day behavior they see around them because they assume such behavior is what is normal and acceptable.

Incrementalism: unethical behavior occurs when people unconsciously ‘lower the bar’ over time through small changes in the ethicality of behavior. People more often slide down a slippery slope in tandem with their peers in an organization. Gradually adapted to a corporate culture that encourages and rewarded actions that pushed the envelope into the unethical and the illegal.

Groupthink: deterioration of mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment that results from in-group pressures. When independent thinking is replaced by groupthink, poor decisions of all types can be made. Groups under the sway of groupthink tend to assume that their goals are ethical and to avoid questioning the morality of their own behavior. Moral doubts are assuaged by group concurrence.

Overoptimism: many people have a tendency toward optimism that is so strong it can lead to irrational beliefs and injurious decisions. Irrational optimism can lead to systemic errors in decision making, and can induce unethical conduct.

Overconfidence: irrational confidence in the accuracy of their decisions. Overconfidence in their own moral compass often leads people to make decisions that have significant ethical implications without engaging in any serious reflection. They “know” they are good people and are confident in their instinctive judgments.

Self-Serving Bias: inclines decision makers to gather information in such a manner as to advance their perceived self-interest and to support their preexisting views. All people have a tendency to gather information in a self-serving way, and also to process it self-servingly as well. People see what they expect to see in the facts that they take in. People even remember information in a self-serving way. Even when they are trying to be impartial, people tend to confuse what is personally beneficial with what is fair or moral. (Strong monetary incentives can warp the judgments of even well-intentioned people). The more complex and uncertain the factual setting is, the more impact the self-serving bias is likely to have.

Framing: reframing a question can produce a totally different answer from the same respondent. When issues are framed so as to focus on one, relevant factor and other factors are minimized, problems can result.

Sunk Costs: sunk costs can lead to an escalation of commitment.

Near Term: vivid tangible factors that affect those near to us have a greater impact on decision making than do factors that are subdued, abstract, or far removed in space. When an action has both short-term and long –term consequences, the short-term effects are much more vivid and more easier for people to consider. People tend to prefer immediate to delayed gratification.

Loss Aversion: people enjoy gains only half as much as they suffer from losses. People will make unethical decisions to protect something that they value in the present even if they didn’t value it in the past – the avoidance of losing something that has become important in the present even though it wasn’t important in the past.

Debiasing or Correcting Judgments:

1. Be informed of the cognitive biases we face.

2. The decision maker must be motivated to recognize and correct the bias.

3. The decision maker must be aware of the magnitude and direction of the bias.

4. The decision maker must be able to adjust their response accordingly.

Rationalization

Self-justification