Ethical Decision Making
Ethical Decision Making
Management 334
March 22, 2007
Ethical Decision Making
Halliburton is a corporate giant in the world and in the oil industry. Halliburton is notorious for their poor legal, ethical, and social responsibilities. Because of these poor ethical practices, many organizations have tightly watched Halliburton’s business practices. The company has suffered because of their wrongdoing. Due to this scandalous behavior, criminal investigations that later led to indictments cloud the company’s history. The company was found guilty of breaking US trade laws. However, this did not discourage the company from poor ethical behavior.
Ethical Issue Halliburton’s past defines it as a greedy company. This greed surfaced early last year when Halliburton announced that they would move their corporate office from Houston, Texas to Dubai United Arab Emirates (CBS News, 2007). Several members of Congress have disparaged this move, stating that the move is an insult to the United States and the brave men and women who defend the country. The reason for the feeling of hostility toward the company is that most of Halliburton’s revenue comes directly from the US government. Many speculate that this move is only a creative way to avoid paying taxes. Some members of Congress believe Halliburton is bypassing its social responsibility to the very country that helped build its success (CBS News, 2007).
Ethical Problem Solving When one faces ethical dilemmas, it is helpful to apply the six ethical decision-making steps; issue clarification, stakeholder analysis, values identification, issue resolution, addressing objections, and resolution implementation. Many ethical resolution systems exist; most of the systems contain similar steps in solving ethical dilemmas. These systems are tried and true in their ability to aid in the resolution of difficult ethical dilemmas.
Issue Clarification The first step to the ethical problem solving process is to
Management 334
March 22, 2007
Ethical Decision Making
Halliburton is a corporate giant in the world and in the oil industry. Halliburton is notorious for their poor legal, ethical, and social responsibilities. Because of these poor ethical practices, many organizations have tightly watched Halliburton’s business practices. The company has suffered because of their wrongdoing. Due to this scandalous behavior, criminal investigations that later led to indictments cloud the company’s history. The company was found guilty of breaking US trade laws. However, this did not discourage the company from poor ethical behavior.
Ethical Issue Halliburton’s past defines it as a greedy company. This greed surfaced early last year when Halliburton announced that they would move their corporate office from Houston, Texas to Dubai United Arab Emirates (CBS News, 2007). Several members of Congress have disparaged this move, stating that the move is an insult to the United States and the brave men and women who defend the country. The reason for the feeling of hostility toward the company is that most of Halliburton’s revenue comes directly from the US government. Many speculate that this move is only a creative way to avoid paying taxes. Some members of Congress believe Halliburton is bypassing its social responsibility to the very country that helped build its success (CBS News, 2007).
Ethical Problem Solving When one faces ethical dilemmas, it is helpful to apply the six ethical decision-making steps; issue clarification, stakeholder analysis, values identification, issue resolution, addressing objections, and resolution implementation. Many ethical resolution systems exist; most of the systems contain similar steps in solving ethical dilemmas. These systems are tried and true in their ability to aid in the resolution of difficult ethical dilemmas.
Issue Clarification The first step to the ethical problem solving process is to