Unethical Decision Making
“Unethical Decisions Making is at the For-Front of Corporate Scandals”
BUS600: Management Communication with Technology Tools”
Sherrie Lewis
Altrice Mitchell
December 12, 2011
Ashford University
Individuals make personal decisions about what they believe is right or wrong. These decisions are based on ethics. Ethics are a set of moral principles in values that govern behavior. Like individuals, businesses develop ethics to help them determine how to behave(Rue, Byers, 2007). Business ethics focuses on what constitutes right or wrong behavior in the business world and how moral and ethical principles are applied by business persons to situations that arise in their daily activities in the workplace ( Clarkson, Miller, Jentz, Crosse, 2006).
Unethical decision making has been at the forefront of the corporate scandals that have occurred over the past 15 years.
Upon researching ethics as a topic I have found numerous resources that support my opinion, however, I thought that there would be more. The many sources that were found through the ProQuest database were mainly scholarly articles discussing the behavioral aspects of Business Ethics. These articles helped me understand more of the reasons behind unethical decision making. For other sources of information, I also used two of my old textbooks. These textbooks simply provided a base for ethics and Business Ethics. None of the research that I have found, thus far, has changed any of the opinions on ethics that I had before researching this topic. I did, however, find articles that contradicted other articles that were found. For example, in “Highlights of Finance and Accounting Ethics Research”, the author suggests that management is making better ethical decisions simply because they were caught making unethical ones. In a different publication, “Did Enron and SOX Change Ethical Behavior at U.S. Companies?”, the study suggests that even after legislation had been put in place to avoid these
BUS600: Management Communication with Technology Tools”
Sherrie Lewis
Altrice Mitchell
December 12, 2011
Ashford University
Individuals make personal decisions about what they believe is right or wrong. These decisions are based on ethics. Ethics are a set of moral principles in values that govern behavior. Like individuals, businesses develop ethics to help them determine how to behave(Rue, Byers, 2007). Business ethics focuses on what constitutes right or wrong behavior in the business world and how moral and ethical principles are applied by business persons to situations that arise in their daily activities in the workplace ( Clarkson, Miller, Jentz, Crosse, 2006).
Unethical decision making has been at the forefront of the corporate scandals that have occurred over the past 15 years.
Upon researching ethics as a topic I have found numerous resources that support my opinion, however, I thought that there would be more. The many sources that were found through the ProQuest database were mainly scholarly articles discussing the behavioral aspects of Business Ethics. These articles helped me understand more of the reasons behind unethical decision making. For other sources of information, I also used two of my old textbooks. These textbooks simply provided a base for ethics and Business Ethics. None of the research that I have found, thus far, has changed any of the opinions on ethics that I had before researching this topic. I did, however, find articles that contradicted other articles that were found. For example, in “Highlights of Finance and Accounting Ethics Research”, the author suggests that management is making better ethical decisions simply because they were caught making unethical ones. In a different publication, “Did Enron and SOX Change Ethical Behavior at U.S. Companies?”, the study suggests that even after legislation had been put in place to avoid these
References: Anonymous, . Did Enron and SOX Change Ethical Behavior at U.S. Cos.? (2008, February). HR Focus, 85(2), 9. Retrieved December 13, 2011, from ABI/INFORM Complete. (Document ID: 1424806391). Bolt-Lee, C., & Moody, J.. (2010). Highlights of Finance and Accounting Ethics Research. Journal of Accountancy, 210(4), 38-41,10. Retrieved December 13, 2011, from ABI/INFORM Complete. (Document ID: 2158821481). This scholarly article explores the idea that management is becoming more aware of the consequences of unethical behavior due to the punishment given to companies like Enron. Coates, J.. (2007) Clarkson, Miller, Jentz, Cross. 2006. West’s Business Law Text and Cases. Mason, Ohio: Thomas Higher Education. Rue, Byers. 2007. Management Skills and Application. New York, New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin. This book teaches the theories of management. It explores virtually every aspect of management. Woiceshyn, J.. (2011)