Ethical Decision Making Framework Assessments

Ethical Decision-Making Framework Model
Assessment
Summary
Alternatives
Analysis
Application
Action
Notes
Ethical Assessment #1
This exercise was about right and wrong answers. You either
knew the material or you did not
I didn’t do as well as I hoped but that is to be expect given this
is week one of the course
Form the reading it was clear that ethics and business is not as
simple as making right, wrong, good, or bad choices based on
one’s personal belief. The reason this is so is because in
personal life, profit of a company is not a consideration. There
are no shareholders but, in some cases, there are stakeholders
dependent on the decision. being made. But it was clear that
you can’t just be a good person and be an ethical business
leader.
I will need to consider the appropriateness and how to apply my
personal morals and values when making business related
decisions. I hope that we will see a good example of a company
that does this during this course.
In the Values Inventory I rated assistance, character, honesty,
integrity, sacrifice, and truthfulness very high as these are
principles that I value in making ethical decisions. My response

was based on not knowing the situation or scenario. An
alternative would have been to rate some of the other areas
high, but I found this difficult because those I selected are
always non-negotiables for me. On the
The pros for the Values Inventory are limited to the fact that I
was comfortable with them because they are what I consider
non-negotiables. The con is that I didn’t give the others
appropriate consideration because I didn’t feel like I had the
information to do so.
dependent on the decision being made. But it was clear that you
can’t just be a good person and be an ethical business leader.
Moral Philosophy Assessment, I scored 25 overall which was 10
points higher than my classmates. An alternative would have
been to put aside my personal morals and values to elect to
assist a loved one end their life.
The pros for my choices on the Moral Philosophy exercise were
limited to the fact that it aligned with my personal morals and
values. The Con is that I was not willing to consider an
alternative because to do so would have been a significant
departure from my personal beliefs

dependent on the decision being made. But it was clear that you
can’t just be a good person and be an ethical business leader.
Week One Summary
See Above
See Above
See above
See above
Week Two Summary
The case study on Mark showcased a good approach to
corporate citizenship while the microchip case study left me
with a sense of uncertainty on how that citizenship should be
applied to the fielding of new technologies. The only
alternative would have been for Mark to not shift his mindset
and engagement to one of sustainment and for the fielding of
the microchip to be mandatory without the proper oversight and
regulatory environment.
The pros of Mark’s decision clearly enabled relationships with
companies like Dow Chemical and create opportunities to look
at their business practices to identify areas of improvement that
would facilitate sustainment. Conversely, if he would not have
made the shift, I am not sure these things wouldn’t have
happened anyways as Mark was doing it for Goldman Sachs
prior to his departure. The pros of fielding new technology and
allowing the oversight and regulatory environment to catch up
after the fact really revolve around convenience and the change
of organizational practices to benefit from their use.
Conversely, this would allow it to be exploited in a way that
could cause irreparable damage
From the reading corporate citizenship is very important and

often will determine a company’s success or failure depending
on their willingness to change as a result of the changing needs
landscape. An article by Donovan McFarlane was important
because it said “By having a social vision, a company becomes
clear about what it needs to do to become an important
corporate citizen and how it will carry out its plan to build an
image and reputation as part of community progress and
growth.”
It was apparent that a solid approach to corporate governance is
required to “keep the wheels turning” but also holds leaders and
workers accountable for unethical conduct. This is interesting
because I did some follow-up research on Mark Tercerk and
found that he stepped down in June 2019 amid complaints about
the culture at the environmental group and his handling of
complaints about gender inequality and discrimination (Colman
2019). In the business world, perceived bad behavior or
inability to resolve ethics-based issues in the organization can
have disastrous consequences.
Week Three Summary
The first alternative had to do with our discussion post and how
to handle a situation that teetered on the edge of ethical
decision making. The situation had to do with relationships that
led to the perception of an advantage. I decided that the issue
wasn’t the relationship and thus would not ban relationships in
the work area. An alternative would be to ban the relationship
in the work area.
The other thing we looked at was peer-reviewed articles
covering a topic related to our reading on the essential Elements
of Ethical Decision-making. I chose an article based on cause-
related marketing and Rawl’s Difference principle. The
alternative to cause-related marketing is to make and sell a
product that only benefits the consumer and turns a profit for
the business. The alternative to Rawls Principle is to not
consider the disadvantages associated with social mobility and
therefore not provide any incentives or programs that help those

in society who are least advantage overcome their status to
become successful
The pros to prohibiting romantic relationships in an
organization are that it creates a necessary separation between
business and personal. The con is that it doesn’t address the
problem. As the problem is why the perception exists on the
advantage in question. That advantage can exist whether there
is a romantic relationship or not.
The pros to not employing cause-related marketing are that it
streamlines the considerations required by the business. In a lot
of ways, they could ignore things like supply chain ethics and
management. The con is that you lose a market sector of
stakeholders who are willing to pay a higher price for a cause-
based product and miss out on the social responsibility
outcomes as well.
The reading made it clear that businesses must institutionalize
ethics in their business practices and make ethical decisions
based on a variety of factors that may not always apply to the
service they hope to provide. For cause-related marketing, the
articles by Hamby & Brinberg as well as Eikenberry illuminated
the benefits of cause-related marketing practices but left me
with the notion that as a consumer I don’t really care about the
social benefits of a product and care more about fit, form, and
function.
For Rawl’s principle, I read an article by Machin that talked
about the complexities associate with the issue of social
mobility. There is no easy solution to this problem and
penalizing those who are successful to benefit those who would
perhaps never be successful seems unfair. In my opinion this is
a combination government and business problem to solve.
I need to be more open minded to the benefits of cause-related
marketing strategies and be less fit, form, and function focused.
While I want a product that meets my needs, I guess I am
willing to pay more if it benefits a cause that I can relate too.
In short it makes me feel like a good human being to do so.

Week Four Summary
There were two case studies this week that focused on Theo
Chocolate and CVS. My thoughts on Theo Chocolate is that it
is admirable that they sell a chocolate bare that doubly benefits
the farmers in the DRC. The alternative would be to sell a
normal chocolate bar or continue to buy the beans from DRC
farmers without the investment to protect the supply chain or
partner with NPOs to benefit the community after the sale. CVS
placed more emphasis on profit, and it cost them. Their many
ethical challenges really resulted from poor oversight and
programs. They eventually turned it around and even decided to
eliminate the sale of tobacco products in their store because its
sale did not align with their core values. The alternative would
be to do like many others and continue to sale it.
The pros of Theo changing would be simplicity of operations
and maximize the profit returned to the company provided they
made a good product if all they did was make a regular priced
chocolate bar. The con would be they would be just like
everyone else and the benefits of their existing CSR practices
would be lost. The pros of simply buying the beans at a higher
cost would be limited additional overhead driven by supply
chain oversight, etc.
For CVS the pros to continue selling tobacco would be the
profits associated with those products. The con would be it
would slow their reputation gains as refusing to sell that
product clearly shows their commitment to their core values and
the changes necessary after so many ethical issues.
This week reading covered a lot of topics related to moral
philosophies and values, the role of culture and relationships,
and developing an effective ethics program. There were several
articles I read to help me understand the impacts of business
practices and their effectiveness on eliciting change based on
their investments. One of those articles was The Effectiveness
of Rural Versus Urban Nonprofit Organizations in the
Democratic Republic of Congo which showcased that there is
limited data to prove that these company’s efforts truly benefit

the cultures they are interacting with.
After this week, I am committed to take a closer look at things
versus jumping to conclusions that a company’s unethical
behavior automatically equals nefarious conduct. While I am
sure there are plenty of examples of where this has occurred,
what is also clear is that complacency can be just as dangerous,
if not more dangerous, than bad behavior.
Week Five Summary
This week was all about managing and controlling ethic
programs. The case study on BP showed how failing to
maintain a functioning ethics program can result in disastrous
consequences that can last for years. I chose to criticism BP for
there action following the 2010 Gulf Coast oil spill because of
how they responded to the crisis and how it continues to affect
other industries today. I could have chosen to applaud their
cleanup efforts and consider the bulk of their actions from a
different perspective but fell short in coming up with a good
reason to do so.
I also looked at the implications of shareholder activism on
influencing corporate decisions and governance.
The only pro to how BP responded is in the fact that the spill
was contained, and practices were implemented to mitigate the
impacts on other industries.
The con list is lengthy beginning with how the CEO of BP
responded say “I wish I had my life back.” Also, of note is
even today fishing and tourism industries are impacted by the
lasting impacts of an event that should have been avoidable.
For shareholder activism the pros were clear. Allowing
shareholders to truly influence the decisions made by
corporations would lead to undeniable accountability for the
practices of those businesses as well as the results of those
practices on stakeholders.
The con to this approach would be the persistence regulatory
that would be required to manage it and the cost associated with
conducting it.

These week’s reading focused on maintaining functioning ethics
programs with heavy emphasis on the various ways a program
can be audited to ensure in stays healthy. During the case study
we were asked a what if question regarding shareholder ability
to influence BP to change its business practices in the future
which would, in leaderships opinion, have significant negative
implications. I read several articles on shareholder activism
and arrived at the conclusion that shareholder activism is an
almost impossible task to accomplish
I think going forward I would want to ensure the businesses I
choose to use employ practices that not only maintain an ethical
climate but also give equal footing to both shareholders as well
as stakeholders affected by a company’s practices.
Week Six Summary
This week we looked at the globalization of ethical decision-
making in business. Our case study for the week was on Google
and how they have not only expanded from a simple search
engine to a technology giant, but also how this expansion has
resulted in significant ethical implications. It was clear to me
that Google needs to choose an alternative way of doing
business starting with its privacy practices. Next, they need to
look at their legal engagements and finally consider that their
decisions in some cases do not align with their core
values/company mantra of “Do No Evil.” They should consider
introducing more transparency in the practices they are using
and what is being done with the vast amounts of information
they are collecting. They should also spend less time trying to
hold on to questionable legal practices through litigation and
spend more time adjusting to the consumer perspective
especially when it creates angst in an immature regulatory
environment. Finally, they should stop making decisions to do
things, like develop a communist search engine that facilitates
censorship, merely to get into a market where they would
otherwise not have access. A whole lot of transparency
wouldn’t hurt either.

The pros to Google making these adjustments would be
increased loyalty and reputation. Additionally, resulting profits
should increase because consumers know exactly what is
happening behind the scenes with the technologies they are
choosing to utilize.
The cons of course would be some consumers will just decide
not to use their products. Likewise, Google may not be the
number one in a market because choosing to do business in that
market would be a violation of its core values.
This week’s reading focused on the implications of MNC doing
business in foreign lands. There is a litany of considerations
that corporation must consider if they want to business outside
the US. In some cases, decisions made in the US that may be
ethical are not so in a foreign country. I read several articles
about Google such as “Big Tech Under Fire: It motto used to be
“Don’t be Evil” by W. Jasper that uncovered that some of
Google’s practice clearly stepped over the line of what would
be considered ethical and even uncovered situations where the
giant had practiced censorship.
I probably need to be less biased when presented with
information that is harmful to a company’s ethical stance. This
week certainly made me realize there are a lot of consideration
when operating in a foreign land, and I may not like all of the
concession a business has to make in order to operate and turn a
profit in those countries.
Week Seven Summary
This week we looked at leadership and social responsibility in
business. There were two case studies on Zappos and
Lululemon. In Zappos’ case the business operates very
ethically but made a decision that was considered controversial
by its employee to change its organizational structure that
effectively eliminated manages. Alternatively, Toney Hsieh
could have elected not to make the change and could have
continued to benefit from his company’s successful business

practices.
The Lululemon case study focused on the results of unethical
conduct on the part of its CEOs and how that can impact an
otherwise superior product. Most of the statements and
practices of its CEO revolved around either their unwillingness
to change or by employing practices to eavesdrop on customers
for the purpose of getting ground truths on customers desires
for their product lines. An alternative would have been to take
a close look at company core values and ensure they are aligned
to the purpose of your product line and ensure they do not result
in forceful business practices. Also being transparent with
customers on the fact that you are listening to their
conversations when they are in your store would have
immediately shown that most consumers are not okay with this
approach.
The pros to Tony Hsieh electing to not change the
organizational structure of his company would have been
continued success like what Zappos experienced prior to its
change. He would also been able to avoid what was a
significant financial cost when ~28% of his employees left
which resulted in severance packages and they need to hire and
train a significant portion of his workforce. The only con is
doing so would have required him to let go of his vision for
Zappos.
The pros for Lululemon would have been increased reputation
and profits resulting from a closer alignment of their company’s
values with the product they were selling. Also, telling
customers up front they were being eavesdropped on would
have uncovered that this is not an acceptable practice and would
have allowed them to consider different option to get they
information needed to make good product decisions. The con is
these things would have taken time and would have cost the
company financing to effectively re-brand themselves.
This week’s focus was on ethical leadership and sustainability.
Zappos clearly showed well on both fronts while Lululemon
still has work to do in the leadership area. Both companies

practice good social responsibility in their offerings to
consumers and employees. The article “First, Let’s Get Rid of
All the Bosses” by R. Hodge was an intimate look at Zappos’
change to a Teal organization and how it affected its employees.
This week everything came into focus with regards to my
ethical self-awareness. Making ethical decisions in business is
not hard but it does require a lot of time and effort. It was
refreshing to see Zappos operating in a way that should be a
lesson to every company that balance can be achieved but often
times at the expense of those things regularly associated with
high power CEOs.
Week Eight Summary
Assessment Make sure you have al lthe facts about the
ethical dillemia
Alternatives Consider your choices
Analysis Identify your decision and tests its validity
Application Apply ethical principles to your decision
Action Make a decision

Ethical Decision Making Framework Assessments

Ethical Decision Making Framework Assessments

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