Company Ethical Issue Identification

Prepare a 4-5 response paper that analyzes an ethical dilemma and makes recommendations to address that ethical dilemma.

Introduction

Once you have looked at the broadest dimensions of corporate and personal ethics, it is helpful to understand the theories behind the issues and to try different approaches in analyzing them. Challenge yourself to both assess your own reasoning within those prevailing theories and to understand differences in preferred modes of operating within the context of ethics and business. Your learning will be most rewarding if you take the time to reflect by assessing your previous ethical decisions and determining whether you would have acted differently given a second opportunity.

It is also useful to examine specific stakeholder issues in the external environment where board members, regulators, and consumers participate in the business process every day. To what extent should they shape or influence ethical behavior in business?

Overview

Ethical dilemmas within companies can have various forms Some well-known examples would be:

• Gender inequality (paying a man more than a woman for the same work).
• Embezzling.
• Privacy breaches.
• Inappropriate use of social media.

For this assessment, you should consider a suitable company-wide ethical dilemma and discuss why you believe it is a problem and how you would remedy the dilemma. This exercise provides the opportunity for reflecting on ethical issues in the workplace and helps you to better understand their impact and how fixing the issue can benefit everyone.

Instructions

You will first need to identify a current or potential ethical dilemma in a company. This could be a company where you are now employed, a former employer, a friend’s company, or another company that had an ethical dilemma that you may have read about in the news. The issue should also be something that needs to be addressed with an organizational policy inside the company, such as harassment, discrimination, embezzlement, or fraud. In other words, you believe that a policy change would be better than other courses of action (such as disciplinary action toward an individual employee, or external action by the government or a nonprofit) to remedy the issue. You do not have to create a policy at this time; you just need to explain why implementing a policy would be the right choice to address the situation or issue.

For example, a company may choose to videotape the office and read employee emails, so what’s the big deal? The conflict in this example could be that employees feel these practices are a violation of privacy and they feel entitled to a certain level of privacy. However, company owners and stakeholders defend these practices on the premise that they are ensuring employees are remaining productive and getting their work done.

Follow these steps to complete your assessment. For all of these steps, make sure you provide examples and information from credible sources to support your writing and claims:

• Step 1: Analyze an ethical dilemma that needs to be addressed.
  • Describe the current ethical dilemma and how it affects various stakeholders.
  • Explain how the ethical dilemma warrants a company to take the time to address it.
  • Explain the implications of not addressing the ethical issue.
• Step 2: Analyze the different methods for resolving the ethical dilemma.
  • Describe the different ethical methods that are available to be used.
  • Explain how these methods can be applied to resolve the ethical dilemma.
  • Explain the ramifications and consequences of not addressing the ethical dilemma.
• Step 3: Recommend an appropriate method to address the ethical dilemma.
  • Explain how the organization can fix and address the dilemma.
  • Explain why you think your recommendations are appropriate and the right approach to addressing the specific dilemma.
• Step 4: Describe how a specific ethical dilemma corresponds with larger issues on a regional, national, or global level.
  • Discuss how this specific dilemma could impact policies and regulations on a larger scale.
  • Incorporate the ramifications and consequences (discussed in Step 2) with your description of how the ethical dilemma could impact all levels.

Additional Requirements

Your submission should meet the following requirements:

• Written communication: Write in complete sentences free from errors that detract from the overall message. Communicate in an exemplary and professional manner through clear, concise, well-organized, and grammatically correct writing.
• Font: Arial, 12-point.
• Page length: 4–5 pages.
• Citations: Include complete citations of your sources. Review Evidence and APA for more information on how to cite your sources. You can also use the Writing Center, Writing Support, and Wayfinding the Writing Center [DOCX] as resources to help you with the writing process.

Review the assessment scoring guide for details on how your assessment will be graded.

Competencies Measured

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:

• Competency 1: Evaluate the parameters for ethical decision-making in 21st-century multi-cultural business environments.
  • Analyze an ethical dilemma that needs to be addressed.
  • Describe how a specific ethical dilemma corresponds with larger issues on a regional, national, or global level.
• Competency 3: Evaluate organizational policy within the framework of ethical standards.
  • Analyze the different methods for resolving the ethical dilemma.
  • Recommend an appropriate method to address the ethical dilemma.
• Competency 4: Convey purpose, in an appropriate tone and style, incorporating supporting evidence and adhering to organizational, professional, and scholarly writing standards.
  • Write in a well-organized and concise manner that adheres to the rules of grammar, usage, and mechanics.