Personal Ethics - Mission and Life Balance Goals - Case Study Example

Personal Ethics Action Plan (PEAP) Dare: Personal Ethics Action Plan (PEAP) Mission and life balance goals Personal mission statement My mission is to act as an agent of positive change in my family, workplace and society by living honestly and compassionately by using my compassion, my integrity, integrity, outgoing attitude, and creativity. My core values are innovation, creativity, integrity, emotional balance, professionalism, flexibility, continuous learning and personal learning. Professional mission statement My professional mission is to offer use my academic knowledge, skills and experience in inspiring my clients to grow emotionally and spiritually and ensure they accomplish their life goals due to my belief in other peoples’ inherent enormous potential. Life balance goals I will approach my professional duties with energy and passion and facilitate the attainment of organisational goals and ensure I make a positive influence on my co-workers. I will participate in charitable activities in the community including helping my school, community organisation and my religious organisation. I will never compromise my integrity based on the opinions of others and I will remain true to my purpose and myself. I will remain ethical, motivate and enthusiastic at all times in both my personal and professional duties. While working in groups, I will ensure that my personal life reflects my character of respect, ethics and integrity and maintain the same standards throughout my career. I will lead by example and demonstrate how hard work and integrity pays off both in personal and professional life. Definitions Based on the course readings, discussions, and research, I have developed a personal opinion about ethics and leadership. Ethics I have learned that ethics comprise of the values, norms, beliefs and basic principles that govern interactions of individuals in the society. Sound ethical principles enable and individual to differentiate what is wrong and what is right. From my research, personal ethics provides the moral background that people build their live and assists in decision-making. Ethics will entail the core values that individuals will reflect on while solving day to day problems. I have also learned that ethics differ from one individual to the other and entails the ‘inner voice’ and intuitions that drive an individual in identifying what they consider as right or wrong in decision making. I believe ethics is demonstrated how an individual treats others with respect and dignity. Some of the virtues that guide individual ethical virtues that I have identified through research and course reading include integrity, competence, generosity and respect for other individuals’ lives and dignity. I have noticed that ethical norms are performed through consistent practice of the character traits that individual wishes to portray as the personal identity in the society. Ethics not only requires an individual to comply with the law but also the generally accepted norms in the society. From my discussions with classmates, the best way to understand your ethics is to begin questioning your beliefs, norms and attitudes of the human nature. Leadership My personal definition of leadership has changed after reading the course materials and holding discussions with my classmates. Initially, I though the purpose of a leader is to direct and give instructions to the subordinates and expect them to accomplish the required tasks. Through the course reading, I have learned that leadership is the process by which an individual influences the followers to accomplish an objective and guides the team in a manner that their efforts are unified and geared at accomplishing a particular goal. Initially I though effective leaders are born with their leadership traits but I have recognized that leadership can be learned and leadership traits are influenced personal values, ethics and character. From my research, I have learned that understanding human nature aspects such as personality, emotions and motivation is essential in effective leadership. From discussions, my definition of leadership has changed since there are essential characteristics of a leader that contribute to the attainment of the vision and mission. Some of the characteristics include creativity, commitment to the goal, excellent communication skills, problem solving skills and interpersonal skills. Pressing ethical issues facing organisations and their leaders There are numerous ethical dilemmas that face modern organisations and their leaders. Some of the issues include crime, employee rights and duties, discrimination and prejudicial employment practices, downsizing, whistle blowing, privacy, and sexual harassment in the workplace. These issues present ethical dilemmas for leaders when making decisions. This section shall discuss discrimination and prejudicial employment practices and privacy. Discrimination and prejudicial employment practices Instances of discrimination and prejudice in employment practices have been on the increase in the past few years. Despite discrimination being illegal, some leaders still discriminate potential job applicants on the basis of gender, age, nationality, race and religious affiliation. Direct discrimination by the leaders may occur when they make derogatory remarks towards a potential employment candidate or another employee in the workplace. Some of the direct discriminatory statements include the job advertisements that specify certain groups of potential as the potential workers. For instance, the management may advertise a vacancy stating that only White candidates above the age of 40 years are needed to apply only. Indirect discrimination in the workplace can occur when leaders bully or regularly demean or shout at members of a particular race or ethic background. In 2008 alone, the United States commission for Equal Employment Opportunities documented about 100,000 cases of job related discrimination complaints (Ferrell, Fraedrich & Ferrell, 2010). This was the highest figure since the passage of Civil Rights Act and the subsequent legislation that prohibit prejudice and discrimination in employment matters. Both federal and state level legislation prohibit discrimination. For instance, the Civil rights Act and Civil Service Reform Acts prohibits any retaliation or punishments to individuals who report instances of discrimination in employment matters (Hansson & Palm, 2005). Discrimination and prejudices in employment matters are unethical. The leaders usually distinguish one individual from others on some physical aspects but not on any wrongful activity. The prejudices are morally unjustified since only religious, political and social differences of individuals contribute to these differences. Leaders in organisations should embrace the ethics of equality, liberty and neutrality in dealing with culturally diverse workforce (Fernando, 2010). Discrimination can be regarded as a morally unjustified attitude that leads to stereotyping on members of a particular ethnic or racial group in the workplace. Leaders should be committed to creating a diverse workforce and respecting individual differences. Employment practices on the basis of sexual orientation, religion, race, color, national origin, ethnicity, disability and marital status should be avoided since they are both illegal and unethical (Fernando, 2010). Business leaders should eliminate policies and procedures that are based on discrimination since it harms certain groups of people in the society. Refusing to hire people from a particular race or even paying women less that their male counterparts in the same job level also amounts to discriminations and prejudices. Discrimination is disrespectful and treats the members of a particular group as an end in themselves (Hansson & Palm, 2005). Discrimination and prejudice violates the ethical principles of utility, rights and justice. Utilitarian ethical argument maintains that the welfare of the society will be high when the available jobs and opportunities are awarded on the basis of merit or competence. According to rights argument of ethics, discrimination is unethical since it violates and harms the rights of some individuals. Human beings should be treated as a means to an end and not an end in themselves. According to Kant, the leaders who discriminate would also not expect the same behaviour universalized and would not want to be discriminated against also. According to the justice argument, Rawls is of the opinion that it is unjust arbitrarily to award some more people unjust opportunities than others (Klebe & Nelson, 2011). People who are equal in all respects in employment matters should not be discriminated on other irrelevant respects that are not related to the employment opportunities. It is both unethical and illegal for leaders to have discriminatory or prejudicial employment practices. Discrimination and prejudicial policies violates the moral equality, moral rights of individuals and equal opportunities ideals that are safeguarded by the law and ethical principles (Hansson & Palm, 2005). Privacy Privacy has become a major ethical issue in the workplace due to advances in technology. Currently, leaders can listen, watch and read employees communication messages. Another aspect of privacy in the workplace concerns the confidentiality of employees’ confidential and private information. Information containing disease history, and wages levels of employees should safeguarded by the leaders (Fernando, 2010). A major reason why leaders monitor the communication messages of employees is to ensure security and confidentiality of the business assets. However, some leaders negligently or knowingly expose employees’ confidential and private information to unauthorised users. Some leaders also expose sensitive private information such as a criminal record of an employee or credit history of the employee to third parties. These practices are considered unethical in modern organisations (Hansson & Palm, 2005). According to Kant, the actions of the leaders should be guided by universal moral laws and they should act according to the two categorical imperative laws. The leaders should act in a manner that their conduct will be considered a universal law and at the same time treat the employees as they would wish to be treated. Monitoring and exposing the privacy of workers is unethical since this rule is being negated (Klebe & Nelson, 2011). The universal law would make exposing the privacy of employees as acceptable for the benefit of the employees or spying the activities of employees as right. Monitoring the cell phone conversations will expose the private information of the employees. According to utilitarian ethics, privacy is unethical since ethical acts should result to enhancement of the happiness of both the leader and the follower. Privacy is unethical since it leads to more costs than benefits to both the leader and employee. For instance, the employer can be sued in a court of law for violating the privacy laws while the employee can suffer negative criticism in the society and also fraud due to exposure of his private information such as the financial information. Monitoring the privacy of employees will also encourage resentment and hinder interpersonal relationships in the organisation. Employees will be unhappy with the monitoring and exposure of confidential information thus leading to their overall productivity in the organisation (Ferrell, Fraedrich & Ferrell, 2010). Exposing the privacy of employees is unethical according to the social contract theory. Actions of the leaders are considered unethical if they violate the moral laws that people collectively consider and accept as binding and lead to benefits to society. This will be unethical issue since the employee will be forced to sacrifice some of their privacy rights for the benefit of the leaders. The leaders should be aware of the legal provisions that safeguard the privacy rights of employee in the workplace. Clear policies should be established to safeguard the privacy of employees. All employees should also be trained on the privacy policies. If the leader has to expose the private information of the employee, he or she should seek the free consent of the employee (Ferrell, Fraedrich & Ferrell, 2010). Case study analysis (PISCO problem solving model) Problem The ‘loan officer and the debtors’ case present a major ethical problem at First National Federal Bank. The bank lacks clear ethical guidelines on the conduct of employees and relationships with clients. Input Jon Bellow is not aware of the ethical guidelines in dealing with customers. He is interested in receiving fare from Michael Johnson who is a client. Mary is certain that according to her ethical principles it is the bank that should cater for the fare to Johnson’s ranch. Jon also requests Mary to solicit prizes from customers in the form of Charity for the annual fundraiser picnic. On the other hand, Mary is interested in maintaining her job since she has a school debt of $ 20,000. Mary is worried on the correct ethical decision to make. One weakness of Mary is leaving the job or failing to visit the ranch since she taken a considerable time to find a job after graduation. If Mary does not go for the trip, she may end up losing her job. Jon should also visit the ranch or miss on the loan opportunity from Johnson thus affecting the profitability of the bank. Solution Mary is in an ethical dilemma. Mary has three options of making a decision. The first option is to agree to go on the trip while it is being paid for by the client and also call the customers and solicit prizes. The second option is to quit her job while the third solution is to inform the management and request for the legal and ethical framework guidance on her duties (Fernando 2010). The first option will definitely not solve her problem since it is unethical. Quitting her job will not solve the problem. She has school debt to pay and this is her first job after graduation. The best solution is to inform the management about this issue and seek to understand the legal and ethical practices that guide her duties (Ferrell, Fraedrich & Ferrell, 2010). Choice First National Federal Bank should implement ethical practices in its operations. The Bank should cater for the loan officer’s transport costs when on a trip to evaluate collateral since this benefits the bank, the client and the loan officers. It is unethical to call customers and request for money in the form of charity for the fundraiser (Ferrell, Fraedrich & Ferrell, 2010). The bank should differentiate its core financial services and charity services like the fundraiser. Any donations by the customers should be voluntary and should never be solicited (Bredeson & Goree, 2012). Operation The first step will entail the senior management understanding on the need of ethical practices in the bank. This will be done through assessments of the implications of the loan officer’s behavior on the profits and relationships with customers (Hansson & Palm, 2005). The management will also review their legal framework to ascertain whether it is ethical. The second step will entail outlining an ethical framework for the bank activities. The third step will entail training and communicating the ethical policy to all employees in the bank (Klebe & Nelson, 2011). The fourth step will entail training all employees on the ethical policy (Hansson & Palm, 2005). The fifth step is review of the impact of the ethical policy on the behavior of employees and business operations of the bank (Bredeson & Goree, 2012). Course summary My thinking regarding leadership and ethics has greatly changed after this course. I have understood that leaders should inspire and motivate the efforts of subordinates in attaining shared vision. The leader should encourage problem solving and interpersonal relationships among the subordinates. My views about ethics have greatly changed since ethics is doing more than meeting the obligations of the law. I have understood the importance of ethics and main ethical principles that guide individual choices in decision making. Importantly, I have realized that people should never make choices that can cause harm to others or that decrease the total welfare of the society. This course has helped in evaluating my future leadership capabilities and acknowledging both my personal and professional mission. The course will help me in creating work-life balance in my future career. References: Bredeson, D & Goree, K. (2012). Ethics in the workplace. Mason. Cengage Learning. Fernando, A.C. (2010). Business ethics and corporate governance. New Delhi. Kindersley. Ferrell, O., Fraedrich, J & Ferrell, L. (2010). Business ethics: ethical decision making and cases. Mason. Cengage Learning. Hansson, S & Palm, E. (2005). The ethics of workplace privacy. Brussels. PIE-Peter Lang. Klebe, L & Nelson, K. (2011). Managing business ethics: straight talk about how to do it right. New York. John Wiley. Read More