Ethics in business - Research Paper Example

Ethics in Business Businesses have found themselves violating ethical issues in their industries in several occasions. In some cases, they do so without the knowledge that they are violating ethics of the industry. However, in other cases, businesses violate ethics knowingly because of the interests and gains they aim to achieve. This paper analyzes a business case study in which ethics was violated. The case study analyzed in this paper is about a customer who had her room given to another customer despite having a reservation.

Ethical theories used in the analysis are the deontology theory and the teleology theory. These theories could be used to analyze whether decisions made in a business set-up are made in an ethical manner. In this case, ethical issues are related to decision making, thus, these theories could be very essential in the analysis process. One of the theories used to analyze the ethical issue in this case study is the Deontology theory. According to Brooks & Dunn (2009), deontology theory of ethics uses the motivation of the decision-maker to determine the ethicality of an action.

The decision maker in the case study analyzed in this paper was motivated to make the decision she made by several things. One of the things that motivated the decision maker in this case study was that some of the customers who had made a reservation might have failed to turn up (Karen & Bruce, 2008). This motivation made her to think that her decision could not have a negative ethical effect to the business. However, it turned up otherwise since all the customers who had made reservations turned up resulting to shortage of rooms.

This was not the only motivation that made the decision maker to make the decision of giving away a room that was already reserved for another customer. The other motivation was that the conspiratorial tone used by the customer who did not have a reservation. This customer insisted that the front desk agent should not turn her away to the snow. The agent became motivated by the insisting and the persuasive tone of the customer and decided to give her one of the rooms that had already been reserved.

However, the other customer whose room was given out appeared later only to find out that her room had already been given away without her knowledge. The customer who had made a reservation did not turn up in time for the room. This is what might have motivated the front desk agent to make a decision to give away her room. However, the reason why she had decided to make a reservation might be she knew that she might turn up late for the room. Therefore, this could not justify the decision that was made by the agent to give away her room.

Another motivation was that the customer who had no reservation was willing to pay a bribe for the room. According to Karen & Bruce (2008), the customer without reservation provided an additional $ 50 bill for her to be given a room that had already been reserved. This was corruption and thus a very high level of unethical practice in business. Another theory that could be used to analyze ethical issues in this case study is the teleology theory. Teleology theory evaluates the ethicality of a behavior or action using its results or consequences to an individual or the business (Brooks & Dunn, 2008).

One of the consequences of the decision made by the front desk agent to give away the room that was already reserved for another customer is that it destroyed the image of the business to the customer. The customer whose room was given away must have felt that the business is unreliable. Moreover, the customer who was given the room belonging to another customer must have felt that the business is corrupt and thus could not be trusted. As a result, both customers would not be willing to make room reservation on this business because the business might fail to honor it.

Therefore, this action was very unethical according to this theory of ethics. The decision made by the front desk agent resulted to unexpected inconveniences on the customer whose reservation was given to another customer. This is because the customer appeared for the room only to be told that there was no room for her. Moreover, she had appeared in the late hours in which she could not have gone to look for a room somewhere else. In addition, she had a small child who could have been greatly affected by the snow.

However, the front desk agent had already given away her room to another customer who did not have a reservation and, thus, the customer must have been forced to move back to the snow and try to find another room elsewhere. This action was, therefore, unethical according to this theory of ethics. The two theories used to analyze the action of the key decision maker in this case study indicate that the action was unethical. The first theory uses the motivation of the decision while the other theory uses the result and consequences of the decision.

Therefore, they analyze the decision from different perspectives. This strengthens the conclusion of unethicality of the decision made by the front desk agent to give away a room that had already been reserved for another customer. However, the two theories are not sufficient to reveal the unethicality of this decision. Therefore, other theories like the consequentialism and virtue ethics should be used to confirm the findings from this analysis. References Brooks, L. J., & Dunn, P. (2009). Business & Professional Ethics for Directors, Executives & Accountants.

Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning. Karen, L., & Bruce, N. (2008). Ethics in the Hospitality and Tourism Industry. Lansing, MI: American Hotel and Lodging Institute.