ETHICAL DECISION MAKING Dr.

Sreerupa
Sengupta
 REFLECTION 1

Romance at workplace is a common

phenomenon.
A) Should workplace romances be
encouraged? Yes/no
B) Will such relationships have any ethical
implications for work?
C) Some organisations have designed policy
on relationship at work. Your views on the
relevance of this policy.
 CODE OF CONDUCT - INFOSYS

❖Relationships at Work
“Personal or romantic involvement with a competitor, supplier, or another employee of the
Company might affect your ability to exercise good judgment on behalf of the Company.
This could lead to conflict of interest.
Personal relationships and romantic liaisons between employees who are in a manager-
employee reporting structure may lead to team management challenges and reduced
morale.
Such relationships must be disclosed to the manager immediately, who may take
appropriate corrective action.”
REFLECTION 2:
BURGER MURDER & SELF-DRIVING CARS

Company Y manufactures meatless burgers that are sold in stores worldwide. But
you've recently received awful news: three people in one city died after eating your
burgers. A criminal has injected poison into your product! The deaths are headline
news and sales have plummeted. How do you deal with the crisis?
https://www.ted.com/talks/george_siedel_and_christine_ladwig_ethical_dilemma_th
e_burger_murders?language=en#t-190549

Self-driving cars are already cruising the streets today. And while these cars will
ultimately be safer and cleaner than their manual counterparts, they can't completely
avoid accidents altogether. How should the car be programmed if it encounters an
unavoidable accident?
https://www.ted.com/talks/patrick_lin_the_ethical_dilemma_of_self_driving_cars?lan
guage=en
 BUILDING ETHICAL WORKPLACE:
BEST PRACTICE FRAMEWORK
Identify Communicate Build and Maintain a Responsible Decision Making Culture
Values/Missio Code of Feedback Functional Training Performance External
n Statement Conduct gathering and Responsibility Reviews Assessment
anlaysis
✓ KPIs
✓ Leadership ✓ Rewards ✓ Removing
✓ Ownership ✓ Punishments Biases
✓ Accessible to
employees ✓ Sharing
Best
Practice

✓ Public
Confidence
FRAMEWORK FOR ETHICAL DECISION
MAKING
 Consequentialist Deontology (Focus on Virtue
duties, obligations)
Deliberative process What kind of outcomes should I What are my obligations What kind of person
produce (or try to produce)? in a situation, and what should I be (or try to be),
are the things I should and what will my actions
never do? show about my character?
Focus Directs attention to future Directs attention to the Discerns character traits
effects of an action, for all duties that exist prior to (virtues and vices) that
people who will be directly or the situation and are, or could be,
indirectly affected by the determines obligations motivating individual/s
action involved in a situation
Definition of Ethical Ethical conduct is the action Ethical conduct involves Ethical conduct is whatever
Conduct that will achieve the best always doing the right a fully virtuous person
consequences thing (focus on duty) would do in the
circumstances
Motivation Produce the most good for the Perform the right action Develop one’s character
greatest number

No ethical framework in mutually exclusive; in solving an ethical dilemma – more than one
framework is generally used
TOOLS/GUIDELINES FOR ETHICAL
DECISION MAKING
FOUR QUESTIONS FRAMEWORK
❑Developed in the 1990s by Joseph L. Badaracco, Professor of Business Ethics,
Harvard Business School
Consequence Which course of action will do the most good and the least harm?
List winners, losers, risks, and then decide

Rights Which alternative best serves others' rights, including

shareholders' rights?

Character (interplay What plan can I live with, which is consistent with basic values
of conscience and and commitments?
values)

Pragmatism Which course of action is feasible in the world as it is?

Newspaper Test Imagine that your plan will be published tomorrow. What
would you like to see in print?
Golden Rule Walk in the shoes of the other
- How would you like your kids treated?
- Rights-of-others test

FRAMING: How are you viewing the situation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fPQqqEoU3Y&feature=emb_logo
 STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS
Salient questions –
oWho are the stakeholders (individuals, groups, organisations) – with respect to a project,
product or decision?
oWho are the people who will benefit from any given development activity?
oWhose interests might be harmed by it?

oRelevance for managers/leaders:

oAllows managers to:
-Identify interests of different groups
- Find ways of harnessing the support of those in favour of the activity
-Manage risks posed by stakeholders who are against it
Importance/Influence Matrix
Impact/ Priority Matrix
Problems / Interests /
Linkages Matrix
‘Influence’ - power a stakeholder has to facilitate or
impede the achievement of an activity’s objectives
‘Importance’ - priority given to satisfying the needs
and interests of each stakeholder.
Presents interests of different stakeholders and
involves assessing potential impact of different
stakeholders.
Identify problems of different stakeholders, interests
they have in solving the problem and linkages
between stakeholders
LABOUR LAWS OF INDIA (SOME EXAMPLES)
Occupational Health, Safety and
Working Conditions Code 2019
Minimum Wages Act, 1948
Now, part of Code of Wages, 2019
Code on Social Security, 2019
(combines various laws on social
security – Maternity Benefit Act,
Employee State Insurance Act, Equal
Pay Act)
Consolidated the following legislations - Factories Act,
1948 (Amendment, 1987); Mines Act, 1952; Docker Workers
Act, 1987; Contract Labour Act, 1970; Inter-state Migration
Worker’s Act, 1979
Provides for health, safety and welfare measures for the
workers
Purpose is to provide minimum wages of the workers
(skilled and unskilled)
Purpose is to ensure fair and decent work to all employees
USING AN ETHICAL CULTURE INVENTORY
Will help to –
➢Assess understanding and clarity managers and employees have about values, laws
and rules they are expected to uphold

➢Understand competency managers and employees have acquired to implement

ethics at work
 Weak Uncertain Strong

Ethical Clarity

Ethical expectations—our values, norms and rules—clear, concrete and

understandable for all recruits, managers and employees.

Ethical Competency

Ethics training includes clear criteria for the competencies expected from managers to
possess or develop to fulfill the organization’s ethical expectations.

Ethics Communications

All formal and informational communications by managers and management

(websites, newsletters, e-mails, etc.) describe the ethical issues occurring within the
organization and industry in explicitly ethical terms.

Respect for Employees’ Rights and Dignity

Clear communication to employees about their workplace rights and actively support
their exercise of those rights.
 Weak Uncertain Strong

Employee Input

We ask for employee input on decisions that affect them and their work before those decisions are
made.

Fairness in Decision-Making

We make decisions regarding performance, pay and promotion impartially, according to clearly
understood criteria.

Ethical Sanctions
We punish unethical conduct and learn from it as an organization.
Reward and Recognition

We recognize and promote people who uphold self-transcending values of organization to get
results; we do not recognize or promote people who violate our values to get results.

Trustworthy Supervisors
Supervisors at all levels are assessed by employees and managers according to our self-
transcending values.

Trustworthy Management
Our top-level managers act as role models for our self-transcending values.
… I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Road Not Taken, Robert Frost