Workgroup Ethical Decision Making | Summary and Q&A

TL;DR

External influences can impact individuals' ethical decision-making, leading to behaviors that contradict their belief systems. Workgroup influences play a significant role in ethical decisions, including mechanisms like moral justification, displacement of responsibility, and bounded ethicality.

Key Insights

• 🧑‍🏭 External factors, including family, peers, and social institutions, continue to influence ethical decision-making even in adulthood.
• ❓ Bandura's decision mechanisms, such as moral justification and displacement of responsibility, can distort ethical judgment within workgroups.
• 🥺 Bounded ethicality leads to decision-making based solely on economic factors, ignoring ethical considerations.
• ❓ Ethical fading and motivated blindness contribute to unethical behavior within workgroups.
• 💪 Strong ethics programs in organizations reduce the pressure to engage in unethical acts and encourage ethical behavior.
• 🖐️ Ethical leaders play a crucial role in creating an environment that promotes ethical behavior, including treating employees with dignity, fostering ethical awareness, and avoiding deception and manipulation.
• 🤗 Transparency, open communication, and shared values are essential elements of an ethical organizational culture.

Transcript

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Questions & Answers

Q: How do external factors influence ethical decision-making in adulthood?

External factors like family, peers, and social institutions continue to shape and influence an individual's ethical decision-making even after entering the working world. These external influences can alter belief systems or lead to behaviors that contradict one's values.

Q: What are some decision mechanisms that can distort ethical judgment in workgroups?

Bandura's decision mechanisms include moral justification, where actions are justified by appealing to a higher purpose, labeling, which downplays the seriousness of actions, advantageous comparison, where actions are justified by comparing them to worse alternatives, and displacement of responsibility, which denies personal accountability.

Q: How does bounded ethicality impact ethical decision-making in workgroups?

Bounded ethicality refers to cognitive structuring that interprets decisions without considering ethical factors. Within workgroups, decision-making may be solely based on economic considerations, disregarding the ethical implications of actions and decisions.

Q: How do motivated blindness and ethical fading contribute to unethical behavior within workgroups?

Motivated blindness occurs when individuals ignore ethical issues under significant pressures, such as meeting targets or achieving success. Ethical fading refers to the gradual diminishing of ethical considerations over time. Both mechanisms can lead individuals within workgroups to overlook or dismiss ethical concerns.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Social and moral maturity are constantly evolving and influenced by external factors like family, peers, and social institutions, impacting ethical decision-making even in adulthood.

• Bandura's decision mechanisms, such as moral justification, labeling, advantageous comparison, displacement of responsibility, and disregard of consequences, can distort ethical judgment in workgroups.

• Bounded ethicality, ethical fading, and motivated blindness are cognitive processes that contribute to unethical behavior within workgroups.