Leadership and Ethical Decision Making free essay sample

Morals and values are the framework to having and understanding ethics. Morals and values are the drivers that help us to do what’s right when making a decision. This paper explores a scenario that involves Business decisions and how ethics, morals, and values affect them. Leadership and Ethical Decision – Making Unless we live as a hermit, we are unable to escape the influence of others ‘decision (Clawson, 2012). Those decisions, negative or positive, affect every entity in a business. Most businesses have entities that are affected by the day to day operations of that business. These entities are known as stakeholders. We group these stakeholders based on their interest. They’re grouped in categories such as employees, shareholders, customers, suppliers, and the community. The more commonly known stakeholder groups in business are employees, suppliers, shareholders, and customers. These groups are concerned with the decisions that affect the dividends that they receive in their share of profits. They all play a key role in protecting their interest and investment. Who are the Stakeholders in this situation? The stakeholders in this scenario would be the CEO Tom Tramlin, sales representative Joe Smith, and customer and CEO of the Peninsula hotel chain, Bill Bateman. THREADS4U could be considered an indirect stakeholder in this scenario. What are the responsibilities of each stakeholder to the company? As an internal stakeholder CEO Tom Tramlin is responsible for profit growth, share price growth, and executive decisions to protect the company’s dividends. Because Joe Smith is employed as a sales representative with UWEAR, he would be considered an internal stakeholder as well. His primary responsibilities would be create job security, satisfaction and motivation by making decisions based on detail information that would allow his company to experience profit growth. Lastly, Joe needs to stay clear of deceptive and coercive manipulation. Both are immoral and wrong and clearly violate the definition of leadership (Clawson, 2012). Bill Bateman in this scenario would be considered connected stakeholder. His position as a customer carry roles such as finding a quality product that would give them the greatest value for their money. He’s also responsible for acquiring the best customer service for his company. Provide at least 4 ethical responsibilities for each stakeholder. In business, our history is how many will judge overall performance and remember what was/wasn’t done during our tenure (Robinson, 2010). In this scenario it is important to ensure our history and performance remain in high ethical standings. CEO Tom Tramlin’s ethical responsibilities include making a business decision that won’t alter, but hopefully build a better relationship between UWEAR and the Peninsula chain. He’s responsible for deciding if the counter offer is fair to all involved. He also has to decide if countering or declining the Peninsula offer is beneficial in the long run. More than anything, he has to make sure his code of morals and values as the CEO are not influenced by the personal benefits he and his staff have received from Bill Bateman. This will ensure that his legacy history as an UWARE CEO is successful and ethical. As a sales rep Joe Smith is ethically responsible disclosing his position in the situation. He has responsibility of being honest and not misrepresent his stance. Joe will also need to follow up with the customer once a decision has been made. More importantly as a sales rep, Joe is responsible for keeping any business decision between the company and client confidential. As CEO of the Peninsula chain, Bill Bateman is responsible for ensuring that his company isn’t being taken advantage of and that the received the best price. He should seek business with companies who have a value base of treating their customers with dignity and respect. Mr. Bateman is also responsible for providing UWARE with warning of his dealings with THREADS4U. Lastly, Mr. Bateman has to take the advice of his board and make a decision that makes the most sense and allows him a greater value for his money. For each stakeholder, what would be the appropriate response to the situation? Tom Tramlin should strategically plan but in his planning maintain fairness. Fairness will allow everyone involved their share of the rewards (Clawson, 2012). Joe Smith should reframe from making a judgment call, but instead concentrate of making Mr. Bateman comfortable enough in his ability to get back to him in a timely manner with a counter offer. Mr. Bateman should respond by giving UWARE a chance to counter just based off the rapport built and service provided during the past year. What should Joe propose to the management team? Joe should propose that management come up with counter offer to keep Mr. Bateman’s as a customer and save the relationship built. How should he support his proposal? Joe should develop a business plan that includes modifications to the terms of the contraction between the two companies. In his plan he should have a comprehensive range of complementary services to support their current business deal. This may require more from their company, but they won’t lose a customer or have to lower their current contract rates. Conclusion In conclusion there are many ways that we can effectively make an ethical decision in this scenario. We would first want to identify the actual problem. Once we’ve identified the problem, we need to categorize it as ethical or unethical and if our response would fall in line with our morals and values. Different approaches will garner different conclusions, but whether it’s ethical or unethical will remain a deciding factor. References Clawson, J. G. (2012). In J. G. Clawson, Level Three Leadership: Getting Below the Surface (p. 464). Prentice Hall . McAdams, N. Z. (2012). Business Ethics. In N. Z. McAdams, Law, Business, and Society, 10 Edition. New York: McGraw Hill. Robinson, C. (2010, March 1). The Ethical CEO. Retrieved January 14, 2013, from Chief Executive Officer: http://www. the-chiefexecutive. com/features/feature77331/