Your Approach to Ethics and Business Leadership [WLOs: 2, 3] [CLOs: 1, 3]
Prior to beginning work on this discussion forum, read Chapter 9: Business and Environmental Sustainability in your textbook (Hartman et al., 2021), Chapter 10 in A Companion to Business Ethics (Links to an external site.) (Frederick, 1999), and Building an Ethical Company: Create an Organization That Helps Employees Behave More Honorably (Links to an external site.) (Smith & Kouchaki, 2021). In addition, you may wish to review Moral Pragmatism as a Bridge Between Duty, Utility, and Virtue in Managers’ Ethical Decision-Making (Links to an external site.) (Drašček et al., 2021)
In this course, you have thought critically, carefully, and systematically through ethical business issues, incorporating theoretical approaches and a decision-making process. Imagine this thinking will impact how you confront real examples of ethical issues in the future. What might be your ethical approach? Do have one preferred ethical theory that will inform your decisions, essentially becoming a utilitarian, deontologist, or virtue ethicist? Or will you borrow aspects of all three theories depending on the circumstances? And what might you imagine your ethical approach will be as an ethical organizational leader, keeping in mind that ethical determinations in organizations often involve social negotiations and compromises?
Reflecting on what you have learned throughout the course, describe how these lessons might influence your future work as an organizational leader. In an initial post of at least 400 words, citing at least two scholarly, peer-reviewed resources, respond to the following:
Identify the ethical approach or approaches you have found most useful in addressing the case studies in the course. Do you routinely return to one ethical theory to apply, or do you find aspects of multiple ethical theories useful? Be specific about what aspects of the ethical theory or theories have been useful in guiding your ethical analysis. Do you think they form a single systematic approach? Or are these aspects more like ethical tools to be chosen among depending on the ethical circumstances?
Identify the ethical approach or approaches you have found least useful in addressing the case studies in the course. Explain why they are not instructive in your ethical decision-making.
In your future organizational leadership responsibilities, what will be your style as an ethical leader? Will you likely be more principled and unwavering in your responses to ethical issues? Are you more of a peacemaker, compromising with stakeholders and adopting different ethical stances based on the circumstances? Will you inspire other people around you to be more ethical with your moral certainty or by being an empathetic moral role model? Explain your approach and relate it to your answers above.
