Ethics in Action

Ethics in Action

Ethics is considered to be of moral standards and how they affect conduct. Businesses have their form of ethics, known as business or corporate ethics. This is applied professional ethics that examines moral principles concerning acceptable and unacceptable behavior by business people. In ethics there are theories that discuss decision making, theories such as utilitarian, a teleological theory. As stated, this judges our actions as good or bad depending on their consequences. This is sometimes expressed as “the ends justify the means” (Mallor, Barnes, Bowers, & Langvardt, 2010). Meaning, that thought must be given to what may impact any decision on you, on anyone you’re related to or have any involvement, even on society. In decision making, there will be poor decision making, there may be requests to act unethically and choosing to lead ethically.

Three Common Characteristics of Poor Decision Making

People have had experience, in many situation, with having to make a decision, whether for personal reasons or business situations, and unfortunately, poor decisions have been made. Possibly due to intent or for simply not accessing the circumstances surrounding an issue, even though all or most of the information needed was available to avoid making a poor decision. This leads to three common characteristics of poor decision making; failing to remember goals, overconfidence, and complexity of the issues.

Failing to remember goals are mostly likely encountered is almost every decision making. There is always something about the issue to distract from the goal. For instance, from my own personal experience, with deciding to go back to school, knowing that it is to create an opportunity for a better future for myself and my family; I had all the positive reinforcements needed, tools and all the support that anyone can ask for, but was distracted by the idea of more loans, and wondering if it would be feasible in the end. With the...