Business 610 Ethics in Action

On January 13th the Costa Concordia ran aground off the Tuscan coast. The news agencies have reported that Captain Francesco Schettino ran aground while attempting to pass near an island so that a member of the crew could waive to family on shore. The entire world is left wondering what in the world was this guy thinking. Captain Schettino obviously made a few bad decisions and acted unethically but he is not alone (Pizzey, 2012). To find people making poor decision you simply need to turn on the news. This paper will explore the common characteristics of poor decision making, resisting requests to act unethically, and the way to lead ethically.

Common Characteristics of Poor Decision Making

There are three common characteristics of poor decision making. They are failing to remember goals, overconfidence, and complexity of the issues (Mallor, Barnes, Bower &Langvardt, 2010). “Failing to remember goals or focusing on the wrong goals leads to poor decision making” (Mallor, et al., 2010). A clear example of decision makers that were focused on the wrong goal is the railroad industry. At one time the industry dominated transcontinental transportation in the United States. The railroad industry focused on being in the railroad business rather than the transportation business. If it had focused on providing transportation services it might have gotten into automobiles or planes. The railroad has become irrelevant as a way to get across country while airplanes and automobiles thrive. Overconfidence is a significant contributor to bad decision making. Decision makers feel that they have always been successful in the past and assume that they will be in the future. This leads to under analysis of the issue and to bad decisions. Often decision makers think that if they are doing something wrong, no one will notice and the problem will go away. Recently there was a mayoral election in my town. Everyone thought that one of the candidates had a significant...