Business

Ethics in Action

A business environment is fast-paced and challenging with high expectations of meeting organizational objectives and results. Amongst all the pressure and stress; employees are expected to stay within the boundaries of ethics to perform. Recently, the US has been plagued with recession and high rates of unemployment, so the demand to meet expectations has grown increasingly important to sustain employment. As an manager for the major wireless telecommunications company, Verizon, I have an ethical responsibility to the consumers, to the employees and the company to drive effective customer service and meet company goals. In a downward economy, it is difficult to stay within the limitations of my company and give the consumers and employees what is fair and ethical. Poor planning and strategy can lead to poor decision-making; however, there are remedies to prevent unethical behavior and still achieve goals. Though overconfidence, complexity of issues, and failing to recognize goals may cause poor decision-making; resisting requests to act unethically and leading with ethical behavior creates an environment that is mutually beneficial to all stakeholders (Mallor, J.P., 2010).

Planning is an essential part of preventing poor decision-making. In my experience at Verizon, I encountered a period of time in which I had a lot of employee changes with headcount and personnel. Ultimately, the location that I managed decreased in sales by nearly 50% down the previous month’s sales results. The new team that I had lacked experience, general sales knowledge, and motivation to work. One of my new assistant managers approached me with an idea that could increase sales dramatically by getting the location an extra sale with every order through a glitch in the system. The issue I had been facing was whether increased results are worth the ethical implications involved in this decision. I was put in this situation because I had one of the three characteristics of...