Reflective writing is the evidence of reflective thinking
and reflective thinking is part of the critical thinking process where people
analyse, evaluate and make judgements about behaviour, events, experiences and
outcomes to make sense of what happened and to learn how to do things
differently in future situations. The practice of reflective thinking will be
introduced in this assessment task along with critical analysis skills for
determining ethical conflicts and how to deal with them in a business context.
Reflective thinking is an intellectual exercise that not
only requires people to think about past happenings, but to also identify and
acknowledge how their personal bias, beliefs and assumptions impact the
process.This course has exposed you to the realisation that different ethical
perspectives or models exist and that there is a need to bridge the gap between
Normative Ethics and Applied Ethics in everyday business practice. Business
people often become so enmeshed in the practice of business that they lose the
ability to discern and react to possible ethical dilemmas and they can forget
that different ethical perspectives will result in different and justifiable
courses of action in the workplace.
This assessment requires you to demonstrate the development
of techniques required to evaluate and comment on business scenarios in terms
of their surface and deep ethical issues. This assessment task presents you
with a case study and asks you to consider the different ethical issues and
conflicts presented and to prepare a position paper on the issue to those in
more senior roles. In order to do this however you first need to have developed
an understanding of your own personal ethical theory and how this influences
how you perceive and interpret information.
Step 1 – Identify your own ethical perspective or theory and
the principals associated with it
The first step in being able to deeply evaluate and critique
a potential ethical dilemma is to have a sound understanding of your own
ethical theory or perspective. Whilst the process of developing an ethical
theory perspective can take years, in this course you have been exposed to the
work of many great thinkers and practioners in this area. The process of
choosing and recognising your own personal ethical theory requires
introspection and evaluation to determine what you think is best and the most
correct theory for most applied situations. This process forms the first stage
of this assessment task. You are to write a personal reflection of your
thinking, of your reading and of your testing the various moral and ethical
maxims presented to you in this course to reach a conclusion about your
personal ethical theory. What ethical model you subscribe to and why? How your
background, religion, culture and experiences have led you to this conclusion.
This course has presented you with normative theories of
ethics as a starting point for your reflective journey. These have been further
divided into consequentialist (Egoism and Utilitarianism) and
non-consequentialist (Deontological – Kant & Ross) theories as well as the
concepts of Virtue Ethics and Duty of Care. Read about each of these
perspectives in some detail and think about their overriding principles and the
views of these different approaches in relation to ethical thinking and
practice. Decide which one you think best reflects your thinking about ethics,
right and wrong and professional practice.
For example if you are inclined to view reality as an
extension of evolutionary biology or that group advantage immediately entails a
moral aught, then you have a tendency to lean toward Utilitarianism. If, on the
other hand you think that people should act from pure duty alone without
reference to anything except the rightness of the action then a Deontological
perspective fits more with your thinking. Finally if you consider yourself a
communitarian where you believe that specific virtues such as courage, wisdom,
self-control and piety consistently exist across every society then you are
likely to choose Virtue Ethics as your model. To assist you in this task the
first stage of this assessment requires you to complete the following task:
Consider the following scenario:
You are on the executive committee of the XYZ Corporation of
health care professionals. Each year the committee gives and award to one of
its members who display high moral character in his or her work. This year you
are among the four judges who will determine the recipient of the award. There
is some disagreement among the judges. However. About what constitutes a good
person? The judges, besides yourself, are Ms Smith, Mrs. Taylor and Mr Jones.
The candidates for the award are Mr Little and Mrs Big.
Ms Smith thinks that the award should go to Mrs Big because
she saved a man from drowning. However Mr Jones does not agree. He has suggested
that Mrs Big’s motives are suspect because the man she saved was in the midst
of a very big financial deal with Mrs Big. If he had drowned Mrs Big would have
lost a lot of money. Ms Smith has suggested that the motives for the action are
not important nor of relevance to this judging as it is the goodness of the act
that should count and the man who was saved runs a large business that employs
many people. In her mind many people besides Mrs Big would have been harmed if
Mrs Big had not saved the man.
Mr Jones wants the award to go to Mr Little because he
performed a kind act of charity in chairing the town’s United Way Campaign last
year and raised thousands of dollars toward improving the town’s schools for
everyone to share. Surely such an act could not be said to have benefits Mr
Little in any way – unlike Mrs Big.
Mrs Taylor is unsure about whether Mrs Big or Mr Little
should get the award as they have both been recommended on the basis of one
single good act. Mrs Taylor believes it would be better to choose a candidate
who has shown over time to have performed many good actions and to be of good
character. After all, she says, ‘a single swallow does not make a spring!”. Mrs
Smith and Mr Jones scratched their heads at this remark and turned to you to
make a decision. Who is right and what do you decide?
1. Describe how you might approach this situation using a
consequentialist view, a non-consequentialist view and a virtue ethics view
showing clearly how the decision would differ using each different perspective
and why?
2. State your own assessment of the strengths and weaknesses
of each theory or approach; and
3. Make a conclusion from this exercise about which approach
would be most consistent with yourpersonal worldview or your own personal ethical
theory perspective and why. You are then to use this perspective as the lens to
consider the next scenario.
Step2 – Using your understanding of your own ethical theory,
find the conflicts and identify the professional practice issues versus the ethical
issues in this business scenario.
You are the operations manager for XYZ Sports Apparel. This
company has recently opened a factory in Guadalajara, Mexico to make various
casual sports apparel. Your product advantage is that XYZ’s clothes are impregnated
with a special chemical that will completely block harmful UV radiation from
sunlight. This will protect the wearers from developing melanoma from long-term
exposure to sunlight through the pursuit of outdoor activities.
The problem is that this chemical has been anecdotally
linked to miscarriages. Your company has met all of Mexico’s published safety
standards even though the chemical has not been approved in the Australia or
the USA and is banned in Europe. You believe that there is not enough conclusive
evidence to suggest that exposure to this chemical will result in increased
risk of miscarriage in pregnant women who wear the clothing. There is however,
considerable evidence that melanoma is the number one cause of skin cancer
deaths in the USA and in Australia. The potential “health” benefit appeal will
be tremendously profitable for the company and there are no laws being broken
in any country by manufacturing this product.
In spite of this your management team is still concerned.
You have been asked to write a memo to your vice president of marketing in the
US home office with your recommendations about what the company should do. In
your memo you will need to justify your view with your own ethical theory, your
view on the rights and responsibilities of an organisation (does it have the
same rights and responsibilities as an individual?) and any other practical and
ethical considerations particularly the likely costs involved to make changes
to this practice now.
Format
Your total essay and critical reflection should be no more
than 3,000 words in length and take the format as described below.
Section 1 – Your own personal reflection and identification
of your personal ethical theory using the scenario provided. This should be
approximately 1,000 words and should include appropriate ethical theory to
support your thinking.
Section 2 – Write a memo as outlined in the second scenario
(approximately 2,000 words), addressed to the Marketing Manager of XYZ Sports
Apparel with your recommendation about this scenario. In your memo you need to
ensure you:
1) Identify and justify the ethical issues presented in the
case supported by your own ethical theory (from section 1) and appropriate
theory;
2) Identify and differentiate professional practice issues
from the ethical issues in the case, using appropriate theory to support your
claims;
3) Ensure you have clearly outlined your view on what is a
corporation and what its ethical rights and responsibilities should be using
appropriate theory; and
4) Your final recommendations for what the company should
do.
