Ethics And Decision Making Process

Running head: MANAGEMENT
MANAGEMENT
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Introduction
Ethics can be defined as the moral principles governing the behavior of any person.
Ethics can be described as affecting the decision making process of a person and how a person
leads his life. The main aim of ethics is to be providing moral principle to an individual or a
society for their well being. In this essay the theories of ethics are discussed in details in relation
to a case study. The two ethical theories that have been selected for the case are Act
Utilitarianism and Kant’s duty ethics.
Walk a Mile in My Shoes
In the present scenario it can be seen that a community development worker has moved
in a remote indigenous community in New South Wales. The main duty of the said worker is
tapping into cultural connections and strengthening the promotion of the wellbeing of the
individual in relation to the youths who are seen to be in risk to enter into the criminal justice
system. The worker is seen to drive into town, 6 kms away, most days in a departmental 4WD.
The community worker frequently gives the people of the community walking to and from the
town lift, but this has been considered by the manager to be against the public sector regulations
relating to occupational health and safety issues. As a large part of the work of a community
worker is on the basis of the development of trust and respect within the community the worker
is in ethical dilemma to drive past the community people in an empty car by going against the
common courtesy and the worker further thinks that it is his duty to be promoting community
standards whenever he can. Further, according to the Australian Community Workers Code of
Ethics the community worker’s responsibility towards his clients include the obligations for

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treating them with dignity and to be safeguarding, promoting and acknowledging their self-
determination capacity and should be establishing and maintaining professional boundaries with
the clients and should not be forming any kind of personal relationship. Here the problem is
relating to pro-social rule breaking ((Vardaman, Gondo & Allen 2014). Pro-social rule breaking
can be described as the desire of an individual to be promoting the welfare of any organization or
any of its stakeholders by breaking the rules (Morrison, 2006). In the case the worker is seen to
be in ethical dilemma whether he should be breaking the rules for conducting his work in a
proper manner or he should be following the rules which could affect the trust the people of the
community have in him and would affect his work. The dilemma of the worker can be addressed
by use of two ethical theories. These two theories are Act Utilitarianism and Kant’s Duty Ethics
Theory.
Act Utilitarianism can be described as a part of utilitarian ethical theory that can be seen
as stating that if an act or conduct of a person produces best possible results in any specific
situation then it can be considered as morally right (Frey, 2013). The main pioneers of this theory
were Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. The theory of Act Utilitarianism lays its basis on the
utility principle, which can also be seen as the basis for every utilitarian theory and can be best
described by the well known phrase of Bentham "the greatest happiness for the greatest number"
(Eggleston, 2014). According to Bentham an individual would actively be seeking out pleasure
and would always be avoiding pain if provided with an opportunity. The Act Utilitarianism
theory can be seen as in contrast with another utilitarian theory, the Rule Utilitarianism which
can be seen as stating that an action would be morally right if the act is conducted in accordance
with the moral rules that would generally be creating maximum happiness for people. In the Act
Utilitarianism an act is seen to be evaluated by the actual consequences of it (Mill, 2016).. The