Good Ethical Decision Making

This essay reviews the importance of ethical decision making in effective management, focusing on skills such as leading by example, hiring competent workers, and educating employees. It also explores how personality traits such as honesty, loyalty, and courage relate to ethical decision making. The author evaluates their own capacities as a manager and develops a plan to improve their skills in ethical decision making.

Running head: Good Ethical Decision Making 1
Good Ethical Decision Making
Student’s Name
Institution’s Name

Good Ethical Decision Making 2
Good Ethical Decision Making
Introduction
Ethical decision making is the ability of a manager to make right choices which are
within the law and does not break any organizational policies (Lehnert, Park & Singh, (2015).
Making ethical decision is significant in an organization because it allows for delivery of
quality services and getting good sales in return (Delgado, 2014)). Ethical decision making
relates to an effective managerial practice because when the managers make ethical
decisions, the decisions leads to effective managerial practices (Thome & Ferrell, (2015). The
herein essay reviews the importance of ethical decision making in effective management. The
analysis will focus on the following managerial skills; ability to lead by example, ability to
hire competent workers and education of employees. On the other hand the personalities that
the analysis will majorly focus on are trust, courage, loyalty, and independence. The analysis
also looks at my capacities and skills as a manager by evaluating them. I have used self-
assessment method to evaluate myself and find the capabilities I own. I have also developed a
plan that will help in the future to improve on my skills in ethical decision making which will
in turn help me make an effective and a good manager.
Literature Review
Relationship between Ethical Decision Making and Effective Managerial Practice
According to Goodall (2014), ethical decision making is the process where managers
choose alternatives which concur with ethical principles of the affected field. Business
managers should always remove all unethical activities and try to make decisions according
to the best ethical practices available (Bazerman & Sezer, 2016). Albert, Reynolds and Turan
(2015) concluded that when making ethical decisions, a manager should have the following

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characteristics; one, commitment- a leader should always yearn to make the right choices
regardless of the consequence. Second, a manager should have conscience and always apply
humane and moral behaviours in decision making. Lastly, a manager should be competent in
his/her work. Which means that he/she has the ability access, evaluate data before making
decisions and have alternatives whenever problem arises (Cianci et al., 2014). Ethical
decision making shows that the manager has respect for his/her profession. Therefore, he/she
will earn respect, trust and loyalty from the employees (Curtis et al., 2017).
Holtzhausen (2015) suggested that effective managerial practices are the activities by
the manager which ensure that he/she meet the objectives that he/she desired for his/her
business or organization. According to Stazyk and Davis (2015), not every person who is
excellent at his/her job can be a manager because management is an art that needs to be learnt
either in school or though experience. For a manager to ensure that his/her managerial
practices are effective, he/she should first, be able to choose the right people who will help
him/her accomplish the practices. Second, the manager should be ready to listen to people
problems and show empathy. Third, have good communication skills and lastly should be
leading by example.
Ethical decision making and effective managerial practice relate in that for a leader to
accomplish his/her desired want, the manager should be able to make ethical decisions.
Beattie et al. (2014) conclude that ethical decisions are key to effective managerial practices.
Capabilities and Skills Necessary to Promote Good Ethical Decision Making
Managers need skills and capabilities so that they can use the skills to promote good
ethical decision making in the organization (Voinea et al., 2015). The first skill is the ability
to employ and hire competent persons. To promote ethical decisions in the firm, a manager
should know how to choose people who work with him/her in achieving the company’s goals

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(Baldwin, 2016). For, example a manager should select board members of influence,
affluence, and integrity who will promote ethical decisions. Furthermore, the managers
should frequently supervise the workers to see if they are following the organization’s
policies which are part of ethical decisions. Another capability and skill according to Baldwin
(2016), is the ability to lead by example. Managers can promote ethical decisions in a firm by
leading as an example. For example, a manager should follow protocol when offering jobs,
he/she should employ workers based on their qualifications not anything else which is
unethical.
The third skill is educating the employees on what is at risk when they do not follow
ethical protocols at work. The manager should tell the employees who will suffer if they do
not behave ethically. When workers are educated, they can improve on their ethical
behaviour. Fourth, delegating time for work-A day has long hours therefore, a manager
should plan how he/she and their employees will spend the day. The work should be divided
equally to all workers to promote ethics in the firm. A manager should also be transparent
with matters of finance. According to Soomro, Shah and Ahmed (2016), money is the main
factor that encourages unethical behaviour in the firms if not handled well. Therefore, a
manager should be transparent with other board members in matters of money. Other
capabilities and skills in which managers can promote ethical decision making in a firm
include truth, flexibility, good communication skills and motivating staff.
How Personality Relates to Ethical Decision Making
Soomro, Shah and Ahmed (2016) defined personality as the patterns in characteristics
of feelings, thoughts and behaviors that make a person different from other people. A
decision can be made according to the personality of the individual in charge of making the
respective decision. Therefore, () conclude that personality relate s with ethical decision

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making because it predict how the manager will make his/her decisions. Personality
characters are just how a person behaves, acts, and his/her attitude towards something
(Inkinen, 2016). The example of personalities that can affect how a manager makes decisions
are honesty, patience, courage, loyalty, trusting and many other traits.
Ethical decisions cannot be made without good personality of the manager (Soto,
2015). For example, honesty can make a manager decide ethically. The manager will be able
to give true accounts of events and he/she will not go against any protocol because he/she is
honest. When a manager is loyal to his/her country, all the decisions he will make will for the
good of the country (Mabbe et al., 2016). Making ethical decisions means following the rules
and regulations set by the government to check and balance a certain field and if the manager
is loyal to the country he/she cannot go against the rules (Bègue et al., 2015). Courage
personality can help a leader go against all odds and make decisions which is ethical even if
the cost will be heavy. If a manager is patience in hiring employees, he/she can get good
workers who will support ethical decision making in the firm. Independent personality
determines how a leader makes decisions. If a leader is independent, when he/she makes the
right call like not engaging in corruption, nobody will challenge the manager to change the
stand hence improving integrity in organizations. No leader can make decision without
depending on his/her personality (Hall et al., 2017).
Summary of the review
In summary ethical decisions making is the process where leaders make decisions
based on the ethics that are in place. The good ethical decisions lead to effective managerial
practices that help the organization meet its objectives. The skill and capabilities that help in
promoting good ethical decision making include leading by example, being honest, ability to

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select qualified staff, motivating and developing the workers. The ethical decisions that
managers make every day are as a result of their personality like loyalty and honesty.
Evaluation
As discussed in the literature review personality determines how a leader can make
his or her own ethical decision. As a manager in the in a bank I have learnt that my
personality at many times have determined my decisions. I am an honest person. I do not
keep secretes from my employees and board of directors. The honesty personality has been
helping me in making financial decisions. I follow the organization guidelines and my
profession’s ethical rules when reporting on financial matters. Honesty is a good virtue and
has earned me respect among the board and my employees. All of them respect me because
of honesty. The other personality that has helped in making ethical decisions is independence.
My independence was tested when one of my seniors came to me and asked me to help him
still company money at my work station. Corruption is unethical decision and is against the
law and regulations polies for managers.
The regulations state that a manager should not misuse the office for personal gain.
Due to my courage and independence in making decisions, I turned him down and reported
him to his fellow board members. That day I knew that I am capable for managerial position.
The third personality that has made me a good manager in making ethical decision is loyalty
to my country. I never do anything that can jeopardize the work that was entrusted to me by
my country. As a bank manager my work is to serve my citizens thus all the decisions should
not harm them but increase the services for them loyalty to my company helped me make a
good ethical decision of not engaging in corruption. Lastly, fairness has been helping when
employing workers on behalf of my firm. I do not employ persons because they are my

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friends or relatives but because they are fit for the job. Fairness is the personality that helps
me achieve that.
As a manager I have obligation of ensuring the good ethical decision making has been
promoted in my company through the capabilities and skills. I have done many activities that
ensure good ethical decisions are promoted in the firm. First, I have educated by employees
on the benefit of good ethical decisions and their implications. My workers know that in the
bank, they need to follow the rules and regulations in place to ensure that customer get the
best service. However, if the customer does not get the services and leave then their jobs will
be at stake. Second, I hire and recruit competent employees who can make good decisions.
Incompetent workers make unethical decisions which affect the performance of the
organization. Competent workers know all he regulations of their profession and they cannot
go against them.
The third skill I use to promote good ethical behavior is by leading as an example. All
the decisions I make for the company are within the law and the policies of the company,
which means they are good ethical decisions. Therefore, all other employees in the firm
follow my lead by doing exactly what I am doing. That is making good ethical decisions. The
fourth capability I apply in promoting good ethical decisions in the bank is delegating time by
drawing timetable so that everyone knows what they are doing at what time. Giving each and
every employee task to do improve ethical decisions because when anything happens the
person in charge will be responsible, therefore, nobody would want make a mistake.
Flexibility and motivation are other capabilities and skill I use to promote good ethical
behaviors in my place of work.

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Plan for my goals
Every manager should have goals which give them the purpose to wake up and go to
the office and ensure that the goals are reached. Managers should also ensure that their goals
are follow the S.M.A.R.T approach (Kaufman et al., 2016). As a manager at my bank, I have
objectives which I have obligations as a leader to ensure that they are reached. The first goal I
have for my company is to increase the trust our customers have on us and our services.
Customer trust is important for any business because it ensure that the customers come back
after the first service. Furthermore, we are a banking institution and we deal with money
transactions. Our business depends on the trust of our clients have on us. Nobody can seek
financial services from an institution that they do not trust. Therefore, trust of customers is
significant for our business.
Another objective or goal I am going to focus on as a manager is to attract our
customers’ loyalty. Companies should strive to get their customers’ loyalty. Loyal customers
will come back and seek services and they will also lure other people to come and seek your
firm’s services. Loyal clients advertise your firm for you. Trust and loyalty from my
customers are the goals I want to achieve.
Gaining the customers’ trust and loyalty is difficult and many businesses have not
been able to achieve it (Miller & Lynam, 2015). However, after a lot of study I have
discovered that I can achieve my goals through making good ethical decisions through my
activities as the manager of the bank. I will devote some time and go for leadership training
to learn more about good ethical decision making. As per now I have made some pretty good
decisions but there still some challenges I am encountering when delivering my duties. The
leadership training on ethical decision making will help me understand more about making
good ethical decisions. My objectives relate with ethics. In every profession, there are ethical

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regulations that guide and protect both clients and business people. Therefore by learning
more on ethical decision making, I will be equipped with skills that will help me in
accomplishing my goals. There are many workplace issues that can make a leader lose focus
in achieving his or her goals. In my workplace, some of the employees are not competent
enough hence they are obstacles towards my goals.
I will also learn how to accomplish my goals by attending leadership seminars where
the leaders will be taught on how to fulfil their goals. The leadership seminars also educate
leaders on the managerial skills and decision making skills. Good ethical decisions that I will
make will determine if our customers will trust us and be loyal or the vice versa. The time I
will take in learning how to achieve the goals I have for my bank is six months. I will allocate
the first four months to leadership training lessons where I will be taught more about
leadership skills. The last two months will be for attending leadership seminars and
conferences in improve my managerial skills in ethical decision making and goals achieving
skills. The rest of my time will be working and monitoring to check if my goals are being
achieved.
I will know that I have learnt the skills that I require to achieve my goals by first,
seeing the increase of my organization’s net profit. When the profit of the bank increase, it
will mean that my goal of winning the trust of the clients was achieved. When the clients are
loyal and trust you, they will keep coming to your frim hence increasing your sales and profit.
The other indicator is the increase in sales and products of my bank. The last indicator that I
have learnt my skills is when my bank wins awards for being the best service delivery bank.
Conclusion
The above analysis was taken to make managers aware of the importance of making
good ethical decisions. Ethical decisions determine the prosperity of a frim. The decisions are

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against corruption, biasness, and unfairness in the organization. The analysis also talks about
the relationships between ethical decision making and effective management skills. Some of
the management skills have been discussed in the essay. The data for the analysis was
extracted from the internet specifically the journals published at the Google Scholar. The key
word used to find data for the analysis are “ethical decision making, effective managerial
skills”. I have learned a lot from the literature review. I have learnt the importance of making
good ethical decisions and I have also learned that all the professions have ethics which guide
them. What has surprised me is that personality determines how a manager can make his/her
decisions. The knowledge I have gathered in the analysis will be very helpful for my
managerial skills. The analysis has expanded my managerial knowledge and I will use the
knowledge to grow my firm.

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