Ethical Decision Making Project for Business Communication - BM100

This assignment, a project for the BM100 Business Communication course, focuses on ethical decision-making within a business context. The project addresses the ethical dilemma of a business communicator being asked to ignore problems in a project and write a favorable report. The student answers five key questions related to ethical decision-making: legality, perspective, alternatives, trusted advisor's view, and stakeholder approval. The student argues that withholding crucial information is unethical and potentially illegal, especially if it's done intentionally. The student considers alternative actions, such as confronting the superior or reporting the issue to higher authorities. Ultimately, the student emphasizes the importance of ethical conduct and the potential negative consequences of ignoring problems. This document provides a clear demonstration of ethical reasoning and application of ethical principles in a professional scenario. The project also discusses how the student's friends, family, employers, and coworkers would view the situation.

Running head: BUSINESS COMMUNICATION PROCESS AND PRODUCTS
BUSINESS COMMUNICATION PROCESS AND PRODUCTS
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

1BUSINESS COMMUNICATION PROCESS AND PRODUCTS
Ethical Decision Making
Ethical dilemmas or moral dilemmas can be defined as the situations where an
individual are presented with two choices none of which can be considered as ethically
acceptable (Trevino & Nelson, 2016). In this paper the ethical dilemma of a business
communicator for writing a report ignoring problems in a project to follow the boss’s orders
who controls the performance evaluation have been discussed. In this context five questions
in the guide to ethical decision making have been answered (Iphofen, 2016).
1. The action for ignoring problems in a project while writing a report has not been
considered as illegal in the United States. However, withholding important business
information is considered to be against the legal responsibilities in a business.
2. If I were on the opposite end I would have taken strict legal action against the person
who has been hiding problems in a project. However, the actions would be taken only
if their conduct had been intentional.
3. A better alternative would be to confront the boss about the issue and tell them that it
is both ethically and legally wrong. Another alternate option would be to contact the
higher authorities and make them aware of this practice.
4. A trusted advisor would not agree to ignore a problem in any business project.
Ignoring any problem might result in a serious loss in the project in the future which
any rational and ethical thinking person would not agree to.
5. As my family and friends want the best for me I believe they would not want me to
take part in any unethical conduct. As the report concerns the welfare of the business
there withholding information would not be approved by the employers or the
coworkers.

2BUSINESS COMMUNICATION PROCESS AND PRODUCTS
Reference
Trevino, L. K., & Nelson, K. A. (2016). Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to
do it right. John Wiley & Sons.
Iphofen, R. (2016). Ethical decision making in social research: A practical guide. Springer.