Ethics and Governance: Comparing Articles on Ethical Decision Making

This essay delves into the multifaceted realm of ethics and governance, providing a comparative analysis of four seminal articles by Gioia (1992), Jones and Ryan (1998), Monahan and Quinn (2006), and Sonenshein (2007). The essay explores the varying perspectives on ethical decision-making, contrasting the importance of scripted decision-making, moral judgment, and the balancing of moral values. It highlights the common ground among the articles, emphasizing the significance of ethical decision-making for organizational success and the influence of both organizational and individual factors. The essay also incorporates a personal reflection, aligning with Sonenshein's (2007) view on the legal and moral acceptability of decisions, and concludes by underscoring the crucial role of ethical climate in shaping employee behavior and organizational outcomes.

Running head: ETHICS AND GOVERNANCE
Ethics and Governance
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Introduction
Throughout the ages, organisations have been developed through various innovative
ideas and technological advancements. However, there has always been a common basic
struggle that the organisations from every sector are faced with and that is- ethical decisions.
As per Ferrell (2016), employees in certain organisation find it very difficult to conduct
ethical decision making when they face ethical dilemmas. These ethical dilemmas come with
the pressure from conflict among the colleagues or peers in the company. This paper shall
elaborate on comparing and contrasting four different readings presented by Gioia 1992;
Jones and Ryan 1998; Monahan and Quinn 2006 and Sonenshein 2007.
Discussion
Differences in the four articles
The modern organisations lays high emphasis on one performance criterion and that
is- making ethical decision and in this process, the role of the employees and managers is
crucial. These days near about every organisation look towards selecting managers or
employees who would make good and ethical decision. But what ethical decision making
actually is? Different researchers have different views on the definition of ethical decision
making and the factors that influence it. Gioia (1992) in his study “Pinto Fires and Personal
Ethics: A Script Analysis of Missed Opportunities” has opined about the importance of
scripted decision making, claiming that scripted decision making results in efficient decision
making. Jones and Ryan (1998) on the other hand have contended that moral judgement is the
foundation of ethical decisions. They have paid much focus on the role of schemata that
works as a trigger in the process of ethical decision making. According to them, through
influencing an individual’s choice of schema, organisations can influence a good range of

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choices that the individual feels that he possess. In order words, it can be said that for Jones
and Ryan (1998) ethical decision making is “the process of making moral judgements”.
Unlike Gioia (1992) and Jones and Ryan (1998), Mohanan and Quinn (2006) in their
study “Beyond ‘bad apples’ and ‘weak leaders’” have opined that ethical decision making is
the process of balancing rights, justice and utilarianism and other moral values. The authors
have opposed the viewpoint Jones and Ryan (1998) on the important role that scripted
decision making plays claiming that it is not efficient enough to take into consideration. Gioia
(1992) on the other hand have referred the same as the process of evaluating and selecting
among the available alternatives in a way that is consistent with the moral and ethical
principles. However, Sonenshein (2007) again has a different point of view on the same. He
claimed that ethical decision making is making decision that are both legally and morally
acceptable but does not accept Jones and Ryan (1998) view that moral judgement is the result
of moral reasoning.
Similarities in the articles
There is a common similarity in all the four articles. All the four articles have
concluded that ethical decision making is important to promote organisation as a whole,
instead of letting one individual gain the profit from the business related decisions. Also, both
Jones and Ryan (1998) and Monahan and Quinn (2006) in their studies have described about
the link between moral intensity, moral judgement and ethical decision making. They have
claimed that the concept of moral intensity is based on the social cognition theories and that
the ethical decision making process is issue contingent. Furthermore, it is also to mention that
the four readings have asserted that it is the organisational factors that affect the process of
moral decision making and that too, at two main points- a) “engagement in the moral
behaviour” and, b) “establishment of moral intent”. They have opined that the organisational

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factors are the key factors behind the experience of decision makers. These factors could be
classified into two types of factors- extrinsic and intrinsic. Extrinsic factors refer to the input
that come from organisational, social and situational context, while the intrinsic factors are
related to the human will and the cognitive process (Sonenshein 2007). According to
Monahan and Quinn (2006) the intrinsic factors of unethical behaviours are the moral
identity, moral disengagement, Machiavellianism, empathy and mental models.
Personal Reflection
I support the definition of Sonenshein (2007) that suggests that ethical decision
making is making decision that are both legally and morally acceptable. This is because when
decisions are not legally correct, then organisations can face legal actions that would be
harmful for the growth and reputation of the organisation. Also, these decisions are required
to be morally acceptable as well because the moral values or virtue provide certain standards
for the morally acceptable decision and if not taken into consideration, then the organisations
might lose its good and effective employees or any potential candidates as they will assume
that the company does not practice fair play. Companies make use of ethical decision making
approach for identifying and resolving different problems in businesses. Notwithstanding this
fact, these decisions are highly affected by the different organisational factors as the
companies are required to make certain risky decisions and that too in a limited time frame.
Conclusion
Hence, from the above analysis it is to conclude that the papers by Gioia 1992; Jones
and Ryan 1998; Monahan and Quinn 2006 and Sonenshein 2007 have provided a strong
insight into the meaning of ethical decision making and the factors that influence ethical and
unethical decision making processes in modern organisations as a whole. It is also to
mention that there is a strong relationship in between ethical climate of a company and the

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ethical behaviours of its employees. Both the employees and the organisational managers are
capable of changing organisation’s working environment. Working environment plays an
important role in ethical decision making behaviour of the employees and managers as it is
believed that different dimensions of ethical climate can be linked with different types of
ethical behaviour of an individual.

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References:
Ferrell, O.C., 2016. A framework for understanding organizational ethics. In Business ethics:
New challenges for business schools and corporate leaders (pp. 15-29). Routledge.
Gioia, D.A., 1992. Pinto fires and personal ethics: A script analysis of missed
opportunities. Journal of Business Ethics, 11(5-6), pp.379-389.
Jones, T.M. and Ryan, L.V., 1998. The effect of organizational forces on individual morality:
Judgment, moral approbation, and behavior. Business Ethics Quarterly, 8(3), pp.431-445.
Monahan, S.C. and Quinn, B.A., 2006. Beyond ‘bad apples’ and ‘weak leaders’ Toward a
neo-institutional explanation of organizational deviance. Theoretical Criminology, 10(3),
pp.361-385.
Sonenshein, S., 2007. The role of construction, intuition, and justification in responding to
ethical issues at work: The sensemaking-intuition model. Academy of Management
Review, 32(4), pp.1022-1040.