Individual Factors Affecting Ethical Decisions in Business

This report delves into the individual factors that influence ethical decision-making within a business context, focusing on the MTN Group as a case study. It examines how employee knowledge, personal goals, and moral values affect ethical choices, highlighting the significance of these elements in shaping workplace conduct. The research explores the ethical challenges faced by the MTN Group, such as issues related to employee rights, transparency, and unethical practices. The report aims to identify the key factors driving unethical behavior and recommends potential solutions to mitigate these issues, emphasizing the importance of ethical standards and corporate integrity. The methodology includes a quantitative approach to analyze the individual factors and their impact on business ethics, with the goal of providing insights that can improve ethical practices within the organization. The report also reviews the relevant literature and provides a conceptual framework to understand the complexities of ethical decision-making in a business environment.

Running head: INDIVIDUAL FACTORS AFFECTING ETHICAL DECISIONS IN BUSINESS
Individual Factors Affecting Ethical Decisions in Business
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1INDIVIDUAL FACTORS AFFECTING ETHICAL DECISIONS IN BUSINESS
Table of Contents
1. Background..................................................................................................................................4
2. Research problem........................................................................................................................5
2.1 Research objectives...............................................................................................................6
2.2 Research questions.................................................................................................................7
3. Abbreviated literature review......................................................................................................7
3.1 Introduction............................................................................................................................7
3.2 Knowledge and Personality of employees in ethical decisions.............................................7
3.3 Personal goals of the employees in ethical decisions............................................................8
3.4 Morals and Values of employees in ethical decision-making...............................................9
3.5 Conceptual Framework........................................................................................................10
4. Research methodology...............................................................................................................10
4.1 Quantitative approach..........................................................................................................10
4.2 Data collection.....................................................................................................................11
4.3 Data analysis methods, techniques and instruments............................................................14
4.3.1 Statistical analysis.............................................................................................................14
4.4 Data Results.........................................................................................................................15
5. Population & Sample framework..............................................................................................15
6. Data validity and reliability.......................................................................................................16

2INDIVIDUAL FACTORS AFFECTING ETHICAL DECISIONS IN BUSINESS
6.1 Reliability............................................................................................................................16
6.2 Validity................................................................................................................................17
7. Ethical consideration.................................................................................................................18
7.1 Informed consent.................................................................................................................18
7.2 Protection from harm and right to privacy..........................................................................19
7.3 Internal review boards.........................................................................................................19
8. Research timeline.......................................................................................................................19
9. Conclusion.................................................................................................................................20
Reference List................................................................................................................................21

3INDIVIDUAL FACTORS AFFECTING ETHICAL DECISIONS IN BUSINESS
1. Background
In today’s business world, leaders are aware of the business ethics and they want to
develop the ethical standards in the organisation. Employees need to be self-regulated in order to
be better and of course in order to produce impressive results. As stated by Crane and Matten
(2016), personal code of ethics is the first factor that influences in taking the business decision
and one can consider is as a moral behaviour of an individual. According to Trevino and Nelson
(2016), personal behaviour in the complex business situation and complex decision-making
sphere bring out the ethical choices. Ethical standard imposes the morality of behaviour.
Superior leaders should not indulge in such unethical activities and subordinates may get
encouragement from these activities taking these as acceptable practices.
Each of the company must have policies that strictly clarify the determination of ethical
conduct. The decisions of the employees are important in business ethics otherwise the business
may lead to the loss. As stated by Ferrell and Fraedrich (2015), ethical behaviour refers to moral
values and principles generally govern the behaviour or conduct of the group. There are different
factors that lead to individuals in taking the decisions in business situations. Employees' values
are the individual judgement on a business decision and acting should be on proper way that
justify the business situation. Business situations may lead to financial win; however, employees
should follow the values of them. As opined by Bowie (2017), moral ethics is related to personal
goals of an individual and his/her aspirations towards the integrity or financial gain. Personal
goals of some employees are associated with acquiring wealth through the unethical way.
Finally, employees' personality sets the determining factors in ethical choices in business

4INDIVIDUAL FACTORS AFFECTING ETHICAL DECISIONS IN BUSINESS
decisions. Individuals sometimes take risks in doing the unethical conduct at the workplace and
it can be avoided by communication flow in right way.
MTN Group is South Africa based multinational company that works in the
telecommunication sector. This organisation was established in the year 1994 and it has it
headquarter in Johannesburg. MTN Group is doing its operation in more than 20 countries in
African, European and Asian continents (Brightside.mtn.co.za 2017). MTN Group provides
GSM related services and internet services to the users. In the South Africa, this
telecommunication giant holds about 35% of market share. It recorded 2320 million subscribers
in all over the globe. MTN Group has employees in the countries where it has its branches. In the
South Africa, it has more than 1500 employees. Revenue of MTM Group was 15.43 billion in
the year 2015.
2. Research problem
In a business scenario, employees in upper level have to take managerial decisions and in
some occurrence, ethical decisions have to be taken. In addition, social pressure can influence on
ethics as business organisations can produce sub-standard products and the employees can get
into unethical condition. However, in making ethical decisions, the individual factors are
important for the employees and leaders as Government rules, ethical codes of the business and
legislation may not be enough. In the MTN Group, the employees have been facing the issues of
employees' rights. Some of the upper levels employees rule the workplace rights in the MTN
office in the South Africa and they overlook the guidelines of the organisation. The leaders of the
MTN Group has been applying the wrong set of rules for the employees in working hours, shift
timing, promotion of the employees and recruitment procedures. The upper-level managers and

5INDIVIDUAL FACTORS AFFECTING ETHICAL DECISIONS IN BUSINESS
leaders are not following the demand of integrity, honesty and loyalty and they take undue
advantage of the power (Shaw 2016). They are promoting the employees who are close to them
and they are exploiting the employees of their wishes. The moral choices of the upper-level
employees have been stained and employees are getting less productive for this. Values of the
employees are important and these are related to the standard of behaviour of the employees. In
the South Africa, the corruption in work is prevalent.
In MTN Group, the transparency in the working system cannot be observed. The ethical
behaviour of the employees is getting less day-by-day and employees are trying to grab
maximum benefits by acting improper way. Internal culture, employees conduct and corporate
objectives are not published in media or in intranet by the managers; therefore, the transparency
in a working system is needed. The sales executives of the organisation try to sell the SIM card
and they sometimes take the wrong way to business. In 2016, MTN Group has been fined by
South Africa government for failing to disconnect 4 million unregistered SIM card (Fin24.com
2017). The financial win is not all, doing the business ethically is important and employees try to
meet financial objectives by unethical practices. Likewise, environment protection and
sustainable practices of the organisation MTN Group are violated by unethical practices. MTN
Group has to balance the desire and profitability of the organisation includes pollution and
environment protection. MTN Group puts towers in crowded places and it has been done by the
unethical practices of the employees who support this fact. Corporate integrity is being violated
and bribing in workplace facilitates a smooth way of doing the work for the employees to a
higher authority.
2.1 Research objectives
Objectives of the research are:

6INDIVIDUAL FACTORS AFFECTING ETHICAL DECISIONS IN BUSINESS
 To identify the individual factors that can influence in taking the business decisions
ethically
 To determine the reasons behind unethical practices of the employees in the MTN Group
 To recommend some possible solutions to MTN Group in mitigating the unethical
practices of upper-level employees
2.2 Research questions
 What are the individual factors that can influence employees in taking business decisions
ethically?
 What are the reasons behind the unethical practices of employees in MTN Group
 What could be some possible recommendations to MTN Group in solving the unethical
practices of the upper level of employees
3. Abbreviated literature review
3.1 Introduction
In the literature review section, scholarly articles of this topic will be reviewed. In this
section, individual factors of business ethics and decision-making will be explained. The aim of
the literature review is to highlight the impact of the individual factors in ethical decision-making
procedure and theories of business ethics. However, the researcher will highlight the gap in
previous scholarly articles.
3.2 Knowledge and Personality of employees in ethical decisions
Employees’ personality and knowledge of working are determining factors in ethical
practices. Personal knowledge is important in business decision-making. Organisations have to
follow the government rules; however, the managers of the organisation are following only

7INDIVIDUAL FACTORS AFFECTING ETHICAL DECISIONS IN BUSINESS
financial objectives of the organisation. In order to fulfil the personal goals of the employees,
they make unethical decisions by laundering money of the organisation and they take extra
money from the business agents. Knowledge of the employees has a classic approach in taking a
business decision as knowledge makes an individual capable of taking a decision. Knowledge
needs the support of unproblematic factual information and it would facilitate confrontment of
relevant choice (Hoffman et al. 2014). Each of the organisations has Codes of Ethics and
personality of the employees lead to the ethical decision of the organisation. Moreover,
employees' narcissism, cynicism and other self-perception are important in taking an ethical
decision. Moreover, employees' personality can pose negative relationship in decision-making
issue with basic personality characteristics. The personality of the employees is associated with
the agreeableness and conscientiousness and these factors influence in business decision-making
situations. In an organisation, if the HR's personality gets biased with race, colour, gender and
ethnic groups, the selection process would be hampered. As stated by Hartman et al. (2014), the
social behaviour of the employees and meta-cognitive reasoning of the employees set the ethical
decision within a workplace.
3.3 Personal goals of the employees in ethical decisions
Personal goal is one of the major factors that impact on the business ethics and decision-
making procedure. However, personal goals are related to the right behaviour through words and
actions. Actions are important with taking risks of the employees that show the personal goals.
Within a workplace, the employees try to get promotion and in this case, they take the undue
advantage of the upper-level employees by asking to do the favour of them. The right motivation
of work leads to the right action and ethical behaviour in this scenario places the second stand.
Personal goals of the leaders in a workplace sometimes are to have extra advantage apart from

8INDIVIDUAL FACTORS AFFECTING ETHICAL DECISIONS IN BUSINESS
the organisation is given. In a workplace, the reputation of employees includes the right choices,
monetary gains and keeping the words. The personal goals of each employee differ as workplace
culture can impact on the ethical decision. As suggested by Chell et al. (2016), ethical
obligations are an important aspect in fulfilling the personal goals beyond the self-interest. The
duty of Principles ethics suggests that duty of an employee suggests only for the organisational
benefits, not just the employees' benefits. Consequentialist ethics tells about the principles or
duties let the action to do on the motivation of the employees in the workplace and it brings the
outcomes of the action. The action can be both ethical and unethical and in this scenario, the
main interest is the motivation of the action that can fulfil the personal goal. Corollaries suggest
that whether an action is right or wrong is solely depends on the result of the action (Ford and
Richardson 2013). Employees within a workplace should take action that can maximise good
consequences.
3.4 Morals and Values of employees in ethical decision-making
Values are beliefs that motivate the actions and attitudes of the people; moreover, values
drive the behaviour of the people. Within a workplace, the moral values are important for upper-
level employees to keep the value with honesty and truthfulness in various situations. Ethics,
however, deals with the logical, rational or theoretical determination of wrong or right in the
decision. In decision-making process of an organisation to make a partnership, making a budget
or any other external factors or moral values; management play an important role to have honest
consideration for an underlying motive (Wang and Calvano 2015). Applied ethics means the
moral decisions based on rules or code of ethics of the organisation. In normative ethics, the
employees or leaders are meant to help the organisation in figuring out the actions right or
wrong. Organisational values and personal values can differ for an employee, in this scenario,

9INDIVIDUAL FACTORS AFFECTING ETHICAL DECISIONS IN BUSINESS
ethical rules or principles can determine the rights and wrong in given situations. In addition,
moral is basically judgement in a dilemma towards the permissible behaviour. Employees should
not leak the business strategy to competitors and organisations should not harm the environment
in regard to the basic values. As stated by Craft (2013), management of an organisation must
make a framework for decision-making and the willingness of making framework proves that the
organisation has the desire to promote fairness.
3.5 Conceptual Framework
Figure 1: Conceptual Framework
(Source: Created by Researcher)
4. Research methodology
4.1 Quantitative approach
The quantitative approach is firmly associated with positivist and post-positivist
philosophy. However, it includes the accumulation of information and its transmission into

10INDIVIDUAL FACTORS AFFECTING ETHICAL DECISIONS IN BUSINESS
numerical models that can be surveyed and controlled to achieve determinations about an
informational collection. A quantitative approach to the study collects the numerical data from
the respondents and the data must be quantifiable (Mackey and Gass 2015). It puts an
overwhelming accentuation on objectivity. Quantitative research depends on positivism;
subsequently measuring social develops unbiased with the point of testing research destinations
in light of the factual investigations of an arrangement of hypothetical factors. In authoritative
atmosphere inquire about; quantitative estimations have been the transcendent evaluation
approach. Quantitative method will help the researcher in this study as it emphasises on objects
measurement and the researcher is intended to do numerical analysis through surveys,
questionnaire and manipulated pre-existing statistical data.
The most suitable research configuration is thought to be quantitative since it helps the
scientist to fulfil the target of the examination through estimations and factual or statistical
research. Amidst the research process, the sample will comprise of individuals who require the
analyst to stay withdrew from the examination keeping in mind the end goal to upgrade
exactness, systematisation, repeatability, equivalence, subtlety, cost-adequacy accommodation
and vast scale. In business ethics of an organisation are surrounded from various aspects,
however, the researcher will focus on only individuals’ aspects. Two variables used in this
research will be recorded and measured through statistical tools in this research.
4.2 Data collection
There are two types of data collection procedures that could be followed in gathering the
data for a research. These two types of data are primary data and secondary data. Primary data
are first-hand data and these types of data are genuine. In case of secondary data, these data are
collected through secondary sources like books, journals, websites, magazines, government

11INDIVIDUAL FACTORS AFFECTING ETHICAL DECISIONS IN BUSINESS
reports and articles based on the topic (Taylor et al. 2015). In this research, primary data will be
used particularly in order to conduct the research. The researcher will collect primary data in
order to conduct the research. The researcher will collect data from the employees of MTN
Group in South Africa in Johannesburg. One of the most important reasons for choosing this
organisation as this company has branches and operates in various African countries. Moreover,
in African countries, business ethics are not followed in many cases and corruption is severe in
most of the business operations. In MTN Group has strict rules and regulations in business ethics
and the employees work in this company are heterogeneous in nature. It is telecommunication
sector and the employees are connected through intranet and they can be easily traceable. The
employees have their individual office e-mail address and they can be accessed in an easy way.
In the initial stage, the researcher tried to get the information about this company's employees'
decision-making factor in business ethics through secondary sources, journals, pdf, case studies
and official websites dated between 2010 and 2016. However, this venture would not have been
easy as the information of the business ethical decision was not sufficient and the organisation is
confidential in such cases.
The researcher then thought about to take the information based on the primary data. The
employees’ and management’s perception about the business ethics would be judged through
asking the questions by the researcher. The researcher will conduct a survey to the employees of
the organisation MTN Group and in order to conduct the survey, the researcher will prepare a
survey questionnaire consists 25 questions. All the questions will be close-ended multiple types
questions. The questionnaire will not be possible to distribute to each of the employees, therefore
the researcher will upload the questionnaire (on Google form) on social media community page
of the MTN Group. Hard copies of a request form will be given to the employees asking to