Today’s military supervisors encounter a range of challenging ethical dilemmas. Such complex issues encompass a wide range of situations and may elevate conflict between individual and organizational values, potentially related to differences between an individual’s background and corporate culture

Learning Goal: I’m working on a business discussion question and need an explanation and answer to help me learn.

Instructions: There are 6 responses. Read each response and provide a 75 word response for each.

Response 1.) Eric

Today’s military supervisors encounter a range of challenging ethical dilemmas. Such complex issues encompass a wide range of situations and may elevate conflict between individual and organizational values, potentially related to differences between an individual’s background and corporate culture. One interesting ethical issue in my organization is military personnel giving gifts to each other. As a government employee, one may not provide or donate a gift to an official superior or solicit a contribution from another employee for a donation. However, there is an exception to this rule on occasions such as birthdays or holidays. Employees may give a nonmonetary gift up to $10, and food and refreshments are shared in the office.

For example, Bill, an National Guard officer, asks each of his four co-workers in his office to contribute $20 to purchase a $100 putter for their boss Jack for Christmas. May Bill make this request? May Bill and his colleagues give the $100 putter to their boss for Christmas? Do the rules permit Jack to accept the putter as a gift?

I think gifts should flow down the supervisory reporting line instead of going upward. Thus, a boss or manager may give presents to direct reports, and employees can laterally exchange gifts with each other. Nevertheless, employees should not give gifts to supervisors. This military policy protects employees from pressure to purchase gifts for those who sign their paychecks. Following this policy helps avoid any appearance of a quid pro quo or the expectation of special treatment. To avoid this, always consider how the gift choices communicate the intentions in the workplace. Exceeding the set amount will likely make co-workers uncomfortable and may invite misinterpretation of motives.

Response 2.) Deborah

Proverbs 12:22 The LORD detests lying lips, but he delights in people who are trustworthy.

Honesty is a key characteristic of a business because it sets the tone for the kind of work culture that you want to create, provides consistency in workplace behavior, and builds loyalty and trust in customers and prospects. The importance you place on honesty can create the kind of work culture in which your employees feel empowered and validated. In my interview, two out of the three had honesty as number one. They both agreed that honesty helps foster workplace behavior and activity that is consistent regardless of external influences. Do I agree or disagree? I totally agree because employees will behave with a consistent code of ethics regardless of the circumstances.

Reference:

New International Version: Proverbs 12:22

Response 3.) Michael

The ethics problems I am exploring for my final project paper are all within the context of the healthcare industry. These problems are conflicts of interest, improving access to care, and facing allocation decisions when demand exceeds supply.

There are many examples of conflict of interest between stakeholders in the health care system (DeAngelis, 2014). Physicians drive most healthcare transactions as they determine what needs to be done based on their patient evaluation. Their decisions can involve conflicts of interest; however, other stakeholders (e.g., pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, medical equipment manufacturers, and professional associations) also face conflicts of interest. I want to explore this topic to learn more about the impact on patient care and ways I can prevent such conflicts from adversely impacting patient care.

The United States health care system has some of the most advanced technology in the world, but a significant portion of the population does not have adequate access to these resources. I want to explore the ethics associated with improving access for those populations that do not enjoy the benefits of advanced technology.

The Covid-19 pandemic intensified the ethical dilemma medical providers face when the supply of resources (e.g., ventilators) is inadequate to meet sick patients’ demands. Depending on the ethical views, hospital administrators and physicians may make different decisions about which patients get these resources and which patients do not get the resources. This research will help me evaluate my core values and strengthen my ethics and decision-making abilities.

DeAngelis, C. D., (2014). Conflicts of interest in medical practice and their costs to the nation’s health and health care system. The Milbank Quarterly, 92(2), 195-198.

Response 4.) Carter

The first ethical problem that I am exploring concerns the motivations behind whistle-blowing. Ferrell et al. (2021, p. 193) define whistle-blowing as “exposing an employer’s wrongdoing to outsiders such as the media or government regulatory agencies.” I’ve located an excellent article for the basis of this discussion that focuses on the motives of whistle-blowers. The article classifies whistle-blowers into several categories based on their motives for whistle-blowing. The categories include altruists, avengers, alarmists, bounty hunters, spontaneous actors, and attention seekers (Lam et al., 2019).

I chose this issue due to recent high-profile stories that involved people claiming to be “whistle-blowers”; however, the motives of the whistle-blowers were suspect. For example, a Facebook “whistle-blower” claimed in 2021 that Facebook was hiding data about the harmful effects of Instagram on teen girls; however, the “whistle-blower” ignored the facts that Facebook was the one that conducted the research and made the information available publicly well before her accusations. I believe the “whistle-blower” had ulterior motives to press for government control of Facebook. She urged congress repeatedly to take control of Facebook in her testimony.

Whistle-blowers are essential for maintaining an ethical business climate. If dishonest individuals continue to assume whistle-blower status with motives other than the public good, then the public will no longer have faith in the believability of “whistle-blowers.” In conducting this research, I hope to gain a better understanding of the significance of whistle-blower status misuse in the United States. The research could be applied to crafting organizational policies concerning whistle-blowers.

Another issue that I am exploring is the ethical perceptions of undergraduate business students. I am an Instructor of Business at a Christian university, and I often teach business ethics as part of a management course. I located an interesting article that details several issues related to the ethical perceptions of business students. For example, according to the study (and whatever the standard is for ethical beliefs in the study), female business students were more ethical than male business students (Vandenberg et al., 2019). With this exploration, I hope to learn more about the ethical perceptions of my future students so that I can better prepare them for proper ethical conduct in the workplace.

References

Ferrell, & Fraedrich, J. (2021). Business ethics: Ethical decision making and cases (13th ed.). Cengage Learning.

Lam, H., & Harcourt, M. (2019). Whistle‐blowing in the digital era: motives, issues and recommendations. New Technology, Work & Employment, 34(2), 174–190. https://doi-org.wmcarey.idm.oclc.org/10.1111/ntwe.12139

Vandenberg, A., Haen, J. J., Molnar, K. K., De Berry, T. W., & Cotter, J. W. (2019). Perceptions about Ethical Behavior among Undergraduate Students Attending Religiously-Affiliated Institutions. American Journal of Business Education, 12(1), 11–18.

Response 5.) Bryana

The Christian worldview in answering two questions as it relates to ethics. What is the standard? In the Christian worldview being scripture. I can agree with that because it exactly the bibilcal way, but one must be able to understand, and relate to the fact that there faith places a big role in the business enviroment, and that they must know that. The principle of God has great relevance in the business enviroment. Where does it come from? Everthing that takes place what one must understand is that it all comes from God. This has no change in the business world everyone must know that all they have comes from God.

Response 6.) Leslie

The Bible is regarded as a sacred work by Christians, and only one of its verses addresses business ethics (Soiferman, 2010)

As stated in the question, we would like to compare ourselves to our earlier coworkers.

• “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness,” says one of my colleagues, who has a great passion for training in righteousness and has always taught us technical subjects in depth.

Could you contrast this with the perspectives of my coworkers with whom I collaborated?

• “You shall not make your brother serve as a slave if your brother becomes poor beside you and sells himself to you.”, This instructs us to treat our coworkers with respect, but due to excessive competition, we now treat them as competitors.

The comparison and contrast of biblical business ethics with my coworkers can be seen in the abovementioned points.

References

Ruddell, L. (2014). Business ethics – Faith that works (2nd ed.). West Bow Press. ISBN:

978-1490853024.

Soiferman, L. K (2010). Compare and Contrast Inductive and Deductive Research Approaches.

Online Submission.

The Holy Bible