1. Session 4 Making decisions in business ethics
Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) International Summer Semester (ISS) 2017
“Global Synergy: Innovating through Collaboration”
Business Ethics
Session 4
Making decisions in business ethics
Prof. J. G. Frynas
30 June 2017

2. Classroom Task: Movie 'Margin Call'
Please watch the US movie called 'Margin Call’ While you are watching the film, please consider the ethical conduct of the characters in the film.

3. Ethical Decision Making

4. Ethical Decision Making
Business ethics is not just about working out what is the right thing to do – it is also about understanding why people make certain moral choices
Why do people make poor ethical judgements – are some people (e.g. bankers?) just more unethical than others?
Why do even ‘good’ people sometimes make ‘bad’ ethical decisions at work?
Why do people at work sometimes make very different ethical decisions than they would at home?
We shall go through a basic framework summarizing current knowledge of ethical decision making in business

5. Basic framework: Rest’s (1986) model of ethical decision making
Recognise
Moral
Issue
Make
Judgement
Establish
Intent
Engage
in Moral
Behaviour

6. Basic framework: Rest’s (1986) model of ethical decision making
Individual factors
Recognise
Moral
Issue
Make
Judgement
Establish
Intent
Engage
in Moral
Behaviour

7. Basic framework: Rest’s (1986) model of ethical decision making
Individual factors
Recognise
Moral
Issue
Make
Judgement
Establish
Intent
Engage
in Moral
Behaviour
Situational factors

8. Factors possibly influencing the individual
What kind of factors about us as individuals are likely to influence the type of ethical decisions we make?
Age
Gender
National and Cultural Characteristics
Education and Employment
Cognitive Moral Development
Emotions

9. Situational influences
People appear to have ‘multiple ethical selves’ (Trevino & Nelson, 2004)
Our ethics often vary according to the situation
Two types of situational influences
Issue-related factors
Context-related factors

10. Issue-related factors
Moral intensity (Jones, 1991)
Process of decision making depends on relative importance of the issue
Magnitude of consequences, social consensus, probability of effect, temporal immediacy, proximity, concentration of effect
Moral framing
Intensity is perceived and communicated differently
Moral muteness and amoralization

11. Context-related factors
Systems of reward and authority (influence from superiors and top management on decision-making of subordinates)
Bureaucracy (bureaucratic designs underpin systems of reward and authority, and can suppress moral autonomy)
Work roles (individual decision making can be drastically altered by the role we are meant to perform)
Organizational norms and culture (organizational and industry norms and cultures can curtail one’s ethical decision making)