• Home
• Module overview
• 1. The challenge of management
  • Introduction
  • 1.1 Defining management
    • 1.1.1 The art of getting things done through people
    • 1.1.2 Defining management by its functions
    • 1.1.3 Is management a profession?
  • 1.2 Management knowledge , skills and performance
    • 1.2.1 Types of managers
    • 1.2.2 Effectiveness and efficiency
    • 1.2.3 Managing the customer within
  • 1.3 The evolution of management thought
  • Conclusion

• 2. Understanding external environments

  • Introduction
  • 2.1 Putting the e xternal environment into focus
    • 2.1.1 Classifying external elements
    • 2.1.2 The changing environment
    • 2.1.3 The international dimension
  • 2.2 Relating the o rganisation to its environment
    • 2.2.1 So many issues: Which should you focus on?
    • 2.2.2 How do you acquire the relevant information?
    • 2.2.3 Clarifying the relationship between the internal and external environments
  • Conclusion

• 3. Social responsibility and ethics in management

  • Introduction
  • 3.1 Business is not value neutral: Social responsibility, obligation and responsiveness
  • 3.2 Focussing on ethics
    • 3.2.1 Why business ethics now?
    • 3.2.2 Ethical quandaries
    • 3.2.3 Approaches to ethical dilemmas
    • 3.2.4 Defining your ethics
  • Conclusion

• 4. Managerial decision making

  • Introduction
  • 4.1 Decision making and problem solving
  • 4.2 The nature of decision making as part of management
    • 4.2.1 Programmed and non-programmed decisions
    • 4.2.2 Certainty, risk and uncertainty
    • 4.2.3 Urgent vs important decisions
  • 4.3 Problem solving: making the most of opportunities
    • 4.3.1 Looking further at problem solving
    • 4.3.2 The effective decision making process
    • 4.3.3 Improving managerial problem solving: overcoming barriers
    • 4.3.4 Thinking 'outside the box' and creativity
  • 4.4 Interrelated problems
  • Conclusion

• 5. Managing strategically

  • Introduction
  • 5.1 Planning ahead
  • 5.2 Strategic management
    • 5.2.1 Some definitions
    • 5.2.2 The process of strategic management
  • Conclusion

• 6. Organisational design and structure

  • Introduction
  • 6.1 The terminology of organisational design
  • 6.2 Strategic organisational design and structure
    • 6.2.1 Types of organisational structure
    • 6.2.2 Strategic organisational design
  • 6.3 Teamwork
    • 6.3.1 The success of teamwork
  • Conclusion

• 7. Organisational culture and workforce diversity

  • Introduction
  • 7.1 Defining organisational or corporate culture
    • 7.1.1 Culture defined through its response to change
    • 7.1.2 Culture defined through the influence of the external environment
  • 7.2 Strong and weak cultures
  • 7.3 The functions of culture
  • 7.4 Creating and sustaining culture
  • 7.5 Types of culture
    • 7.5.1 Dominant culture
    • 7.5.2 Subculture
    • 7.5.3 Core values
  • 7.6 Changing culture
  • 7.7 Cultural diversity in the maritime industry
  • Conclusion

• 8. Change management

  • Introduction
  • 8.1 Dealing with change and the changing nature of change
    • 8.1.1 In what areas of the organisation can managers expect change?
    • 8.1.2 Reacting to change
  • 8.2 Key issues accelerating change
    • 8.2.1 External forces
    • 8.2.2 Internal forces
  • 8.3 Managing change
    • 8.3.1 Reactions to change
    • 8.3.2 Why employees resist change
    • 8.3.3 Emotions accompanying change
    • 8.3.4 Overcoming resistance
    • 8.3.5 Leadership and successful change
  • Conclusion

• 9. Motivating for performance

  • Introduction
  • 9.1 The nature of motivation
  • 9.2 Theories of motivation
    • 9.2.1 Do rewards really work? needs theories
    • 9.2.2 Are substantive rewards the only motivator? process theories
    • 9.2.3 Learning behaviour reinforcement theory
    • 9.2.4 Social learning theory
    • 9.2.5 Putting it all together systems theory
  • 9.3 The power of positive thinking
  • 9.4 Motivation: The implications for managers
  • Conclusion

• 10. Leadership

  • Introduction
  • 10.1 The nature of leadership
    • 10.1.1 Thinking about 'leaders' and 'leadership'
    • 10.1.2 Theories of leadership
    • 10.1.3 Refining our definition of leadership
  • 10.2 Perspectives on leadership
    • 10.2.1 Manager, leader, or both?
  • Conclusion

• 11. Teamwork

  • Introduction
  • 11.1 Work groups and group dynamics
    • 11.1.1 Work groups, work teams, taskforces, self-managing teams and team building
    • 11.1.2 High-performance teams
  • 11.2 Managing meetings and committees
  • 11.3 Group decision making
    • 11.3.1 Some advantages and disadvantages
    • 11.3.2 So, do groups make better decisions than individuals?
  • Conclusion

• 12. Managerial evaluation and control

  • Introduction
  • 12.1 Evaluation and control as a management process
    • 12.1.1 Why evaluate and control performance?
    • 12.1.2 Getting and using necessary information
  • 12.2 Levels of control
  • 12.3 Steps in the control process
  • 12.4 Assessing control systems
  • 12.5 Back to ethics
  • 12.6 Quality control systems
  • Conclusion

3.2.4 Defining your ethics

It is helpful to understand what kinds of ethical questions are at stake in a particular instance. Philosophers have identified at least three different questions that relate to moral conduct. Ronald Green, in his book The Ethical Manager (1994) , suggests that we need to answer all three questions in order to have a complete approach to ethics. As you will see, the questions may not be equally pressing when it comes to making ethical decisions in a managerial context.

The question of value. When we consider right or wrong behaviours, in a very basic way, it is natural to ask which values or goods we wish to promote through our moral 'norms', or acceptable standards of behaviour. For example:

• Do you value competitive achievement?
• Do you value a person's unique personality?

Just as a society can establish legal norms, we can establish business norms that identify basic ethical and unethical ways of acting.

The question of virtue or moral value. What makes a person morally good or bad? A person's intentions and motives enter into our judgements about their moral character.

Consider this

A colleague told me of a situation (a number of years ago) where he was towing a barge from Singapore to Indonesia and had difficulty getting past Customs. The paperwork was in order but clearance was not given. It was hinted that a sum of money was the 'custom'. My colleague considered this morally incorrect, and being prepared to stand by his principles, to go against the 'custom' and consequently, the ship was held up for four days.

The company however considered the payment of the sum of money to be a known and accepted 'custom/norm' and in fact gave the Master a bullocking for going against the norm. Was the conduct incorrect?

Another more general example to consider

I may attempt to help you by lending you some money in order to undergo a venture but, unexpectedly to me, you use the money in ways that harm you. Although the outcome proved harmful, my intentions and underlying motives were good, and overall, I would hope that my conduct would not be judged to be incorrect.

In the managerial context, ethical decisions frequently require us to make careful judgements of character. Therefore, a manager has a moral duty to choose employees whose moral integrity can be relied upon.

The central question: right conduct. Generally, we tend to judge a person's character by the deeds they perform. Thus judgements of moral worth are probably not the first question of ethics. A good person, we normally think, is one who tries to do or habitually does what is 'right'.

The stakeholder approach. Another popular approach to considering ethics is the stakeholder approach or model . Stakeholders are those individuals or groups who may be seriously affected by a particular action and therefore have a 'stake' in the outcome.

Stakeholders include financiers, employees, customers, suppliers, government departments, government regulators, community, and interest groups. Interest groups, for example, could include an environmental group. The stakeholder approach views corporate management as being involved in a network of mutual moral and ethical responsibilities.

This approach raises several questions:

• Managers have responsibilities to their organisation's stakeholders. What are these responsibilities and how do they relate to one another?
• What happens when these responsibilities conflict?

Conflicting responsibilities are commonplace in daily management. Can you think of any?

Consider the following example

What if you notice a co-worker under the influence of drugs or alcohol? Do you do anything? That may depend on the person's job. Do they operate machinery that could put others and themself at risk? (A typist under the influence is less likely to cause safety problems than the person operating, say, a gantry crane.) What about the loss of productivity regardless of the person's job? Is it a once-off, occasional, or is it becoming regular? How much 'under the influence' are they? Will there be industrial trouble if you take action and what about the associated delays?

Another more general example follows and one which most people would be familiar with as consumers of goods and services.

Another more general example to consider

A decision to recall a potentially harmful product will protect consumers but at a cost to shareholders and the company. Some would consider that there is no question here at all. It is financially and morally wise to recall a potentially dangerous product as soon as possible.

You may remember the Tylenol poisoning tragedy? (See aside below.)

An aside

Portrait of a decision

People who had taken Tylenol were dying and no one knew why. James Burke, the Chief Executive Officer of Johnson & Johnson, faced one of the toughest decisions of his life. Should he pull Tylenol from the market?

The financial cost would be enormous. The legal implications could be staggering. His decision was - pull the product.

Burke attributes his action to the values underlying his company. Johnson & Johnson's credo begins: 'We believe our first responsibly is to the doctors, nurses and patients, to mothers and all others who use our products and services.' Burke is a clear example of a leader who knows his values and used them to make decisions. He also kept the long term view in focus. J & J suffered financially that year, but they came back stronger than ever with more customer trust than they could have bought with millions of dollars in advertising.

Source: adapted from Heim, P and Chapman, E N (1990 ). Learning to Lead: An Action Plan for Success . USA : Crisp Publications Inc, page 48.

Reading 3.2

Johnson and Johnson (2001). 'Social responsibility' and 'Credo'. Johnson and Johnson . URL: http://www.jnj.com/who_is_jnj/sr_.index.html (accessed 2001, 3 April). [3 pages]

Green (1994) suggested that one way of approaching these questions is to itemise in advance the specific obligations owed by managers to stakeholders and rank them in order of preference. He suggests, for example, that the customer has a right to a safe product, employees desire a full and frank disclosure of information affecting their safety, compensation and job security, and shareholders are entitled to a reasonable return on investment.

This is an appealing way of approaching managerial decision making and one that is receiving attention in managerial business ethics material. Certainly, it is not always clear that we can rank obligations in advance. However, when faced with an ethical dilemma, you may find the notion of identifying stakeholders and their relative positions a useful way to crystallise your thoughts along the way to a solution.

Reading 3.3

Texas Instruments (2001).'Ethics at TI'. Texas Instruments . URL: http://www.ti.com/corp/docs/company/citizen/ethics/index.shtml (accessed 2001, 3 April). [2 pages]

The MVK Group (2001). 'Code of ethics'. The MVK Group . URL: http://www.mvkgroup.com/ethics.html (accessed 2001, 3 April). [2 pages]

Olson, Andrew (2001). 'Codes of ethics online'. Center for Study of Ethics in the Professions . URL: http://csep.iit.edu/codes/coe/Writing_A_Code.html (accessed 2001, 3 April). [5 pages]

Activity 3.1

Use the stakeholder approach as a framework to consider a past or current ethical dilemma you or your organisation has faced.

OR use the following example to complete this activity.

The government has called for the formation of a national committee to combat the spread of alcoholism by restricting the advertising of alcohol. Assume that the negative effects of alcohol on society have been highlighted and manufacturers of alcoholic products have been criticised for their active promotion of the drug.

1. Identify the stakeholders in this situation. List some of the conflicting interests of the groups.
2. Assume that you are an employee of the company. Think about how might you respond if your were an executive officer? And the marketing manager? What would be your response if you were a production line employee who perceived that they might lose their job.

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