Ethics in Decision Making
...n are faced with difficult decision making, such as for example, whether to cut corners on quality to meet deadlines or whether to lay off workers to enhance profits. Currently, at my workplace, there is an ethical debate concerning the use of extremely low-wage foreign workers for assembling sprinklers. There may be different reasons for the company making the decision for using low-wage foreign workers. One approach for the company’s decision may focus on making the ethical decision that will result in the best benefit of the greatest number of people. The company would first have to analyze the various course of action available at the time and who will be affected by each action and what benefits or harms would be associated with each. For example, if hiring low-wage foreign workers is a response to price competition, then a possible end result is the company retention of its market share, thus enabling the company to avoid laying off more US employees and perhaps even allowing the company to pay US employees higher wages. Refusing to use low-wage workers may result in the company losing the ability to compete in the market. If the company is unable to compete in the market, then the result could be more laying off of US workers and even the foreign workers. Another approach for ethical decision making might be based on the balance of cost and benefits of taking or not taking a particular action. For example, one of the costs a company using low-wage foreign workers may incur is negative publicity. If the company has negative publicity, then one possible result is the company will lose market share regardless of the cost savings because consumers are not keen on the perception that a company might be making huge profits from abusing foreign workers. Therefore, for the survival of the company, there has to be a weighing of the cost against the competitive advantage that might be gain by using low-wage foreign workers. Nevertheless, ethics in decision making is a topic that people disagree on because it is based on mostly personal value systems. What one person may consider to be good or right may be considered by another to be bad or wrong. The...