Ethical Fading's Impact On Workplace Decision Making: An Essay.

Examples of ethical fading incidents

Questions:

1. Explain the concept of ethical fading and perhaps give an example of when it happened to you?

2. How do politicians and advertisers use framing to channel people’s decision?

3. How might framing adversely affect your ethical decision making in your projected workplace?

4. How can you work to ensure that ethical considerations stay in your frame of reference when you make decisions in your career and your life? 

Ethical Fading

The term “ethical fading” means a corrosion of ethical standards of a business in which the employees tend to become used to condoning or engaging in such behavior. Unethical behavior at business such as bribery, corruption or fiddling expenses becomes accepted part of the organization. This may be because of unchecked management, and sometimes that is considered as the only way to get the job done instead of reporting it to the authoritative manager and being fired (Palazzo, Krings and Hoffrage 2012). An example of ethical fading that happened with me while I was interning at a reputed business firm and the team leader under whom I was working often told me to manipulate my views about him in front of the Team Manger. I was forced to be a part of such a situation as, if I would not have said good things about him he would issue a certificate to me containing false details about me.

Recently, I encountered a situation where in my boss asked me to post false statements against the competitors of the organization on a social networking site from my personal account. I was told to include points related to market strategy and sales analysis of the competitor business. I knew that I shall be reporting false details of the competitor and this shall hamper the working of the competitor business but still I did so as I was completely carried away for winning my boss’s attention, confidence and trust.

Recently in the year 2014, Apple was held responsible for ethical slips made by people down the supply down. Apple was blamed that it does not make products that are suitable for domestic use and hence the workers of this company are subject to very harmful working conditions that may cause serious health concerns. However, Apple has defended itself by saying that it has proper regulatory and framework bodies that take care of such working conditions and lately improvement has been seen in many of the working conditions of Apple for their labors or workers. As consumers, we should take into account the ethical track record of companies while making such purchases (Harris 2015). 

Framing:

Studies have shown that people prepared to think about business profits will make different choices than people facing the same decision who have been primed to think about acting ethically and this is bound to affect the work life. People who think about business profits do better at workplace as they only think about the profits of their company and people who are more inclined towards acting ethically do not do as good as others as they have a more futuristic approach in making decisions (Gamborg et al. 2012).

I was an ex employee of an established organization and I was in the good books of the management for my work. However, as days passed by I found myself de motivated and could not adapt to the new policies formulated by the company. Therefore, I decided to quit the company due to the influence of colleagues and resigned from my position. Later, I regretted my decision as I fell a trap of undue influence of people and left a job in which I was an established and recognized employee of.  

Advertisers and Politicians use persuasiveness as an important skill for persuading their consumers depending upon their situations. Advertisers generally use the promotion of scarcity so that they are able to make opportunities more appealing as they have a limited edition to the availability of their products. Politicians try to be emphatic towards the people who shall be their voters in an upcoming election polls.

Framing is a useful tool, especially when a person is about to make an ethical decision at a workplace. Framing allows us to think for a long-term outcome instead of thinking of short term benefits. It helps in the determination of decision-making. However, situations may occur when authoritative people may reframe the original decision and change it according to their convenience (Goodwin and Howe 2016).  

To ensure that ethical considerations stay in my frame of reference when I make decisions in my life and career then I have to build confidence in myself and keep myself driven by motivation always that my choice is not unethical nor is it against the ethical norms. Such thinking gives an inner satisfaction and hence as a person, I will always be cautious about not making decision against ethical values.  

References:

Gamborg, C., Millar, K., Shortall, O. and Sandøe, P., 2012. Bioenergy and land use: framing the ethical debate. Journal of agricultural and environmental ethics, 25(6), pp.909-925.

Goodwin, D. and Howe, P.D., 2016. Framing cross-cultural ethical practice in adapt [ive] physical activity. Quest, 68(1), pp.43-54.

Harris, N.F., 2015. The Organizational Trap of Ethical Fading: Privileging Clout in Admissions at the University of Illinois.

Palazzo, G., Krings, F. and Hoffrage, U., 2012. Ethical blindness. Journal of Business Ethics, 109(3), pp.323-338.