INDIVIDUAL ETHICAL DECISION-MAKING

There are many approaches to the individual ethical decision-making process in business. However, one of the more common was developed by James Rest and has been called the four-step or four-stage model of individual ethical decision-making. Numerous scholars have applied this theory in the business context. The four steps include: ethical issue recognition, ethical (moral) judgment, ethical (moral) intent, and ethical (moral) behavior.

ETHICAL ISSUE RECOGNITION.

Before a person can apply any standards of ethical philosophy to an issue, he or she must first comprehend that the issue has an ethical component. This means that the ethical decision-making process must be "triggered" or set in motion by the awareness of an ethical dilemma. Some individuals are likely to be more sensitive to potential ethical problems than others. Numerous factors can affect whether someone recognizes an ethical issue.

ETHICAL (MORAL) JUDGMENT.

If an individual is confronted with a situation or issue that he or she recognizes as having an ethical component or posing an ethical dilemma, the individual will probably form some overall impression or judgment about the rightness or wrongness of the issue. The individual may reach this judgment in a variety of ways, as noted in the earlier section on ethical philosophy.

ETHICAL (MORAL) INTENT.

Once an individual reaches an ethical judgment about a situation or issue, the next stage in the decision-making process is to form a behavioral intent. That is, the individual decides what he or she will do (or not do) in regard to the perceived ethical dilemma.

According to research, ethical judgments are a strong predictor of behavioral intent. However, individuals do not always form intentions to behave that are in accord with their judgments, as various situational factors may act to influence the individual otherwise.

ETHICAL (MORAL) BEHAVIOR.

The final stage in the four-step model of ethical decision-making is to engage in some behavior in regard to the ethical dilemma. Research shows that behavioral intentions are the strongest predictor of actual behavior in general, and ethical behavior in particular. However, individuals do now always behave consistent with either their judgments or intentions in regard to ethical issues. This is particularly a problem in the business context, as peer group members, supervisors, and organizational culture may influence individuals to act in ways that are inconsistent with their own moral judgments and behavioral intentions.

Read more:Ethics - organization, levels, system, examples, model, company, business, system, Approaches to ethical decision-making, Individual ethical decision-makinghttp://www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/Em-Exp/Ethics.html#ixzz0yoZArQcf

Ethical reasoning can vary in most people regarding their beliefs and responsibilities, a clear example of two different ethical reasoning decision in a same role of leadership I had the opportunity to see it in a movie call RED SEA, the movie is about a nuclear submarine in times of the cold word, the captain and the second in charge didn't share the same beliefs during a war condition, after loosing contact with The USA government, the decision of making the nuclear bombs blast was to the captain, who just belief in defending its country no matter what, this is a set of patriot individualism and power recognition, while the second in charge took control to prevent this disaster because in his mind was to wait, to be prudent and to thing in the world people that could be harm from the captains decision, both captain and second ethical reasoning had strong basis, but ones were more individualism, while the other were collectivism, this beliefs made their intentions from a given situation follow by their actions, finally the second in charge made the right decision, save many people and prevent a disaster, his collectivism approach and higher power distance made him to thing more prudently to achieve a common goal.

"The self-fulfilling prophecy occurs when teachers or leaders believe, or act as if they believe, that a randomly selected subset of students or employees will perform better in contrast to some average or unknown group. But research done in the Israeli Defense Forces shows that Pygmalion effects can be created without inducing contrasts between high and low performers. When platoon leaders at training camps were convinced that all of the soldiers in their classes had unusually high command potential, there was still a strong Pygmalion effect. This suggests that overall performance of a group can be increased when leaders expect everyone to do well. There is apparently no need to sort people into subgroups of high-status "winners" and low-status "losers" in order to use the power of the self-fulfilling prophecy as a way to enhance performance."

"That's a good thing, because self-fulfilling prophecies are just as powerful in their effects in the opposite direction. When a leader believes that a person lacks skill or motivation, these negative expectations decrease performance. The effects of negative self-fulfilling prophecies help explain why, over the long term, internal competition can hamper performance. Once a person, group, or division is labeled a loser, research suggests that subsequent performance will be worse because leaders and others will unwittingly act to fulfill the poor performance expectations. And the loss of self-worth and motivation felt by those who are treated as losers leads to further decreases in their performance."

Source: Taken From Stanford GSB News

http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/research/ob_knowing.shtml. Paragraph 6-7, 06/09/2010.

Also, please follow this video for better understanding of the pygmalion effect:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Wl_MZc1cTU

Uncertainty Avoidance, Cultural Dimension

Uncertainty Avoidance is a cultural dimension that explains how a society can deal towards uncertainty and ambiguity, this kind of society tries to be specific in all task, implementation of policies and regulations, strict follow of those laws, to avoid unexpected situations, this is an emotion as a result of being not easy adaptable to changes and a risk adverse personality.

In a hypothetical situation regarding this cultural dimension, a company from colombia is trying to make some business with a singapore company, colombia´s company members in other to proceed with a more regulated process, set up a group of procedures to make the possible transaction more serious, the counter part, the singapore company tough of this as an unnecessary paper work that will only delay the business, they tough Colombian company weren't so interested on making the deal and the singapore company felt not to be trusted by colombians, this delay the business and made it to end its course.

This could happen if we don´t attempt to study counter´s part organizational behavior in simple issues as uncertainty avoidance.

Common Interest

I recomend the following blogs that caught my attention for several independent puroposes:
http://www.periodismoindependiente.es/
http://other90.cooperhewitt.org/
http://solotravelerblog.com/