Ethical Issues Faced by Managers

Ethical issues are present even in routine daily decisions of a manager. Managing involves ethics at every level from small personal decisions to large public policies. It may be appropriate to regard most managerial decisions as being permeated by ethics, rather than as being tangential issues. Because managers have power that affects people's lives, they have the potential for acting in good or evil ways. Managers who make incorrect decisions to promote their own interests are unethical. In addition, any situation that is less favorable than it could have been is ethically compromised. Managers should attempt to distribute resources in a fair manner; however, a fair distribution is not always an equal distribution. Managers design and enforce organizational rules. Their ethical responsibility is to produce a system of shared values and expectations that is realistic and fair. Managerial decisions may be ethical because they may test the manager's personal values. These types of conflicts involve discrepancies between personal and organizational values. Managers act as the link between organizational success and the lives of the people they manage.

Ethical behavior may be encouraged by designing organizations with optimal distribution of power and minimizing pressures that might encourage unethical behavior. Managers should attempt to create a corporate culture of openness and cooperation. Efforts should be made to understand the factors in organizations that enhance or distort human values and behavior.

Here are four examples of ethical issues for managers: