Ethical Decision-Making

Decision-making skills in a business environment are critical for continued company growth and progress. Personal or business ethics can have a substantial impact on how decisions are made. In order for decisions to be ethically defensible it must contain specific elements. The basic elements in ethical decisions are ground rules. Ground rules can be composed of informal ethical believes of business ethics. The determining factor of an ethical decision will be based on which ground rule is used. An ethically defensible decision includes a number of important elements. Most crucial are the ground rules that underlie such a decision. These can include informal ground rules like religious faith, family values, personal experiences, and the personality of the individual. However, a business impacting decision needs to be based on ground rules developed by the organization.
The primary factor in creating organizational ground rules would be the companies' mission statement or long-term goals. The importance of establishing ground rules directly impacts ethical decision-making. If there are no ground rules to guide an ethical decision, then it may be based on personal or informal ground rules. Since formal ground rules have become so important, many organizations inform employees of ethical guidelines when hired.
With so many decisions being based of business ethics or established company ground rules, there can be situations where ethics can be the driving force of the decision. The ethical implications of these decisions can change informal ground rules or personal ethics. If the employee is in the position where they are the decision maker for an organization, they will most likely adapt many of the ethics or ground rules that have been experienced through the company. There may be a literal transformation of personal ground rules and ethics are differently affected by a person