Ethics in Management
March 4, 2007 Ethical System of Inquiry "The Code of Business reaffirms what each Motorola employee stands for: Doing the right thing. Every day. No excuses” (Ethics and Code of Business Conduct, 2007).
In developing a system of inquiry, I chose to use the ethics code for Motorola Corporation. Motorola's Key Beliefs have been in existence for decades, and Motorola continues to have a strong culture of corporate ethics and citizenship. Since its original establishment in the 1970s, the Code of Business Conduct has provided Motorola employees guidance for their business activities, placing a priority on establishing trust with our stakeholders. However, Motorola realizes it is not enough to declare good values. Motorola is committed to acting on them--through the potential of technology and the way they conduct business (Ethics and Code of Business Conduct, 2007). The code of ethics for Motorola is very extensive; however, there are nine main areas of focus: code of business conduct, responsibilities to Motorolans, responsibilities to customers and consumers, responsibilities to business partners, responsibilities to shareholders, responsibilities to shareholders, responsibilities to communities, responsibilities to governments, and conflict of interests. Through these nine ethical areas, I have developed a system of inquiry to be used in evaluating decision-making, problem solving, and behavior in a business setting. Decision Making The role of employees in the organization and their ethical responsibilities must be identified and the objectives should be clarified before decision making. Employees, middle managers and executives have designated roles in the process. For example most of the middle managers can be considered as specialists for the workplace in their departments. Objectives can be derived from many sources. The manager should develop a measurable criterion from the code of