BUSINESS111 Chap.9 Business Ethics and Ethical Decision-Making
Business Ethics and Ethical Decision-Making
Frameworks for hard choices
This chapter defines ethics, values and ethical dilemmas, then works through the four ethical views the course teaches: individualism, moral rights, utilitarian and justice, including procedural, distributive and interactional justice.
Context and responsibility
It explains how the manager as a person, the employing organisation and the external environment shape ethical behaviour, and practises the exam task of choosing one view, justifying it from the facts and advising what to do.
How the exam tests ethics
The course's practice question for Week 8 asks you to choose ONE ethical framework to guide a manager facing a dilemma, explain your rationale and advise how to proceed.
The chapter's worked example and practice cards follow that pattern with invented cases, showing how to justify the chosen view from the facts and why the tempting alternative falls short.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Ethics, values and ethical dilemmas
- 02
The individualism view
- 03
The moral-rights view
- 04
The utilitarian view
- 05
The justice view and its three forms
- 06
Influences on ethical managerial behaviour
Worked example · free
Choose one ethical view and advise
- 1Understanding key concepts: state the chosen view and its test question.
- 8Application, analysis, judgement and justification: apply the view to the facts, contrast an alternative and justify the advice.
- 1Communication and structure: one clear paragraph within 250 words.
Key terms
- Ethics
- The moral principles that mark out right from wrong in how a person behaves.
- Ethical Dilemma
- A situation in which action is required but no option is clearly ethically right.
- Utilitarian View
- An ethical view that judges decisions by whether they do the most good for the most people.
- Moral-Rights View
- An ethical view that judges decisions by whether they protect the fundamental rights of all people.
- Procedural Justice
- Fairness in how rules and policies are administered, applied consistently to everyone.
- Individualism View
- An ethical view that asks whether a decision promotes long-term self-interest.
Business Ethics and Ethical Decision-Making FAQ
Is there a single correct ethical view to use?
No. Canvas explains that the views are not exhaustive, that absolute answers are rare, and that one view may call a decision moral while another calls it immoral. What earns marks is a justified choice tied to the facts.
What are the three forms of justice?
Procedural justice concerns rules administered fairly and consistently, distributive justice, in the slide's wording, concerns identical treatment whoever the person is, and interactional justice concerns treating people with dignity and respect.
Why do good managers make unethical choices?
The lecture shows that decisions are shaped by context: personal standards and needs, organisational codes, supervisors, peers and culture, and outside forces such as regulation, social norms and the ethical climate of the industry. Pressure from any of these can push a decision off course.
What influences a manager's ethical behaviour?
The lecture groups the influences into three layers: the manager as a person, including family, religious values and personal needs; the employing organisation, including codes, supervisors, peers and culture; and the external environment, including regulation, social norms and the industry's ethical climate.
How many ethical views should I use in an answer?
Use the number the question asks for. When it asks for ONE framework, choose one, justify it from the facts and mention a second view only briefly to show why it is weaker here. A tour of all four views spends the word limit on description.
What is an ethical dilemma?
The lecture describes it as a situation in which action must be taken but no option is clearly the right one. That is why the course asks for a reasoned choice rather than a single correct answer.
Exam move
Write the test question for each of the four ethical views on a card. Take a dilemma from the news and run it through all four, noting which approve and which condemn the action. Then choose one view, write a 250-word paragraph advising the decision-maker, and finish by naming which of the three layers of influence created the pressure in the first place.
Finally, reread your paragraph and underline the fact that justifies your choice of view; if you cannot find one, rewrite the rationale. Keep the four test questions where you can see them in your exam notes. Practise stating each view's test question from memory.
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