Leadership is often defined as the ability to influence people. An effective ethical leader guides an organization and its employees to accomplish organizational goals. In the same vein, an unethical leader can guide an organization and its employees to act unethically, harming both the organization and the stakeholders. Being a leader is an exploration, a reflection, and a test of your leadership values. Seeking understanding of how you resolve ethical dilemmas, taking inventory of where an ethical weakness may lie, and examining the traits of an ethical leader helps you define, shape, and apply an ethical decision-making framework, while also taking into consideration all stakeholders who may be impacted by your decisions.
For this task, you will respond to an ethical situation as well as analyze the results of the Ethical Lens Inventory (ELI), including your top five values from the Clarifying Your Values exercise, both of which should be completed in the course of study. This task focuses on you as a leader by helping you to define, refine, and test your ethical boundaries through self-reflection and analysis.
SCENARIO
You are a sales representative for a medical device company that manufactures artificial joints. Your company has developed an artificial knee joint that is less expensive than the competition and will dramatically reduce healing time for patients. However, it is also known to produce a serious and potentially lethal infection in a small percentage of patients. The company refuses to disclose this potential side effect. You feel you have a duty to divulge this issue, but you signed a nondisclosure agreement when you were hired and worry about possible repercussions.
Sample Solution
In the last few years the organization has faced much litigation from employees accusing it of unfair employment activities â especially from its female workforce that has given the organization a bad reputation as an employer. The organization has also earned much negative publicity for its strong arming tactics and squeezing suppliers of profit margins by threatening to take its business elsewhere. The goods that are sold by Wal-mart from its Chinese suppliers in the past year have been marred by many different cases of health and safety hazards. The Chinese branches of Wal-mart have had difficulties in establishing themselves in the economy. The organization has been challenged in court over its strong-arm tactics of trying to suppress the unionization of its American workforce. The organization has to allow its Chinese workforce to unionize and the government-backed workersâ federations control the unions. Opportunities The current economic crisis has decreased the disposable income of many individuals and thus has caused many individuals and households to lower their expectations and to shop for bargains, thus Wal-mart stands to gain in such a situation. The inflation in the economy is on the decline and the economy is on the brink of deflation thus it may mean that Wal-mart is able to provide its customers with increased bargains. Many retail organizations are going out of business due to the reduction in disposable incomes. This can help Wal-mart by increasing its customer base due to the bargains that it can provide its customers. Due to the cheap rate that the organization is able to buy its products from suppliers, it is able to provide customers with even bigger bargains to encourage them to shop at Wal-mart. Threats The big name retailers such as M&S are giving having huge sales such as 50% off sales; this is difficult for Wal-mart to compete with, as its profit margins are not that great on each unit. The reduction in disposable income of customers and the looming recession and fears of job losses have caused individuals to curtail their shopping and this is a huge threat to Wal-mart, which relies on c>
In the last few years the organization has faced much litigation from employees accusing it of unfair employment activities â especially from its female workforce that has given the organization a bad reputation as an employer. The organization has also earned much negative publicity for its strong arming tactics and squeezing suppliers of profit margins by threatening to take its business elsewhere. The goods that are sold by Wal-mart from its Chinese suppliers in the past year have been marred by many different cases of health and safety hazards. The Chinese branches of Wal-mart have had difficulties in establishing themselves in the economy. The organization has been challenged in court over its strong-arm tactics of trying to suppress the unionization of its American workforce. The organization has to allow its Chinese workforce to unionize and the government-backed workersâ federations control the unions. Opportunities The current economic crisis has decreased the disposable income of many individuals and thus has caused many individuals and households to lower their expectations and to shop for bargains, thus Wal-mart stands to gain in such a situation. The inflation in the economy is on the decline and the economy is on the brink of deflation thus it may mean that Wal-mart is able to provide its customers with increased bargains. Many retail organizations are going out of business due to the reduction in disposable incomes. This can help Wal-mart by increasing its customer base due to the bargains that it can provide its customers. Due to the cheap rate that the organization is able to buy its products from suppliers, it is able to provide customers with even bigger bargains to encourage them to shop at Wal-mart. Threats The big name retailers such as M&S are giving having huge sales such as 50% off sales; this is difficult for Wal-mart to compete with, as its profit margins are not that great on each unit. The reduction in disposable income of customers and the looming recession and fears of job losses have caused individuals to curtail their shopping and this is a huge threat to Wal-mart, which relies on c>
