combined activities

ETHICS

Name

Institution

Number 1.activity -3 about conflict of interest, you can see the questions underneath.

What conflicts of interest have you personally experienced in personal or professional roles?

Personal conflict of interest that I have experienced is in the work place is that of the choice of candidates for various jobs in the company. The manager in this case has mostly chosen people from a certain race when compared to other races and therefore the less preferred race is disadvantaged as most managers are from a certain ethnic group (Cooper, 2012).

If you perceive a potential conflict for yourself, what are some ways you must ensure that this conflict does not lead to unethical behavior for you and others?

The best way to deal with a conflict of interest is to avoid being in the situation whereby the conflict of interest may arise and to be open and transparent about any issue that may lead to a conflict of interest. Another way is to avoid receiving gifts from people you conduct business with and making collective decisions to prevent bias or favoritism. Another way is to avoid any roles that may conflict with my work especially when there are stakes in other companies. Avoiding favors will be another milestone that will help in removing preferential treatment to others hence considering all clients fairly.

What have others’ conflict affected how you or those you know were treated?

Others conflict of interest has greatly affected the way the company treats some sections of workers. The company has mostly treated people from a certain region in favorable way in terms of promoting them and giving them, pay rises in their current bulkposts. Some people who come from different regions than of the supervisors have not been treated favorably. I come from a different region so I can bear witness that it takes long for one to be recognized for a promotion or raise because of his race or closeness to the appointing authority.

What types of policies or do organizations implement to try to reduce conflicts of interest or their costs?

Some policies company implement are those that are against favorite and where the company requires individuals to declare whether they have such conflicts of interest among them and the clients. The policies by the companies or the regulations made are usually based on financial interests, particular matters and individuals who may bring about a conflict of interests in the companies. As such, companies have to identify such people and ensure that they prevent such instances from happening.

Number 2. Activity-4 about conformity bias, you can see the questions underneath.

Can you think of a time when you did something just because everyone else was doing it- even when it did not feel quite right to you? Do you regret it?

I was overseeing production of milk and most of the milk was diluted greatly with water but when I asked why, I was told off and considered as not being part of the team. Therefore, I had to allow the more water to be added to the milk in the production tanks, which further led to a low quality in the final product. I regret the act because it was the same as stealing except in a more subtle way.

It was recently observed, “Cheating is contagious.” Does that sound true to you? Why or why not? It its true, why must this be the case?

It sounds true that cheating is contagious. This is because more people when told a lie spraed it as truth or as a rumor which may spread very quickly (Forgas et al., 2013). As such, when there is a larger group of people, the lie can spread faster since the people in the group spread it to more people who further continue the lying cycle.

Loyalty is generally considered a good quality. When a group to which you owe loyalty seeks to be making a decision that seems unethical to you, how should you go about trying to balance your loyalty to the group against your own ethical integrity? Have you had an experience like that? If so, how did you resolve it?

Loyalty is an important value greatly held in high regard among group members especially the leaders who mostly want their subordinates to be loyal to the cause of the company especially concerning profits and company secrets. Balancing loyalty needs a lot of effort especially where the company is going against integrity in doing its business operations. One such operations was to go and lie to a customer about the product that was being made for him when the company had not yet started on the project and was working on another project. I told them I could not do that because it was against my ethical principles in working truthfully and honestly in many endeavors. Some said that if you can’t beat them join them which most had done easily and had experience in receiving money to do contracts faster for clients while those who did not give them a certain amount of funds had their works pending.

Can you explain how “groupthinks” works? Can you think of a time when you have been subject to groupthink?

Groupthink is a scenario where employs feel that they cannot truthfully speak out on various issues because they will be going against the groups interests and as such they cannot use their common sense leading to a warped decision making process. Cohesion is mostly stressed in such a scenario among group members and therefore they avoid any instances that may hinder the group’s unity though the contributions may be good and help solve various problems affecting the group. As such groupthink greatly contributes to conformity bias as it tends to push out any differing viewpoints and people and thus maintain a status quo and those have opposing views are usually sidelined or removed total from the group.

Number 3. Activity-5 about ethical fading, the questions are underneath.

Can you explain the concept of ethical fading and perhaps give an example of when it happened to you?

Ethical fading involves the process whereby the moral or ethical consideration in the implementation of a decision is not considered by individuals or parties (Bazerman & Tenbrunsel, 2011) . As such, a business engaged in operations that are unethical and that are over time accepted as a way of doing things. An instance of ethical fading was hiding the fact that the production of milk I was overseeing had more than the allowed quantity of water in it.

Can you think of a situation where you were so intent on pleasing an authority figure, fitting in with your friends or achieving a goal that you failed to give an ethical issue your full attention? Did that situation because you regret?

Fitting among friends at the workplace caused me to make decisions that were ethically fading like carrying out various practices concerning selling milk knowing that it is more diluted than it should. As such to please the manager I had to sell it knowing the error in its production. It was regrettable since the consumers did not get the value for their money and it was unethical in the sense.

Can you think of an example of a friend who might have been the victim of ethical fading? Alternatively, a person in the news recently?

Consumers have been victims of ethical fading especially where products are sold to them with the prior knowledge of the manufactures concerning dangerous or improper fractions of the ingredients involved in the manufacture of the product. Harper party in Canada has ethics that clear provide an instance of ethical fading whereby the conservative members can vote for a bill that would provide financial benefit. They do not view such an act as unethical.

References

Bazerman, M. H., & Tenbrunsel, A. E. (2011). Blind spots: Why we fail to do what’s right and what to do about it. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press.

Cooper, T. L. (2012). The responsible administrator: An approach to ethics for the administrative role. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.

Forgas, J. P., Haselton, M. G., & Hippel, W. . (2013). Evolution and the social mind: Evolutionary psychology and social cognition. New York: Routledge.