Organizational Ethics Essay Example for Free

Organizational Ethics Essay My intent in writing this paper is to describe how ethical principles can address organizational issues. The organization that I have chosen to explore is the Boeing Company specifically and the aerospace manufacturing industry as a whole, more generally. I will cover the role that external social pressures play in influencing the industry in both their compliance with government and professional ethics. I will also endeavor to highlight how the pressures brought to bear on the industry by the public and the government is relevant to their decisions both corporately and individually by their employees. Finally, I will share my thoughts on the relationship between legal and ethical issues with regard to the industry. To begin then, let’s explore what role external social pressures have in influencing the Boeing Company and by extension, the aerospace industry’s organizational ethics. The level of trust that must be present by the public in the company that builds the airplane they fly in is best described in the words of the Boeing employee code of conduct â€Å"†¦must not engage in conduct or activity that may raise questions as to the companys honesty, impartiality, or reputation or otherwise cause embarrassment to the company.† (Boeing, 2014) Boeing and the entire aerospace industry are hyper aware of their image and the perceptions of the flying public. When social pressure is brought to bear the entire industry takes notice and works to renew and enhance the public’s trust. For example, last year Boeing experienced a public relations nightmare when their new 787 Dreamliner aircraft experienced problems with Lithium Ion Batteries. An aircraft caught fire while waiting to be refueled and prepared for its next use. When news of the incident became known it was received with widespread fear and seeded mistrust of the airframe in the public, in the airline customer and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The entire 787 worldwide fleet was grounded until resolution could be  made to ensure public and aircraft safety. The speed with which Boeing and the FAA dealt with the problem shows beyond any doubt that social pressure influences Boeing and the entire aerospace industry. Aerospace companies are constantly working to keep and enhance the trust of the public and to remain in compliance with the strictest government standards. The Core Values of the Boeing Company are Integrity, Quality, Safety, Diversity and Inclusion, Trust and Respect, Corporate Citizenship and finally Stakeholder Success. (Boeing, 2014) It is interesting to me that stakeholder success is the last item on the list. Boeing sees their public owners as being lowest on their corporate priority list with regard to ethics. In other words they see the need to be ethical as higher than being profitable. The need to be perceived in the public arena as ethical and trustworthy while also remaining in compliance with very lofty government standards demonstrates how Boeing and the aerospace industry strive to perform at a level which helps to mitigate the need for public or social pressure to influence their decisions. The issues the aerospace industry routinely deals with remain relevant and continually influence the decisions made and direct the way the companies involved expect their employee’s personal decisions to be made. Everything Boeing and its employees do have the potential to impact the public trust. In a broader sense the organizational ethics of the aerospace industry are determined by multiple factors. As already mentioned the flying public’s trust is a major factor but added to that are the airlines which operate the aircraft, the government agencies who retain oversight on the industry as a whole and the corporate citizens who build the aircraft. A great deal of effort goes into ensuring each of these levels of influence are balanced and mesh as seamlessly as possible with the core values mentioned above. As I have discovered, the aerospace industry is heavily influenced by many government agencies. Through regulation and legislation these agencies impact the aerospace industry’s relationship with both the public and its stakeholders. The relationship which exists between these entities creates in many instances a legally mandated set of codes which govern the way the aerospace industry conducts business. In the United States the FAA has the ability and, arguably, the responsibility to mandate that certain rules and standards are met in the construction and operation of airplanes. Whether the airplanes are used to transport the flying public  or are designated experimental and only flown under strictly controlled circumstances makes no difference. The ability of a government agency to enforce rules or a code at a level as invasive as exists in the entire aerospace industry creates a question of whether the ethics embraced by the aerospace industry would be at the level they currently enjoy if the amount of regulation was not the same. In a more direct fashion the question then begs itself; given the influences of the public, the airline operators, and the government agencies with oversight, is the aerospace industry as a whole independently ethically responsible or are they forced to be so? When I attempted to determine if there is a clear definition of what ethically responsible means I fell short. The definition is subjective at best and invariably indistinct. I can therefore only use my personal definition to gage what I can research and see for myself to make a determination much as you the reader must do. As I stated my intent in writing this paper was to describe how ethical principles can address organizational issues. Strictly speaking, I may have drifted afield of a clear presentation of that description. However, the role that external social pressures play in influencing the aerospace industry in both compliance with government and professional ethics was demonstrated throughout as well as how the pressures brought to bear on the industry by the public and government is relevant to their decisions both corporately and individually by their employees. Last but certainly not least, I sought to determine the relationship between legal and ethical issues in reference to the aerospace industry which left me with an unanswered and perhaps unanswerable question. Works Cited Boeing Company. (2014). Boeing.com. Retrieved Dec 1, 2014, from Boeing Ethic Home Page: http://www.boeing.com/boeing/companyoffices/aboutus/ethics/

One Man, One Vote? Essay -- essays research papers

One Man, One Vote?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Joseph Farkas thinks that every vote cast should equal every other vote. He feels that many people are voting without knowing why they are voting for a certain person or why they aren't voting for another. He says that a vote cast by a person with no or very little knowledge in the election should not count as much as a vote cast by a person who knows alot about the election. The people who care about who has an important role in the government should have a bigger say in who is going to have that important role. The votes cast by a person who doesn't really know why they are voting for someone should not equal as much as an election educated person.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I do not think that this is a good idea at all. It would not encourage people to learn more about the election but keep them away from the voting area. It will probably make people not want to vote because many of them would think that their vote will not mean as much to the election. It would make the people who are familiar with the candidates want to vote because they would have a bigger say in who gets elected. It would be very hard to decide who know what about the running candidates and issues that are being addressed. They would have to give some kind of multiple-choice question test that you had to fill out while voting. It would take a long time for each person to vote and I think that would make people less encouraged to come and vote. Sin... One Man, One Vote? Essay -- essays research papers One Man, One Vote?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Joseph Farkas thinks that every vote cast should equal every other vote. He feels that many people are voting without knowing why they are voting for a certain person or why they aren't voting for another. He says that a vote cast by a person with no or very little knowledge in the election should not count as much as a vote cast by a person who knows alot about the election. The people who care about who has an important role in the government should have a bigger say in who is going to have that important role. The votes cast by a person who doesn't really know why they are voting for someone should not equal as much as an election educated person.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I do not think that this is a good idea at all. It would not encourage people to learn more about the election but keep them away from the voting area. It will probably make people not want to vote because many of them would think that their vote will not mean as much to the election. It would make the people who are familiar with the candidates want to vote because they would have a bigger say in who gets elected. It would be very hard to decide who know what about the running candidates and issues that are being addressed. They would have to give some kind of multiple-choice question test that you had to fill out while voting. It would take a long time for each person to vote and I think that would make people less encouraged to come and vote. Sin...

Assignment 3 Essay

In the rapidly evolving global marketplace in which outsourcing is ubiquitous, organizations need to be vigilant in their management of risk. Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) is a growing paradigm in which business leaders seek to effectively identify, mitigate, and manage risks across all aspects of the business as a whole. The ERM model classifies business risk into seven distinct, but inter-related categories: 1) strategic market risks, 2) operating risks, 3) finance risks, 4) human capital risks, 5) Information Technology (IT) risks, 6) legal risks, and 7) reputation risks. (Beasley, Bradford, and Pagach, 2004) A proposed outsourcing of any business process needs to carefully evaluate how the proposed change may create, increase, or reduce risks in each of these business areas. This paper will examine a proposed change from a legacy payroll system to an outsourced solution and evaluate the costs, benefits, and risks of the proposed change. Additionally, it will suggest how to effectively manage such a transition. COSTS AND BENEFITS When considering the costs versus benefits of a business decision, both costs and benefits can be categorized as either direct or indirect. Direct costs refers to those activities that require a quantifiable and foreseeable outlay of the organization’s assets. Indirect costs, however, refer to potential costs that may arise. Direct benefits refers to those activities that either increase revenue or reduce cost. As with direct costs, direct benefits can be easily quantified. Likewise, indirect benefits are more difficult to foresee and quantify. Following is a cost-benefits analysis matrix representative of the proposed payroll outsourcing project. Direct Indirect Benefits Revenue Enhancements Cost Reductions Reduction in man-hours Increased efficiency Avoidance of noncompliance fines and penalties Costs Implementation costs Vendor fees Service agreement fees Disruption to payroll activity during transition ENTERPRISE RISK MAMAGEMENT Using the ERM model as a guide, we can identify risks associated with the proposed transition across multiple business areas. Outsourcing the organization payroll functions has the potential to expose it to finance, human capital, and legal risks. A single vendor mistake, such as miscalculation of tax deductions has the potential for an exponentially negative effect on the organization’s bottom line, the morale, and potential loss of, the employee workforce, and legal compliance with local, state and federal regulations. Tim Stuhldreher stresses that extreme care must be given when choosing a payroll vendor. (Stuhldreher, 2012) Not only should potential vendors be thoroughly researched and vetted, a continuous process evaluation should be put into force to identify, limit, and guard against unintended risk. PROJECT MANAGEMENT There are many tools which project managers have at their disposal to ensure that a project stays on schedule, within budget, and within scope as well as produces intended outcomes. Common among these management tools are the Gantt chart, the performance evaluation and review technique (or PERT), and the critical path method (or CPM). Each of these scheduling and management techniques has a unique focus as well as certain limitations. A Gantt chart is a horizontal bar chart which identifies the tasks which are to be completed within the project and provides a timeline for their completion. A Gantt chart for the proposed payroll outsourcing project would have as it individual tasks formation of a vendor selection committee, selection of a payroll vendor, development of a data transfer protocol, system testing, and personnel training, and establishing a go live date. These individual milestones provide the parameters of the project’s scope, and the Gantt chart develops a schedule for completion of these milestones. One significant advantage of a Gantt chart is its simplicity. By providing a graphical representation of the tasks and timelines, management can easily understand, and gauge, the scheduling and completion rate of the project. A Gantt chart, however, is limited in that its primary focus is the project’s scheduling, and it is inflexible to developing changes that may evolve during the project. Also, while it does identify the tasks that are milestones within the project, it does not illustrate any interdependencies among those tasks. The PERT technique attempts to deal with the uncertainties to which Gantt charts are inflexible, and allowing for uncertainty is the major advantage of PERT. (Davis, 1966) PERT also identifies dependencies among project tasks, thus provide for a more efficient estimation of project completion time. PERT relies on multiple estimates to factor in scheduling variations due to uncertainty. In doing so, the thing that makes it advantageous over Gantt charts also is the cause for its disadvantage. PERT charts are significantly more complex than Gantt charts so managers may have difficulty interpreting and understanding them in the context of the entire project. The critical path method (CPM) also illustrates dependencies within project activities, but CPM seeks to identify the significance of the activities and their inter-relatedness. CPM seeks to compress completion time and mitigate risks inherent in the relation of tasks to each other. In addition to the advantage of showing dependencies, CPM more clearly illustrates the impacts of scheduling revisions. As with PERT, though, the added level of detail also presents disadvantages. The larger the project, and the more tasks, the more convoluted CPM becomes with dependency paths. CPM is also a bit myopic – it has a narrow focus on the dependency paths within the project, and it does not address resource allocation. The aforementioned project management tools all are useful for managing the scheduling and duration of a project. Project managers must also evaluate whether the project is delivering the intended outcome. Such evaluation should not only occur at the terminal end of a project, it should be a continued process throughout the life of the project. (Zofi, 2012) Additionally, employee morale and perception needs to be taken into consideration when implementing a change. This is especially true when it comes to outsourcing business functions. Elmuti, Grunewald, and Abebe observed that, consequent to outsourcing strategies, employees report lower levels of job satisfaction, lower levels of organizational commitment, and higher intentions to quit. (Elmuti, Grunewald, and Abebe, 2010) It is human, and organizational, nature to resist and be skeptical of change, particularly when a major business function that had previous been done in-house is outsourced. A proactive project management plan will anticipate and address employee resistance. Organizations considering an outsourcing strategy would be well served to openly and actively communicate with their employees the reasons for, and impact of the potential change while welcoming and encouraging questions and feedback from them. The more the employee base can be involved in affecting, and buy into change, the less their resistance may be. References Beasley, Mark, Bradford, Marianne, and Pagach, Don â€Å"Outsourcing? At Your Own Risk† Strategic Finance (July 2004), pp. 23-29 Davis, P. M. â€Å"From Scientific Management to Pert-An Evolution† Nebraska Journal of Economics and Business (1966), pp. 34-45 Elmuti, Dean, Grunewald, Julian, and Abebe, Dereje â€Å"Consequences of Outsourcing Strategies on Employee Quality of Work Life, Attitudes, and Performance† Journal of Business Strategies vol. 27, no. 2 (2010), pp. 178-203 Stuhldreher, Tim â€Å"Payroll complexity leads to outsourcing† Central Penn Business Journal (June 22, 2012), pp. 17-18 Zofi, Yael â€Å"Getting Deliverables Out the Door† Industrial Engineer (July 2012), pp. 35-40

How Are Theories Formed - 1783 Words

What is a Theory? We often hear someone say â€Å"That’s just a theory† or on the contrary - â€Å"In theory and in practice, it always works.† This term may indeed hold in itself a somewhat ambiguous undertone, and lead to confusion and misuse. Let’s look at the origin of the word; according to an etymology dictionary, theory derives from the Greek â€Å"theorà ©o† which means ‘to look at’, ‘to observe’. The definition tells us that one must firstly observe a phenomenon so that a theory about a certain aspect of it could form. There are essentially three forms of theories, and although they are different, all of them have one thing in common – a theory is always born with observation. The first form is theory as a belief, found in humanities†¦show more content†¦Instead a scientist would work from an already existing theory – an argument is that scientists make progress when they hold an idea in mind and then t hey go to observe and gather evidence for that idea/theory. Proponents of the deductive method assert that science makes progress through meta-theories, meaning that in place of one theory, another one will emerge. So when Galileo opposed Aristotle’s theory, he proposed that the different speeds of objects falling to the ground have nothing to do with their masses, but instead occur because of air resistance and acceleration due to a gravitational pull. He was right and Aristotle was wrong. Below is a summary of how evidence and a theory interact in their relation to each other. Evidence - theory (inductive) Theory - evidence (deductive) Meta-theory - theory - evidence (deductive) As mentioned throughout the paper, the validity of a theory and its worthiness depend primarily on the evidence and proof which is gathered after the theory has been stated. For example, the recent theory that all physical objects in the world and all living organisms are holograms is mind bending and would be a tremendous breakthrough in the world of science had the hypothesis been testable. Just like with the Theory of Evolution and Theory of Creationism, the Theory of a Hologram World,Show MoreRelatedHow is identity formed, a look at some of the theories756 Words   |  3 PagesIdentity can be defined as how I see myself and how others see me. (Questioning Identity. 2000. p7) An identity involves a sense of belonging, an individual chooses to identify with a group and actively engages in doing so, showing agency. This sense of belonging involves being the same and recognising that others are different . An individual can have multiple identities e.g. gender, supportin g a football team; all of these identities make up the individual. 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