ADMN 232 Study Guide - Final Guide: Workplace Deviance, Distributive Justice
18 Aug 2018
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Unit 3 - Overview
How the nature of a management job creates the possibility for ethical abuses
After reading this section, you should understand that ethical abuses are not always so blatant
as to be easily identified. Your textbook suggests that managers who themselves may not be
guilty of unethical acts may still be responsible through the pressures they put on others to
engage in such acts. Many such actions lead one to the point where it is almost impossible to
say who is to blame.
Common kinds of workplace deviance
The two-by-two typology in your textbook is very useful for classifying types of deviance.
Among its many uses is the capacity to organize a company’s policies related to deviance, since
the various types of deviance would warrant different sorts of responses from a company. An
excellent test of your comprehension (i.e., a good exam question) is to switch the axes around
and to map on the four kinds of deviance without referring to your textbook.
What influences ethical decision-making?
If you are looking for guidance with respect to making the right decision, you may find the
material in this section somewhat frustrating. Nevertheless, it does help us to understand an
important point: different people will have different ideas about what that right decision might
be. Their situation will affect the intensity of the decision, and their background will determine
their stage of moral development and ethical principles.
The utility of this knowledge lies in its ability to help us diagnose both our own and others’
perspectives. In both cases, this can lead to better decision-making. For example, we may truly
believe in the principle of individual rights while our sympathies for someone near and in
distress is guiding us toward a decision that can only be justified with the principle of
distributive justice. Thus, by analyzing the decision at hand in terms of intensity, moral stage,
and principles, we are often able to step back and make a decision that is more consistent with
our beliefs.
Practical steps managers can take to improve ethical decision-making
Although your textbook describes them as “steps,” it really offers four “strategies” with which
to achieve more ethical decision-making. The significance of this distinction is that the word
“steps” suggests that you start with Step #1 and that you won’t be done until Step #4, which is
not the case. Each strategy, if carried out alone, would most likely result in an improvement.
That said, when taken together, there is little doubt that synergies would emerge. With that in
mind, you may wish to spend a moment or two considering how each strategy can contribute
to the effectiveness of the other strategies.
Document Summary
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