Ethical obligations

Ethical obligations exist in just about ever facet of a business environment. Ethical

obligations are standards that define a moral course of action and draws a line between right and

wrong. Ethical obligations are about discretionary decisions and value-guided behavior.

Business ethics is a form of applied ethics or professional ethics, that examines ethical

principles and moral or ethical problems that can arise in a business environment. It applies to all

aspects of business conduct and is relevant to the conduct of individuals and entire organizations.

Ethical obligations in business consists of recruiting, maintaining a safe and healthy work

environment, using business resources wisely, and avoiding situations that have the potential to

create a conflict of interest.

Ethics should be embedded in your culture. There should be a clear ethical vision,

mission, set of core values communicated which helps employees manage their own behavior.

With a clear code of conduct, employees are more likely to make choices that align with the

ethics of the business. An ethical culture within business consists of honesty, dedication,

teamwork, and commitment. The ethical culture and standards start with the leadership.

Employees are more likely to behave unethically if they see those is leader or manager roles

behaving as such because it sets the tone for the culture and it is seen as acceptable.

Businesses also have an ethical obligation of telling the truth and being transparent.

Being transparent includes being willing to provide any necessary information to employees,

stakeholders, investors, customers, etc. Trying to hide information or misrepresenting

information for whatever reason can lead to unethical behavior. It is an ethical obligation in

business to be honest about sales, revenues, and profits.

In recruiting and promoting a healthy work environment, businesses have an ethical

obligation to promote diversity and equality. With workplaces consisting more of various

cultural, racial, and ethnic groups, we all can learn from one another. But, there must also be a

level of understanding about one another in an effort to facilitate collaboration and cooperation.

Harassment and discrimination should not be tolerated in business. Businesses have an ethical

responsibility to their employees as they should manage behaviors and HR decisions in a manner

that fits the law. Establishing policies and applying them fairly to all employees, there is an

environment created of fairness and equity.

Businesses have an ethical social responsibility as well. Businesses have a duty to society

and the environment as well as focusing on doing what is best for the well-being of society as a

whole. Decisions that are made that cause harm to society or the environment would be

considered unethical. Every individual has a responsibility to act in a manner that is beneficial to

society and not solely to that individual.

In conclusion, businesses have an ethical responsibility to behave in a way that is

expected by the society. Investors are less likely to invest in a business that operates unethically.

To keep a positive image and reputation, businesses must be committed to operating in an ethical

manner as it relates to the treatment of employees, the surrounding environment, and fair market

practices
Strategic Analysis & Quantitative Techniques

Tough choices have high stakes and serious consequences; they involve numerous and

complex considerations; and they expose us to the judgements of others (Gunther, 2008).

Making a decision takes one step and a time. Even the most complex decisions can be analyzed

and resolved by considering different elements and factors. Businesses and leaders are faced with

tough decisions on a regular basis. Decision making should be taken one step at a time. The

Decision-Making Model consists of these steps in decision making. First it calls for creating a

context for success. The second step is to frame decision challenges. Identifying alternatives is

the third step in the decision-making model and the fourth step is to evaluate alternatives. Then,

best solution(s) need to be identified. Lastly, the decision should be implemented, tracked, and

adjusted if needed.

I worked for my previous employer as an Administrative Assistant. After about three

years in this position, the organization was doing some organizational reconstructing and some

jobs were to be impacted. But the ultimate goal was to keep a competitive advantage, create a

better costumer experience all while reducing costs. We were losing close to a million dollars

annually due to fraud. This was affecting the company’s bottom line. To increase profits, there

needed to be a significant decrease in fraud, an organizational reconstruction with less jobs

which means less money spent on liabilities. But the customer satisfaction couldn’t be impacted

and if it did, it had to be for the better.

When new accounts were being set up, there was a new accounts team offshore in Manila

who did an initial fraud investigation. Their culture in Manila was to please, to make everyone

happy. So, when faced with a decision to deny or open account, their decisions were not based

off their reviews it seemed. Because of that, the company took a hit. As an administrative
assistant, I was the one supporting the legal team, so I processed the fraud activity that came

through. Eventually I asked my manager if I could take a look at the process of the Manila team

when reviewing for fraud. After my review, I made a few suggestions to my manager who then

took it to our Director. The Director took my suggestions to the VP of Financial Solutions. Soon

after, we had a meeting where they discussed the impact it would make on the initial customer

experience as well as the reduced losses if this fraud process for new accounts was brought to

our headquarters in Williamsville, NY. I was involved in the decision making of the new

structure and changes involving this team and process. After sitting in on meeting after meeting,

giving my input and putting a plan together, I was offered a new job where I oversaw this

process and I processed all the fraud reviews myself and trained the new hires. It was a better

customer experience for the customers because there wasn’t that language barrier either. Much of

my administrative duties was sent offshore which caused the VP of Financial Solutions to also

send over all the other administrative assistant’s duties to Manila and eliminate their position in

Williamsville, NY.

As discussed previously, the first step in the Decision-Making Model is to identify the

problem. This is one of the most important steps in the Decision-Making Model. A clear

understanding of the decision or problem that needs to be made is necessary or there is no need

to continue with the decision-making process. In the decision I was involved in explained above,

the problem is the increasing fraud with new accounts that is costing the company millions.

When entering the decision-making process, it must be clear that the goal is also to keep costs

down while doing so.

The second step in the Decision-Making Model is to frame decision challenges. Framing

is commonly used during dialogue. Framing is setting an approach or query within an

appropriate context to achieve a desired result or elicit a precise answer (What is framing?, n.d.).

Framing distinguishes the difference between fact and opinion when identifying alternatives.

There are many questions that can be asked that requires a thorough thought through. To make

sure we were making decisions that made a better experience for our customers, we had to make

sure we weren’t going off of our own perspectives and opinions. It is very important to make a

decision based on facts. So, there was a survey for all customers to complete after any

communication with our new accounts team. This survey gave insight as to where the problem

laid between the customer and their initial experience. In addition, we had to look at the books

and compare trends on data when it came to the company’s fraud losses over time, looking at the

accounts that were identified as fraud and locate where there were signs of fraud on their

application. In that process, we had to reframe our questions to make sure we were looking at the

problem from different views. One way we reframed the issue was instead of asking “What can

we do to decrease our fraud rate?” we instead asked, “What signs are we missing that an account

application may potentially be fraud?”. Reframing typically happened through dialogue and

during brainstorming.

The third step in the Decision-Making Model is to identify alternatives. Depending on

the scenario and the decision to be made, there may only be two alternatives – to do it or not do

it. Most of the time there will be several feasible alternatives. Brainstorming, critical thinking

and dialogue are three components that play an effective role in identifying alternatives. Critical

thinking gives the ability to engage in better dialogue and more clearly frame decision scenarios.

Dialogue is communication that permits people to share their honest opinions in ways that get

ideas out on the table but without offending others (Allen, n.d.). Through dialogue, we can

understand other perspectives, ideas, and obtain more or different facts that can be used and put
together when coming up with solution(s) and/or analyzing the solution(s). Framing and dialogue

are both used during brainstorming. Brainstorming helps the team get to the root of the problem

and generate alternatives. Brainstorming and dialogue requires ambiguity to get a different point

of view or perspective. It requires no judgement as all ideas are useful and all ideas help generate

new ways of thinking and creativity.

During my role in the decision making of how to minimize company losses, I engaged in

dialogue and brainstorming with my manager, the director of the finance department, and

another employee engaged in analyzing the current fraud and new account review process. We

met consistently and brainstormed ways to change the process and cut down on expenses and

write offs. Different alternatives we came up with was bringing the whole process to

headquarters instead of having offshore employee’s handle it and alter the process from there, or

leaving the process where it is, trying to fix their mistakes, and pretty much retraining their team

in Manila. We had to analyze these alternatives to be sure they were ethical and were low risk. It

made more sense to bring the process back to headquarters where we can keep an eye on the

process and tweak it constantly as it is easier to communicate at headquarters versus trying to

communicate with the team in Manila via email or a conference call which can get confusing

with he language barrier. In addition, this would give customers a better initial experience as

there were many complaints about the language barrier with the new accounts team in Manila

and the new customers. This alternative was less of a risk for the company as far as decreasing

the amount of fraud accounts.

The fourth step in the Decision-Making model is to evaluate alternatives. When

evaluating alternatives, there are criteria that applies to all decisions but may not hold the same

weight in all organizations. The criteria for evaluating alternatives include ease of
implementation, adaptability/scalability, financial NPV/ROI, employee

engagement/development, cost of implementations and education, customer satisfaction,

business performance, and risk. A mix of prioritization and financial techniques are used to make

solid decisions when evaluating alternatives.

A prioritization matrix is designed to help discern which tasks/projects are critical and

urgent. Thus, you can focus on what matters most. In my decision-making experience, we did

not utilize the prioritization matrix. There were only two feasible solutions to our problem. If we

did utilization the prioritization matrix m, it would look like Figure 1.1 below. For the first

alternative, which is to keep the new account fraud reviews in Manila and retrain the team, it

would rate low in efficiencies/savings and implementations ease/scale because the culture in

Manila is to please. This would not save the company any money in the long run because they

are naturally lenient. Once a fraudulent customer gets upset, the Manila team will overlook the

discrepancies that may have popped up which leaves the organization in the same position they

are in now. Also, this alternative is not as efficient because it is very hard to truly retrain the

employees that are thousands of miles away and when they are stuck in their ways. On the other

hand, the second alternatives are rated much higher in efficiencies/savings and implementation

ease/scale because it is easier to constantly tweak the process when necessary and train while in

the same office. This will save the organization money because they will be able to offshore

other jobs to the team in Manila who previously handled the New account fraud reviews which

cuts salary costs. The first alternative rates low for customer experience versus the second

alternative because the language barrier tends to really irritate customers. Lastly, the employee

experience is pretty similar for both alternatives because they both would be responsible for the

same tasks, have to go through the same training, and both may get slightly stressed out with the
volume. Looking at this prioritization matrix, it appears the best choice would be the second

alternative; to bring the new account fraud reviews to be handled by the team in the headquarters

office.

Efficiencies/savings Implementation Customer Employee Total

(4) Ease/Scale (3) Experience Experience
(2) (1)
1) Keep New Account 1*4 = 4 2*3 = 6 1*2 = 2 5*1 = 5 17
Fraud reviews in
Manila & retrain
2) Bring New Account 8*4 = 32 7*3 = 21 8*2 = 16 6*1 = 6 75
Fraud Reviews to be
handled by team in
Headquarters office
Figure 1.1 – Prioritization Matrix

In addition to the prioritization matrix, there are other tools that can be used such as the

trade-off analysis and the decision tree. Again, we did not use any of these tools in our decision-

making process. Amongst using these tools, a financial analysis can be added. I believe a

financial analysis is so important because it helps decision makers determine if the decision is

worth it in the long run and if the company can profit or to determine which alternative would be

most valuable. Typically, financial analysis is used to analyze whether an entity is stable,

solvent, liquid or profitable enough to warrant an investment or sound decision. These tools help

with the uncertainty. When strategic and capital budgeting decisions are at stake, companies put

heavy stress of financial measures of value (Luecke, 2008). Financial value is usually expressed

as NPV (net present value) (Luecke, 2008). To complete the financial analysis, the NPV for all

alternatives will need to be determined then compared. We did not use the financial analysis

during our brainstorming or decision-making. However, the Director of Finance utilized this tool
on her own. When doing her financial analysis, the came to the conclusion that it was worth the

process being brought to the team in our headquarters, analyzed, and stricter measures put in

place. This gave the better outcome in the long run financially because not only would that

decrease the chances of fraud slipping through, but it also opened up Manila’s plate to take on

additional tasks and jobs. This would save the company money as they will be able to offshore

some individual’s jobs, such as the administrative assistants, to Manila and eliminate those

positions in the home office. This saved the company on expenses.

 References

Allen, R. (n.d.). The Importance of Dialogue in Business: A Case Study. Retrieved from

http://www.centerod.com/2012/02/business-dialogue/

Gunther, R. E. (2008). Truth about making smart decisions.

Luecke, R. A. (2008). Decision making: 5 steps to better results ; Boston, MA: Harvard Business

School Press.

What is framing? (n.d.). Business Dictionary. Retrieved from

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/framing.html