Ethical decision-making in the business world has received a great deal of interest in the last decade from public interest groups, political and religious leaders, and from the general public, who have become aware of the many cases of unethical business practices taking place in the business world (Carlson, Kacmar and Wadsworth, 2002). Ethics refers to the principles and rules defining right and wrong conduct, but the moral base for rules has to come from an individual's own cognitive moral development. This means individuals have to decide for themselves what is right or wrong conduct, which complicates the decision-making process.
Jones integrated existing models of decision-making to try and understand the components involved in ethical decision-making (Carlson, Kacman and Wadsworth, 2002). Jones identified six characteristics issues of moral (ethical) intensity that need to be considered in making an ethical decision: concentration of effect, probability of effect, proximity, social consensus, temporal immediacy, and magnitude of consequences. Jones believed that the first step in ethical decision-making was to recognize a moral (ethical) dilemma, which is followed by making a moral (ethical) judgement, establishing the moral (ethical) intent, and engaging in moral (ethical) behavior.
The best way to make ethical decisions is to set up a formal decision-making process and criteria that allow employees only a small amount of "wriggle" room to bend the rules in certain circumstances (Grugal, 2002). Experts suggest that there are two areas in decision-making which require particular attention: burden of proof and quantitative analysis. These two elements can lead to problems if they are not used correctly. Two examples are cited. In the first, the Beech-Nut Nutrition Corporation pleaded guilty to 215 felony counts for selling apple products that were a blend of synthetic products. The problem arose because when...