DEJ 12

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Based on Thomas M. Jones’s “Ethical Decision Making by Individuals in Organizations: An Issue-Contingent Model,” the author suggests in this paper that ethical decision-making is influenced by moral intensity—that is, the traits of the ethical issue itself. Given my own background, I can relate to Jones’s thesis on moral proximity in light of a situation in which I had to make a difficult choice at employment. Whether or not to expose a close colleague for a minor policy infraction presented a dilemma. Though I knew the injustice was wrong, my relationship to this person affected my unwillingness to intervene. Jones names this phenomena as “proximity” changing moral assessments. The idea that moral closeness could influence ethical decisions emphasizes the reality that some interpersonal interactions can make objective assessment challenging to reach. Jones’s analysis of the pressures corporations confront and the reactions society has to ethics reminds me of the present corporate scandals including the Volkswagen emissions case. Jones’s theory holds that situational circumstances affect ethical behavior, so the executives of the company were under a lot of pressure to perform and hence engaged in immoral activities. The story shows how acts with great consequences in the actual world could be influenced by the moral intensity of employees of a corporation as well as by its culture. Finally, Jones’s approach provides insightful analysis of the difficulties in ethical decision-making. It implies that determining people’s moral behavior mostly depends on their personal relationships and the surroundings of the choice.