Help to form a research topic (ethical dimensions)

I need help to form a research question to analyzed in terms of ethical dimensions and includes issues related to decision making and leadership. Also, the situation must be an actual situation you have observed or experienced, which depicts effective or ineffective decision making and leadership, and one which can be analyzed in terms of ethical dimensions.

Welcome for any suggestions.

Thanks.

Abby

Well, what ethical rules guide people in decision-making roles? You may need to refine the question a bit, say, look at a specific subset of decision-making roles, and/or a specific subset of ethical rules, but this could certainly be turned into a good research question.

Sean,

What do you think about this question? Do i answer the question?

What are the ethical issues would occur if the manager uses coercion power to manage the employees' behavior at work?

I know that this type of managing style is hard to get along with the employees. In my previous workplace, I worked with a sales manager who was a self-center and extremely result oriented person. He forced the employees to work overtime (without extra pay) when the manager does not achieve the sales target. He emphasized too much on the sales result rather than the employees' performance. This way of managing people would not stay for long-term, and it may cause many unethical problems. This condition has inspired me to write about the ethical leadership and how it influences the behavior of employees.


Could you give me some example about ethical rules guide people in decision making roles?

"What are the ethical issues would occur arise when the managers uses coercive power to manage the employees' behavior at work?"

That is a great question, because ultimately managers are always using coercive power. If the employees don't go along with him, he may attempt to get them fired or find ways of making their work lives miserable. Even if the manager wouldn't do that, and is a good person, the fact is he has that power and the employees know it, so in a sense, all of a manager's power is coercive. Now, punishing troublesome employees is part of a manager's job, and may even include firing particularly lazy or quarrelsome ones. He has an ethical duty to his employer to take such actions in certain cases. On the other hand, if he becomes too dictatorial, everyone suffers. So, what ethical guidelines should he follow when deciding when to make the coercive nature of his power explicit? Should he do so only when and always when it would benefit the company? Or does he have a duty to take employees concerns into account even if doing so may lower the company's profit margins? If the latter, whence comes this duty? How should it be reconciled with his duty to the company?

Hope this helps.

result-oriented (with a hyphen)

Great progress here!

Now you just have to chose an ethical framework to use. IT wll be col, because you just have to think about that situation and pretend that you believe in, for example utilitarian ethics.

Oh, here is an idea:

I think you will have a powerful paper if you study the difference between Kant's absolutism and Mill's "utilitarian" ethics. That might sound intimidating, but if you read an article that compares them you'll see that it is an argument about whether you should act according to specific principles all the time, or can the "end justify the means" if you want to stray from your principles in an attempt to bring about a greater good (see star trek 4, where Spock gives up his life for the "good of the many")

Check this out:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deontological_ethics

Or if you want to look at another kind of ethics, xenos.org/essays/ethsys.htm

Sean,
I need to based on my research question and write a report based on the following points:

1. Identify and analyze the major ethical or legal issue that associated with the situation
2. Discuss the key issues relevant to the case.
3. Discuss explicit and implicit assumptions that may have has an influence on the situation or the outcomes in the case

I feel like my question is too broad.

Kevin,
Thanks for giving another new thoughts about ethics, but i need to focus on the leadership dimensions and decision making.

Do you guys have any thoughts?