BUS 454 Module 8 Personal Code of Ethics Example

What I Will Do When It Counts: A Personal Code of Business Ethics

Student Name

Business Administration Program, Aspen University

BUS 454: Ethical Decision Making for Business

Instructor Name

Month Day, Year

What I Will Do When It Counts: A Personal Code of Business Ethics

I will soon become a second-shift operations supervisor at a food manufacturer like the composite Harbor Point Foods examined in this course. The job will put me between production targets set above me and the people who do the work. The cases studied in this course, from a plant relocation to a lockout shortcut and a product recall, showed that most ethical failures in business are not dramatic choices by bad people but ordinary pressures meeting unprepared ones. This paper sets out a personal code of business ethics designed for use under pressure, and explains why it takes this form.

Why Codes Often Fail

Written codes do not guarantee ethical behavior. In a study of how employees related to corporate codes, Schwartz (2001) found that codes could influence behavior in several ways, such as serving as a rule, a sign-post, a mirror or a shield, but that many employees reported codes had little effect, and that influence depended on factors such as communication, enforcement and the example set by managers. A personal code faces the same risk. To work, it must be specific, connected to real situations and practiced.

My Blind Spots

Bazerman and Tenbrunsel (2011) argued that people routinely overestimate how ethically they will act because they predict their behavior while thinking about values but act while thinking about pressures, and that goals and incentives can make the ethical side of a decision fade from view. I recognize this in myself. When I led a small team in a previous job, I once pushed people to finish a rush order without a required second check because I was focused on the customer's deadline, and I did not see it as an ethical choice until afterward. My code must work in exactly those moments.

Rehearsing the Words

Gentile (2010) argued that the most useful preparation is not deciding what is right, which people often know, but rehearsing how to act on it: anticipating the arguments others will make and preparing responses. Her approach treats voicing values as a skill that improves with practice. My code therefore includes, for each commitment, a situation likely to test it and words I can use.

My Commitments

The table sets out six commitments.

A Pre-Decision Checklist

When a decision feels uncomfortable, I will stop and ask five questions drawn from the frameworks studied in this course. Who will be affected, and have I considered those not in the room? Would I be comfortable if my decision and my reasons were explained to the people affected? Am I respecting everyone's rights, or treating someone only as a means? Would a person I admire make this choice? And is the pressure I feel coming from a real need or from a target that someone could change if they knew the cost?

Stakeholders on the Floor

The stakeholder view studied in this course applies at the scale of a shift. My stakeholders include the operators, who depend on me for safety and fairness; the plant manager and owners, who depend on accurate information; customers, who depend on safe products; and the next shift, which inherits whatever I leave. Keeping all of them in view is the practical meaning of the stakeholder perspective for a supervisor.

Accountability

A personal code needs outside support. I will share my code with my manager when I start, so expectations are clear, and ask a trusted colleague to tell me if they see me drifting from it. Every three months, I will review a hard decision I made against the code and write down what I learned. If the organization's expectations conflict with the code on something serious, I will use the company's reporting channels and, if necessary, be prepared to leave. Knowing that I have savings to cover a few months without work is part of that preparation, because financial dependence makes compromise easier to rationalize.

Reflection on the Course

The course changed how I think about ethics in business. I used to see it as avoiding obvious wrongdoing. The cases showed that ethical problems usually arrive disguised as operational ones, a target, a deadline, a cost, and that the stakeholder perspective and value-based management help reveal them. I also learned that resolving a dilemma well often means finding an outcome others can accept, not simply being right.

Applying the Code to a Past Case

Testing the code against a case from the course shows how it would work. Had I been the supervisor in the lockout case, the first commitment would have required me to tell my manager that the new target could not be met safely, with the figures to show it, rather than instruct operators to skip steps. The third commitment would have required me to thank the operator who reported the problem and protect him. Neither would have been easy, but having the words ready would have made both more likely.

Conclusion

My personal code is built for the moments when pressure makes ethics easy to overlook. It pairs six commitments with the situations likely to test them and the words I will use, adds a short checklist and builds in accountability. It will not make hard decisions easy, but it will make it more likely that I act as I intend when it counts.

References

Bazerman, M. H., & Tenbrunsel, A. E. (2011). Blind spots: Why we fail to do what's right and what to do about it. Princeton University Press.

Gentile, M. C. (2010). Giving voice to values: How to speak your mind when you know what's right. Yale University Press.

Schwartz, M. S. (2001). The nature of the relationship between corporate codes of ethics and behaviour. Journal of Business Ethics, 32(3), 247-262. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010787607771