Individual Ethical Decision-Making

This week’s task was to give an example that included all the four components of an individual’s ethical decision-making. I’m going to start by giving brief explanations of each of the four stages and then I’m going to give an example that I found about Software piracy in China regarding the consumer’s ethical decision-making process and the cultural dimensions that we can see in this process.


ETHICAL ISSUE RECOGNITION:

The person must first recognize that the issue has an ethical component. He/she must be aware of an ethical dilemma. Some individuals are likely to be more sensitive to potential ethical problems than others.

ETHICAL JUDGMENT:

After recognizing the ethical dilemma then the person will create some judgment about the rightness or wrongness of the issue. What is the right thing to do?

ETHICAL INTENTION:

Once an individual reaches an ethical judgment about a situation or issue, the next stage in the decision-making process is to form a behavioral intent, the person decides what he or she will do (or not do) regarding the perceived ethical dilemma.
ETHICAL ACTONS:

The final stage in the four-step model of ethical decision-making is to take on a certain behavior according to the ethical dilemma. Not always how the person interns to act and how it actually behave are the same, but most of the times their intentions influence their behavior.

The example was taken from:
http://www.allbusiness.com/management-companies-enterprises/1174467-1.html

Software piracy refers to consumers' knowing involvement in illegal software usage. Software piracy may include a number of related practices such as illegal copying of programs, counterfeiting and distributing software, purchasing pirated software and renting unauthorized software. A counterfeit product is one which a manufacturer produces with the intention of deceiving customers by leading buyers to believe that they are purchasing the genuine article. A pirated product is one where consumers are aware that the product is pirated (McDonald & Roberts, 1994).

China is one of the countries with the most severe piracy problem. According to the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), US businesses lost an estimated US$2.86 billion in revenues in 2003 due to copyright violations in China. China has one of the highest software piracy rates in the world.

Many factors influence software piracy. At the national level, macro factors such as culture, economic development, law and legislation and enforcement (Husted, 2000) are important in determining the prevalence of software piracy in a country.

The Chinese macro-environment leads to the high software piracy rate. China is a developing economy, and financial benefit from software piracy is high. Copyright legislation only started recently and enforcement mechanism is under development (uncertainty avoidance toward copyright laws). The collectivist culture of China is found to be correlated with high piracy rates (Marron & Steel, 2000).

Step 1: From recognizing a legal problem to recognizing an ethical problem

Recognizing an ethical problem is important since software piracy is an issue with more legal content than ethical content. When you as the consumer buy a product that is pirate, you should know that there is an ethical problem behind that. The consumer must first have some legal knowledge about piracy in order to recognize the ethical problem. A legal problem appears when laws are violated while an ethical problem appears when an individual perceive a situation posed to him as having ethical issues. Software piracy is first, and most importantly, a legal issue. However, a perception of a legal issue may not successfully transfer to an ethical issue (Swinyard et al., 1990). Many consumers think software piracy is low in moral intensity (Logsdon et al., 1994) or not an ethical problem (Glass & Wood, 1996). In other words, consumers are ethically insensitive (Thong & Yap, 1998) on this issue. This is the case of the Chinese consumes they are ethically insensitive.
Step 2: From recognizing an ethical problem to moral behavior

A Chinese proverb "He who shares is to be rewarded; he who does not, condemned." is widely cited to refer to the impact of the collectivist culture on software piracy (Swinyard et al., 1990). Consumers in the collectivist culture not only like to share software, they also like to share responsibilities. A Chinese proverb "the law cannot apply if everybody breaks it".

In the ethical intentions where the consumers decides whether to buy the software or not since the research observed that many Chinese have negative attitude towards copyright laws , and Chinese legislation and enforcement of intellectual property laws have been developed during the past two decades in response to the demands coming from developed countries, especially US. They would probably find that buying that software is totally ethical accepted in their society. The final stage is that they buy the product and their behavior is seen as acceptable in their culture but seen as unacceptable in other parts of the world.

Task #5

It shines like the sun but colorful as the rainbow, where you can find the flavor that enlightens your heart.

This week’s task was to create a metaphor for a Colombian product that was going to be sold in a foreign market. The product I chose was the gummy candy which I absolutely love. There will be various flavors according to the fruits that we produce and the color that they have. I’m going to explain the metaphor by parts. Shining like the sun means that they are very shine and have a crystal clear look, you can see through the gummy. Colorful as the rainbow because the variety of colors and flavors that they have (mango- yellow, lemon-green, strawberry-red, mandarin-orange, blackberry-purple, guanabana-white, pineapple-yellow etc.). Also because each package of gummies has all the colors with which you can make a rainbow, and when you eat them they have such a delicious taste that they make your day happy.

For my foreign partners involved in the business I would recommend:
• To do various food tasting in different malls so people can get familiar with the flavor of some fruit that they probably have never hear of like Guanabana.
• That an objective is that the customers experiences new flavors of colorful gummies that are made from fruits and not artificially.
• Find a distributor in the foreign market to take the gummies to the candy stores.

Task #4

For this week the task was to comment our classmates blogs, i thought this task was really interesting because we had the opportunity to share our opinion and see our classmates creativity and their progress. By doing this you also can tell a lot about the personalities and the things that each person want to transmit. You can also read the comments that your classmates have left you which kind off encourages you to do a better job.

I choose ramdon classmate and left a comment in each one of them, here are the blogs I saw:

1. Angelica Capon O & C blog
http://angelicacapon.blogspot.com/
Her blog was really cool and the example she gave was clear, and was an example that I had heard of, but had never associated with the task, in this case the pymalion effect.

2. Simon Londoño's Organizations and Culture blog
http://organisationsandcultures2010.blogspot.com/
This was also a pretty good blog, I also read the task on the Pygmalion Effect, I really liked that on the contrary of my blog entry, he focused on the perceptions that you have about yourself and how are they transmited to others, he also recommened that once in a while we must do a check up of ourself to improve our behavior, and to always stay positive about things.

3. Ricardo Garzón's Organizations and Culture blog
http://theoandc.blogspot.com/
In this blog I read the task about the coference of Nick Mayers. Ricardo wrote about uncertainty avoidance index for which he gave a short but clear definition and then came up with an excellent example based on real facts, that refelcted the importance of cultural differences when making business deals.

4. Luisa Mejia Organizational and Culture blog
http://organizatiosnandcultures.blogspot.com/
I loved the page desing of this blog, I wish mine was like that. Anyways I read the task of the conference of Nick Mayers, she also focused on the uncertainty avoidance index. I liked how she begun the entry and the example that she gave. And I totally agree with her that culture is not only importance when making business but in any activity that requieres the involvement of different cultures.

5. Daniela Marmolejo Organizational and Culture blog
http://organizationsandculturesdaniela.blogspot.com/
I liked the desing of this blog it was simple but really pretty. I read the task about the pygmalion effect, I liked how she told the story behind the effect and the example that she gave because even though the were short they were clear. I also liked her opinion as to what a supervisor should do and the conclusion " you get what you expect".

6. Daniel Velasquez actual, interesting and controversial topics blog
http://danvelis.blogspot.com/
The trust is that when I opened this blog I didn´t think I was going to like it so much , but I was wrong it was very interesting and showed a lot of clear and creative examples . I was shock at how long my comment was at the end, but they were all things I wanted him to know about the entry. I like the structure of the blog: definitions in own worlds with questions and the rest examples. I mean the example varied a lot and were very interesting.

Pymalion Effect

Taken from http://findabundance.blogspot.com/2010/04/pygmalion-and-self-fulfilling.html

Goethe said, “Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be.”
http://hubpages.com/hub/Motivational-Theory

The Pygmalion Effect occurs when you believe that someone is capable of achieving something, then that person will indeed achieve it (your positive expectation in someone makes that person unconsciously believe in them selves). In other words, believing in the potential someone has simply makes it happen. The Pygmalion Effect not only occurs when someone else expect a person to do something good or bad, but it can also occur when a person think they know their capabilities and flows and act according to them. For example a positive feeling or emotion about your self will create a positive outcome on the other hand a negative feeling will create a bad outcome. In other words you always have to be positive to achieve anything that you put you mind on.

1. If you believe that your boss does not like you. Than you would react by working poorly, not showing enthusiasm in your assignments, and being afraid of saying something to you boss because of his reaction. This can lead to you getting fired.

2. You believe your going to fail my exams because the subject is really hard and you do not understand it or you are to dumb. You react by being late for class, not handing in you homework, not paying attention to your teacher and just quit studying. Guess what just as you thought you do poorly and fail the course.

3. You believe that you can never lose weight and get fit and as a result you do not bother to give it a try. So you quit the gym, don’t change your eating habits and never try to exercise.

4. If your boss believes that you are very smart and that you have great ideas for the company and he always has a positive attitude around you. You react by trying your best at everything you do, and proposing great strategic ideas that lead you to a better salary.

5. If somebody tells you that certain person is a trouble maker. Then your perception about that person is attached to what the other person told you, and you cannot surpass that. For example if the person said to be a trouble maker actually makes a mistake, you see it normal because that’s how they supposedly are. On the other hand if that person does something good, since that is unexpected than you try to justify his actions. Saying for example he is probably having a good day, or maybe he’s trying to change.

6. The media can also play with the Pygmalion Effect, on the news you usually see the story as being positive or negative and that influences how you perceive certain situations. For example if they say that certain product is the best ever seen in the market, that you will react by buying it and probably sharing their thoughts about the product.

Cultural Dimensions

Each person no matter from what part of the world has his or her unique personality, history and interests. Yet all members of a group ( society) share a common culture that tells us how we should behave (moral laws) in the society in other to be accepted, influence the way we live and our daily activities . How we dress, we talk, our work habits, the music we hear, the food we eat are things that make up our culture.

So how compatible are cultures around the world??

During the conference by Nick Mayer about cultural diversity, he talked about the Geert Hofstede model of cultural dimensions. This model includes five independent dimensions of national differences:
• Power Distance
• Individualism vs. Collectivism
• Masculinity vs. Femininity
• Uncertainty avoidance
• Confucian Dynamism

I`m going to focus on the first dimension which is power distance and show a clear example of it when dealing with different cultures.

Power distances index (PDI) refer to “the extend to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations accept and suppose that power is distributed unequally.” (Mayer, 2010). In other words how much a culture does or does not value hierarchical relationships and respect for authority. It can also describe the relationship that the persons within an organization have with each other and the acceptance of the powers that they have (for example that employees accept that their superiors has more power that they have). This dimension is divides in two: countries with high or low PD.

Countries with high PD share these characteristics: (Mayer, 2010)
• Those in authority openly demonstrate their rank.
• Subordinates are not given important work and expect clear guidance from above.
• Subordinates are expected to take the blame for things going wrong.
• Hierarchical organizational, vertical distributions of power.

On the other hand countries with low PD are:
• Flat organizations
• Responsibilities between members are delegated.
• Subordinates are entrusted with important assignments.
• Blame is shared between the members.

Now that we have a better concept of this dimension here are some examples:

• In South Korea they have a high power distance which means that they show a lot of respect for the people that have power. For example you always have to do what an elder person tells you to do, even if you don’t want to, just for respect (if they invite you to a drink, you must accept even if you don’t like it). When a child speaks to his parents or grandparents he must do it in a different way that when he talks to his friends. They use different words depending on the age of the person.

• Another example is that Chinese people never disagree with the decisions taken by the authority (their government), even if they live under poor conditions.

• .In American culture children are treated as “little adults.” They express their opinions, are allowed to contradict their parents and say what they want or don’t want.

First Task

1. http://www.nevermindthemanager.com/2010/07/leaders-personality-matters/

This blog shows the importance of understanding personalities when working with other people and how certain combinations lead to better leaders and the overall outcomes. It focus on four temperaments: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Compliance. I read a little more about the topic and the characteristics of each state. I concluded that as normal i have a combination of all of them but if put in order from most to least it would be something like this: Influence, Steadiness, compliance and dominance.

2.http://www.lowbudgetprosper.com/

In the world we live now days there are not enough jobs for everybody and we are more concerned about the environment, still we manage to create new jobs, innovate the market, and be Eco-friendly. This blog shows unique business ideas, for example a caviar vending machine in Russia or a green business on recycling used chewing gum.

3. http://strategy2c.wordpress.com/

This 3rd blog is a little different from the rest because its full of cartoons and phrases that leave the mind open to interpretation and interrogation. The blog focuses more on environmental cartoon.