Assessment of the Managers’ Moral Reasoning

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Background Information
Summary
Evaluation
Conclusion
Reference

Introduction

Weber discussed the issue of ethics in business in his article titled adapting Kohlberg to enhance the assessment of managers’ moral reasoning. In the article, at least four issues are explained, one being balancing between less familiar and the more familiar ethical problems. The second issue entails analyzing and following up issues that have the potential of affecting the manager’s reasoning while focusing on the major organizational principles. In the article, the issue of drafting questions and applying the most reliable interview method is looked into and the dilemma is whether to utilize oral or written interviews. Finally, the author insists on using a simpler evaluation method, but it has to be reliable in order to capture the reasoning of the manager effectively. In this paper, the views of the author are analyzed in detail with an aim of establishing whether they help in assessing the moral judgments and reasoning of organizational leaders. An overview of the article proves that a manager is charged with various responsibilities when serving the organization, but the most important is observing ethics because this would determine their successfulness. The article suggests further that the manager is likely to miss the major organizational aims and objectives in case ethics are not taken into consideration. The views of Weber are valid since the manager has to consider the various stages in analyzing an event on whether it is ethical or not.

Background Information

The ideas of Kohlberg support the views of previous scholars, such as Piaget concerning moral development. In their various analyses, the scholars concentrated on giving some of the reasons that influence the decisions on whether an action is morally just and preferable. Kohlberg termed these reasons as indicators or stages that lead to moral maturity. It is clear that people vary as far as judging events is concerned since one action could be considered just or morally upright while for some people, a similar scenario or action could be viewed as unjust. Kohlberg noted that various factors influence the morality of the action, including an individual’s orientation to the world, organizational culture, and the personal principles (Weber, 1991). The first level of personal growth, according to Kohlberg, is pre-conventional, which has two stages including the punishment or obedience orientation and the instrumental relativist orientation. The second level is conventional whereby an individual is referred to as a nice boy or a good girl in the first stage, depending on the behavior and law and order is emphasized in the second stage of the level. The third level of moral development in human beings is post-conventional and the social-contract legalistic orientation is the first stage while the universal ethical principle is the second stage in the level and the last in the entire cycle.

Summary

As discussed in the introduction section, the article looks at four major points and each of them is critical to the reasoning of the organizational employee, especially those at the position of influence. First, the author underscores the fact that various dilemmas exist in the sense that some are more familiar to the individual while others are complex meaning they are less known. In such a scenario, a manager is likely to make sound decisions on the ones that he or she understands better while the type of decisions made on the complex issues would be questionable. The second major issue in the article entails probing the moral reasoning of the manager whereby questions should be designed to interrogate the thought process of any leader. The author expresses difficulties on the method of administering questions in the third point and the problem lies in whether to utilize written or oral interviews. The fourth point analyzes the most preferred evaluation method in determining whether the organizational leader is effective. If an individual wishes to capture the views of the manager, choosing the most reliable, but simpler method of recording and identifying the stage of reasoning, is critical.

Evaluation

The article achieves its goal of convincing the reader to believe that moral reasoning is critical to the success of the manager by employing a scientific study whereby proper research tools and instruments are applied. The article tends to suggest that a manager or any organizational leader has no option other than applying moral reasoning in making decisions. To achieve this, the use of interviews, both oral and written, is important in obtaining the manager’s views and opinions. One of the strengths of the article entails the use of a scientific method in making an inquiry. Through scientific methods, such as interviewing, an individual probing is likely t arrive at a better conclusion as opposed to judging something by simply looking at it. Unfortunately, the article does not consider other options as far as moral judgment is concerned because it simply suggests that obtaining the views of the manager through a questionnaire is enough, which is not true. The article gives various experiences, including conducting research to obtain first-hand information in resolving a problem.

Conclusion

The stages of moral reasoning are applicable in strengthening the decision-making process in the organization. This means the manager has to consider the available options before attempting to come up with a final verdict. However, the article presents research gaps that should be filled through continuous research. For instance, it does not discuss the role of culture in personal development in the organization.

Reference

Weber, J. (1991). Adapting Kohlberg to enhance the assessment of the managers’ moral reasoning. Business Ethics Quarterly, 1(3), 293-319.

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Assessment of the Managers’ Moral Reasoning

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