BUS272 TB

Chapter 12 Decision Making, Creativity, and Ethics 433
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Toronto-based Hospitality Workers Training Centre (HWTC) is a partnership between UNITE HERE (the
hospitality workers’ union) and major hotels in Toronto. The purpose of HWTC is to train people who face
employment barriers in skills necessary for the hospitality industry, and then help them find work. Genevivea
Scott, 27, shown here, was one of those trainees. Recently, HWTC opened Hawthorne, a restaurant in
downtown Toronto, so that entrants and current workers could get skills training in the jobs involved in
running a restaurant. Danielle Olsen, executive director of HWTC, shows that HWTC goes beyond utilitarian
criteria when she says that “it is essential for us to balance the tension between Hawthorne’s social
mission and the economic reality of running a restaurant.” HWTC clearly supports social justice as well. 94
A focus on utilitarianism promotes efficiency and productivity, but it can sideline the
rights of some individuals, particularly those with minority representation. The use of
rights protects individuals from injury and is consistent with freedom and privacy, but
it can create a legalistic environment that hinders productivity and efficiency. A focus
on justice protects the interests of the underrepresented and less powerful, but it can
encourage a sense of entitlement that reduces risk taking, innovation, and productivity.
Decision makers, particularly in for-profit organizations, feel comfortable with utilitarianism.
The “best interests” of the organization and stockholders can justify a lot of
questionable actions, such as large layoffs. But many critics feel this perspective needs to
change. Public concern about individual rights and social justice suggests that managers
should develop ethical standards based on nonutilitarian criteria. This presents a challenge
because satisfying individual rights and social justice creates far more ambiguities
than utilitarian effects on efficiency and profits. However, while raising prices, selling
products with questionable effects on consumer health, closing down inefficient plants,
laying off large numbers of employees, and moving production overseas to cut costs can
be justified in utilitarian terms, a single ethical criterion may no longer be sufficient to
judge how good a decision is.
People don’t always follow ethical standards. To understand why, researchers are
turning increasingly to behavioural ethics —an area of study that analyzes how people
behave when confronted with ethical dilemmas. Their research tells us that while ethical
standards exist collectively (society and organizations) and individually (personal
ethics), individuals don’t always follow ethical standards promulgated by their organizations,
and we sometimes violate our own standards. Our ethical behaviour varies
widely from one situation to the next. Focus on Research considers why people cheat,
and what organizations can do to limit cheating.
behavioural ethics Analyzing
how people actually behave when
confronted with ethical dilemmas.