Leadership and Ethical Decision-Making: Action Plans

There are numerous things to consider when a business relationship is concerned. In fact, this is where integrity is a key issue as it relates to ones customers. There are issues here at ECG that can have a grave impact on our relationship not only with our customers, but with our industry status as well. In saying this, I have to make it known that we need to inform our customers that we will be conducting a study I order to put our plan together. This study can and most likely will take some time to get accomplished fully. We are asking that you all just trust us and just bare with us during this process. All parties that have a need to know will be involved and actually collaborate within the organization and show that we can work together cohesively to ensure that their will be a benefit to it as well.

It has come to my attention that we have one of our clients who has not been able to complete their tasks for the company in the prescribed timeframe regarding the business strategy that was in place. Evidently, this client did not have the proper team, resources and etc. in place that would have assisted them in the process. To further elaborate on the situation, this client actually used data from a previous time which in actuality would not be sufficient and would be a violation of ethical standards. During this memorandum, I will attempt to highly encourage this client to revamp their processes to ensure that they will always use proper procedures when they are bound by contract not just with us, but with any other business. The areas that I will attempt to cover during this memo are list below:

First, I will cover the relative values of proactive and reactive thinking in determining an action plan. Secondly, we will look at what the critical steps are when it comes to the decision making process. Thirdly, we will determine what are the considerations in the decision- making process as it relates to ECG. Then we will identify an innovative, creative, and optimal solution to the problem with appropriate justification. Finally, we will address what impact it will have on the organization as a whole.

One of the key things for us to make note of, is how our customers value us as a business and if our honesty and integrity transcends to our customers. Proper clarification for our customers is paramount when it comes to what has transpired between the client, customer, and the company from an ethical standpoint. I actually frown upon unethical behaviors and deal with them accordingly. In my eyes, it is the trust that supersedes the majority of issues that may come about. Whether it be a company or a person in general. Trust actually is very hard to come by especially in this day and time. We must now come together as a cohesive team and put this mishap behind us and move in a more positive direction. Each and every part involved will do their part and work for the benefit of the customer, client and company. It is evident that resources are limited to a certain extent but we need to analyze what we have and see if it is best to keep using what for our benefit. The downside to possibly using the old resource that were previously used could result in us losing customers or their trust being that we are looking for long-term growth because our considerations are that of aligning with our strategic mission. As I said before, the things I listed I the first part of memorandum as being the questions that needed to be answered are as follows:


Consider the relative values of proactive and reactive thinking in determining an action plan:

When considering what values are relative in relation to proactive and reactive thinking as it concerns an action plan, I would have to say that first you have to consider things such as if the need for improvement will cause a problem for the company or not, certain opportunities, the areas of focus. In fact, when we look at something such as the need fo rimprovement of the company, it can cause many problems in a number of ways. It actually falls in the proactive sector of the action plan. Improvement seems to be a slow process because it intels things such as costs, reducing time, a number of required steps. This is why it can lead to a lot of problems, so this is why you have to be proactive and be able to adjust to it accordingly (Bono, 2008).

In general, there are two main types of action plans which are the reactive and proactive plans. Proactive plans help in that allow one ot make some type of change to the workplace or its way of doing things. In fact, when a business does this they are really trying to capitalize on a opportunity that see in the near future or so. They also do this oplan in hopes of avoiding a future threat as well.

Reactive plans are used when there is a certain situation that calls for a specific reaction in order to deal with a problem in a prescribed amount of time. They actually happen when a company is trying to make changes once a threat has already happened. This is when they go back and tweak things for the betterment of the company per se. An example of this would be osmething such as: "a hotel executive learns about the increase in the number of Americans who want to travel with their pets. The hotel executive creates a plan to reserve certain rooms in many hotel locations for travelers with pets and to advertise this new amenity, even before travelers begin asking about such accommodations." In fact, this would be a proactive change to simply because it was done by means of a customers demand for something. In saying this also, the reactive part of it was when the hotel executive would have waited to put together a plan once other managers had requested the same thing regarding the same issue (Enotes, 2011) . In ECG's case, they actually should have been proactive even before the incident occurred with the client that did the unethical things and had already initiated the proper training and even had rules and regulations against such things. In saying this, the client actually would have thought maybe twice before doing the unethical actions before hand. Change management can be both proactive and reactive in nature and this process basically uses various models when concerning organizational change. In saying this, each model that can be used uses a different approach to achieve the necessary change results. Antime a person is a change manager for instance, they basically can have an affect on whether change will success or failure (Enote, 2011).

Steps for a Proactive Action Plan:

• Ask what kind of tasks need immediate attention.
• Examine critically how you might perform those tasks more efficiently. (i.e. Gather information you will need to perform a task, or if necessary information comes from a flow of people who bring the tasks, create a script, checklist, or form to capture it consistently or instruct others to help with tasks.)
• Before problems ever arise, look at how you would prevent them in advance of it ever happening. Basically have a fallback plan in place in this event.
• Define a problem, figure out what needs to be done, and work through it accordingly.
• Know which problems or tasks are more important and do those first.
• Evaluate procedures and processes as you use them.
• Try to anticipate the needs of the company and the things you will need to know.
• Use technology to automate the routine tasks and data (MediaWiki, 2011).

Reactive Action Plan:

• The concern of the customers are documented and assigned.
• Action plans are drawn up and executed.
• The action plan is constantly monitored by the management team on its progress.
• When issues come about, they are handled in a manner where it gets complete satisfaction of the customer.

Define critical steps in the decision-making process:

When we look at the decision making process, there are seven steps that this process intels. In fact, there a many factors that affect ones decisions about an issue. They can range from issues with time, money, stress, or even data, facts, or that of resources. The steps that are part of the decision making process are: to gather facts and data about an issue or problem, make an assumption about it or collect the necessary nformation, figure out what your options are, the use some type of logic to make an educated guess or devise a plan about how to tackle the issue, Use your feelings to better assist you in the process, make the decision, and then see if there are changes to be made and work with them accordingly. The last thing is too always follow up to see the status of it (MindTools, 2011).

Determine considerations in the decision-making process:

Things to consider when making a decision are being able ot recognize the moral importance of the decision that needs to be made. Then Figure out who the interested parties are and their relationships. The third thing is to go through the shared values that are at stake in making this decision. The fourth thing in this process is to put together the ocurses of actions that you will follow to alleviate the problem. Once this is done, then you weigh the pro's and con's ranging from production to financial standpoints. Another thing you should consider is what course of action waspreviously taken in this process. You should also talk about it with others who might have more knowledge than you about the situation. One of the main things is look at the legal and organizational rules as well to ensure that violations do not occur as a result of the actions. And finally, you have to ask yourself, if you are comfortable with the decision that was made (MacDonald, C., (2010).

Identify a creative, innovative, and optimal solution to the problem with appropriate justification:

Innovation or creativity can be a grave determinant in regards to a solution to a problem. In saying this, ECG needs to really pay close attention to their clients that they work with. Even though they have worked with some of them for a pretty good period of time, complancency seems to be a problem at least with one of them. Creativity can at times be a businesses strength as well as its weakness because what must be learned is how ot develop skills in order to take a creative thouoght and see if it can become aninnovative bottom line value (De Raffele, F., 2011).

There are a number of steps that help a company realize when they have a great idea or if it is creative or innovative. First, it must be known that there is a problem and how you wan tot go about solving the problem at hand. Secondly, you must make a confirmaiton that the idea which is new, will actually help solve the problem. Then we must decide if the problem can be executed in a simple manner becuasa a lot of the time, the best solutions are really not that hard to come around to. In saying this, it is evident that most effective innovations are really a simple solution to a problem (De Raffele, F., 2011).

Outline the expected organizational impact:

It is the ethics review committee's job to research and consider whether or not they will have to bring the heat upon the company in the near future. With this being said, this can have a grave effect on the culture of the company. I would suppose that being that possible ethics violations had something to do with this issue, it will be talked about heavily in the IPO that is forthcoming. During this meeting, a decision will have to be made who all the parties are that will be involved in this process. The ethics committee will most likely draw up a contract where it will be written pretty much in stone of how each and every person involved will abide by.

References:

Bono, E., (2008). Proactive and Reactive Thinking: Learn the difference between proactive and reactive thinking. Retrieved on November 29, 2011 from http://www.thinkingmanagers.com/contact.php

Enotes.com, (2011). Reactive vs. Proactive Change. Retrieved on November 29, 2011 from http://www.enotes.com/reactive-vs-proactive-change-reference/reactive-vs-proactive-change

Harris, R., (2009). Introduction to Decision Making. Retrieved on November 29, 2011 from http://www.virtualsalt.com/crebook5.htm

MacDonald, C., (2010). A Guide to Moral Decision Making. Retrieved on November 28, 2011 from http://www.ethicsweb.ca/guide/index.html

MediaWiki, (2011). How to be Proactive. Retrieved on November 29, 2011 from http://www.wikihow.com/Be-Proactive

Problem-Solving-Techniques.com, (2011). Define Critical Thinking Concepts. Retrieved on November 29, 2011 from http://www.problem-solving-techniques.com/Define-Critical-Thinking.html

Mind Tools, Ltd., (2011). Reactive Decision Making. Retrieved on November 29, 2011 from http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTED_99.htm