Business Ethics Discussion Paper

Analyze one of the following business ethical issues (your choice). Apply ethical reasoning to your position. Demonstrate how as a leader you would preserve the professional relationships in question and resolve the conflict. Content requirements are in files.

Business ethics

The case involves a restaurant manager faced with the difficult ethical decision over how to address an existing conflict between the restaurant servers and a politician who is a customer. The two parties are in disagreement over political views. For the restaurant manager, the decision over how to address the conflict and whether or not to ask the politician to leave the restaurant is one that should be guided by Liberal Political Theory. The theory concedes that the diversity existing within any population creates opportunities for them to disagree about political issues. The theory advances that the solution to any moral conflict within the political arena in a pluralistic society should be one that removes principles on how to conduct public life from the political agenda (Deneen, 2019).

Ethical arguments have typically concerned conflicts between the personal perspective and a need for impartiality/objectivity. It is the conflicts between impartiality and personal motivates that creates ethical conflict. The personal perspective introduces motives derived from personal interests and interactions with the environment. The need for impartiality involves treating every personnel in some respect through according them the same rights and counting their good/welfare when determining a permissible course of action. The ethical conflict is compounded when faced with political issues since politics is concerned with getting the coercive power of the state behind favored opinions (Deneen, 2019). Business Ethics Discussion Paper

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The identified theory (Liberal Political Theory) invokes the high order principles of impartiality and neutrality intended to transcend disagreements about specific political policies and issues. These principles contend that if there is not reasonable basis for resolving the political issue, then each citizen (including the politician), should be left to act based on his/her own cognizance and morality. In addition, the principles contend that the conflict and associated actions should be to the extent possible without state intervention. In applying this theory, the conflict is considered as a difference in political opinions and insulated from public life as it is considered a political issue requiring political processes to resolve (Deneen, 2019).

While applying the theory will not necessarily eliminate the conflict from politics, it will govern the conflict so that it is legitimized in the relevant arena where it can be appropriately resolved. To be more precise, the theory allows for greater moral disagreements about political issues through determining how where each issue can be legitimately addressed (whether through legislation, electoral process, or staying public opinion).

In applying the present understanding, I would allow the politician to continue having his meal and advice the restaurant personnel to handle the politician like any other customer. I would explain that my decision is based on two reasons. Firstly, politics is based on balancing conflicting interests so that all involved parties must be responsible and committed. Despite having interests that conflict with those of the politician, the restaurant servers must learn to balance these conflicts and allow the politician to freely express himself/herself just as they are allowed to express themselves. Secondly, respect and trust are important elements in politics, particularly in democracies, since the absence of these elements creates opportunities for dictatorial and fascist tendencies. As a result, allowing the politician to continue with his/her meal ensures that all parties are treated fairly and in an ethical manner.

Reference

Deneen, P. J. (2019). Why liberalism failed. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Business Ethics Discussion Paper