Organizational Paper

This paper will evaluate trends in organizational behavior as it relates to the influence of ethics on decision making and the impact of technology on work-related stress. I will also discuss the importance of ethics and technology in the managerial decision making process and work related stress. In the competitive corporate world of today, it is extremely important for companies to base their decisions on ethically accurate and morally sound principles. Since managers are the decision makers in any organization, the responsibility of incorporating ethics into everyday decisions lies with them, and, therefore, they play a key role in weaving ethics and morals into the company's result. Ethics in decision-making poses many questions about how we want to act and how we should act, but according to what standards are these actions right or wrong? Many character traits, like honesty, compassion, and fairness, are necessary to influence your decision in every living situation (Schermerhorn, Hunt, and Osborn, 2003).

Imagine a world without ethics. Without ethics, there would be chaos. There would be no government because everyone would be only worried about themselves. Elected officials would only care how to better their own bottom line, and not do what they were elected to do, which is to serve their constituency and many other places.

How does the influence of ethics affect decision making in organizations? A question as such has been increasingly important since the scandals in the 1990's and early 2000's because of companies like Enron, ImClone, Arthur Anderson, WorldCom, and Healthsouth. Many of the organizations suffered public humiliation because of financial fraud and such. Ethical behavior is critical in order to preserve the name and business of such organizations. Employees of organizations are faced with making ethical decisions on a daily basis.

Decision making and technology play two very important roles in the way organizations are run. The way these trends are handled can help to make or break the organization.

Ethical problems are inevitable at all levels of a business and a company needs to take ethics seriously by institutionalizing ethics in their organizations. Accordingly, an important segment of corporate America has begun relying on such tools as: statements of corporate values, codes of conduct, ethics workshops, hotlines, even corporate ethics offices and board level ethics committees.

There are many trends in organizational behavior today. Two of these trends are ethical decision making and technology. Both of these trends can cause or alleviate stress in the workplace if not handled correctly. Ethical decision making can help to alleviate stress if people make their decisions looking at all aspects of the question and not just what they want to have happen. Using technology to its full extent while alleviating the stress it sometimes causes are problems that we are still trying to work through in the modern day workplace. I am going to discuss how ethical decision making and technology affect work-related stress. As technology continues to advance, organizations will need to invest more resources to reduce stress related to such advancements. Without proper attention, absenteeism and employee turnover are likely to increase.

"Motivation refers to the individual forces that account for the direction, level and persistence of a person's effort expended at work." (Schermerhorn, Hunt and Osborn. 2005) Sometimes motivation is the cause of employees' using bad judgment when the motivation comes to ethical behaviors while working. A company's ethics is a standard code that businesses uphold so that their