Running head: ETHICS IN DECISION MAKING 1

Global Ethics in Organizational Decision Making

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation
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Ethics in organizational decision-making

Ethics are moral principles that govern and guide an individual’s behavior or organization’s

way of conducting its activities. Ethical decisions are choices made with diligent observation of

procedures and given guidelines that adhere to given code of conduct. Choosing and evaluating

alternatives is a normal and regular practice in any multinational business organization. In

business, there are international standards set to guide business owners and managers in any

decision made. These moral practices and values are known as global ethics on leadership decision

making. The decision making process needs to observe fundamental codes of conduct that are

globally acceptable and adhere to a given international culture. Various organizations come across

many challenges in the decision-making process, and leaders are compelled to borrow from

international leadership ethics (Bazerman-Moore, 2013, p. 183). The concept of ethics and

decision-making applies heavily on large multinational organizations, which operate on a global

market place. Many internationally acclaimed organizations from the Middle East have a problem

in adopting to the global ethics and code of conduct, and many a times, these values have been

violated. A good example is SABIC Company, a multinational organization and among the leading

companies in the Middle East. These organizations conduct their business across the globe and

outsource labor from different countries. Therefore, ethics in decision making in these

organizations is meant to give guidelines and protect rights of employees, at the same time present

moral obligations. On this concept, several issues in business decision-making are referred as

ethical dilemmas, which are unethical practices that might tarnish the organizations reputation on

the global market. Ethics guide the behavior of people in their daily undertakings and more so

decision-making (Brown-Trevino, 2016, p. 122). Observing ethics in decision making boost

employee morale, encourages loyalty and fosters brand reputation and other factors essential for
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the growth of the business. This paper will discuss issues based on global ethics in decision-making

such as culture and religion, and assess the impact that given organizational values have on ethical

decision-making. It will also identify ethical dilemma in decision-making in a multinational level

organization in the Middle East, which include employee treatment and equal rights for women,

and give suggestions on the approach to the challenges.

Today’s global market place offers many challenges in decision making due to the

dynamism, and day to day changes of the business environment. Other emerging issues that have

created much variance in the business world include cultural, political, economic, and issues that

peg on human right aspects (Brown-Trevino, 2005, p. 122). Value, integrity and good morals in

business are important factors that need global attention and regulations to create uniformity and

correspondence, especially at the age of globalization. Apart from making profits, an organization

ought to consider the affairs and wellbeing of its employees. In coming up with decisions,

organizational leaders have many considerations to make, which include morals and ethics. Many

multinational organizations especially from the Middle East countries are confronted by many

ethical dilemmas when coming up with organizational related decisions. Many of the issues

emerge from the fact that the cultural and environmental factors differ from some of the

international ethics and values.

SABIC is situated in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and is a global leader in diversified chemicals

(Shapiro-Stefkovich, 2016, p. 261). The company manufactures on an international scale, and

trades in America, Asia, Europe and other parts of the Middle East. SABIC has employed more

than 35,000 people from Saudi Arabia and others outsourced from other countries across the world

(Al-humedhi, 2000, p. 89). The company strictly observes the Saudi Arabian culture and work

values, whereby the Islamic religion and its teachings play an important role in management and
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decision making of the company. Religion affects the relationship between managers and

subordinate staffs, which reflect on the Saudi national’s believe on the non-consultative style of

leadership, that borrows from the Quran. This type of leadership is autocratic and only follows a

given set of rules, which makes it hard for employees to interact with manager. It is also clear that

the company does not consider women in its decision making process, because religion does not

regard women as equal members of society (Glover et al, 2012, p. 149). Additionally, Most of the

top management consists of men and much of the company’s privileges are men oriented, which

raises a question on the adherence to global ethics, and other decision-making policies on

leadership of the company. Therefore, religion and cultural practices hinders the process of

decision making on global standards.

The religious beliefs and other cultural practices pose a global dilemma for SABIC

Company, especially now that it operates on global level. It is evident that some of practices might

be irrelevant in global markets, and some may be found extremely adverse and unethical. A good

example is the Islamic laws or Sharia that are neither practicable nor applicable in Europe, or

America where SABIC has subsidiaries because these countries are not Islamic states. The major

ethical issues in decision making that would face the company is the fact that SABIC is

headquartered in Saudi Arabia where all top decisions have to be made basing on the Islamic laws

and cultural practices (Al-humedhi, 2000, p. 89). On the other hand, these decisions have to affect

all company’s subsidiaries across the world irrespective of their location, environment and cultural

setting. Therefore, organizations cultural setting gives the management a hard task in customizing

decisions to suit each of the company’s branch in line with its environment. Making different

decisions for each of the company’s subsidiaries creates lack of uniformity, and alters the larger

organization’s objectives and mutual goals attainment.

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The ethics and values of a given organization greatly influences its decision making

process, and dictates the adherence to given cultures and ethics. As earlier outlined, ethical

standards and values are practices acceptable to many people, or are practices that are believed to

be good (Hanges et al, 2016, p. 217). For an organization to be ethically successful, it is important

that the management understands and respects on how values influence the social environment.

How the company operates, and how its management and employees regard each other within the

work environment, is important on how the institution sets its rules and how the rules will relate

to ethical behavior and practices. SABIC company is guided by the Islamic religious beliefs and

values, therefore any decision made in the company has to reflect on the same beliefs irrespective

of whether they adhere to global ethics and principles. Many of these values might achieve local

ethical issues, such as observing the Sharia law in Saudi Arabia is ethically correct, however, this

might fail to reach the standards of international acknowledgement. In various occasions, many

Middle East countries are faced with the dilemma of the conflicting local ethics and global ethical

practices by adhering to cultural practices, which has created a fragment of issues in the

international business world. Although the cultural and religious issues have not been addressed

yet, nothing much can be done so far, because religion and culture are pertinent issues in these

societies and cannot be altered.

When faced with such situations in an organization, there are various approaches that a

leader would consider taking. Some of the ethical challenges the company could be likely to face

are non-conformity to global values, and ethical practices such as employee oppression, poor

working standards, lack of employee involvement in decision-making and poor treatment to female

employees. Any manager in such a situation will be in crossroads on where to base their decisions,

considering the fact that culture and ethics are conflicting issues. Sometimes compromising in such
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situations does not offer a solution, because some important issues that feature in international

ethics are not properly addressed.

If I were a leader in such organization, I would react by trying to strike a balance between

the religious values that affect major decision-making process, and global ethical practices. The

plan would involve engaging the relevant stakeholders who include other leaders, employees,

religious leaders and other business leaders across the globe on how to come up with a win-win

situation for both parties. Among the points subject for debate would include, looking for a way

to create a separate business culture from religious one in order to adopt business policies, and

values that are globally acceptable. Additionally, I would formulate policies in the organization

with an objective of enhancing common universal practices that can be used in subsidiaries that

are in foreign countries, which do not practice Islamic values (Gottleb-Sanzgiri, 2016, p. 72). The

reason behind this is the fact that, some values and ethics that are locally acceptable do not get the

same reception on a global scale. Lastly, I would try to ensure that all decisions made observe

common global ethical practices, by first ensuring I influence other top leaders to adapt to the

business cultures that apply in today’s global market place.

In conclusion, getting leaders to understand the differences in ethical and cultural practices

when making decisions is very vital in ensuring the decisions reached meet global ethics. However,

there are several factors that hinder most companies especially from the Middle East from

practicing ethical values properly. Such factors include religious and cultural practices in the

Muslim states. Addressing the challenges might be an uphill task, especially in culturally

distinctive areas in the Middle East, but gradual ethical practices integration will eventually yield

in. local and global business leaders ought to understand importance of ethical decisions in aiding

business growth and employee motivation and satisfaction. Strategies need to be laid such as
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creating a balance between religion, culture and ethical values in order to overcome the ethical

dilemmas in the Middle East countries. By so doing, the business world will freely experience

good environment where ethics and values operate.

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