Reference no: EM132165292

The role of ethical decision making in becoming an effective manager

Understanding the task

- Before starting, you should make sure you understand the difference between this and other assignments.
- The focus here is on assessing your skills and competencies for managing and planning to develop them in the future.

This requires:
understanding what ethical management involves (how it is defined and understood in academic writing) what you currently think of your skills and abilities in terms of being an effective manager and an ethical decision maker and how you could develop these skills in the future.
- In addition, you must consider the impact of personality factors on your capability to make ethical decisions.
- Please read the rubric on Blackboard carefully as you prepare this assignment

Essay format
- In this essay you are asked to present your viewpoint and to argue for it. This means giving evidence or justification for your conclusions, and being clear where the evidence or arguments are uncertain or raise further questions.
- Some of your essay may involve description but it should also demonstrate critical thinking, including analysis and evaluation.
- You should draw on learning from the text and class activities, discussions with others, and relevant academic references.
- Essays written for a business context should have headings and sub-headings.
- Although this essay has many sections, it must form a cohesive whole. The scope of each section will depend on the word count.
- The foundations of a good essay are good body paragraphs and a logical sequencing of ideas.

Essay sections (on p.13 of your unit plan)
- introduction #1
- body/discussion
literature review #2 evaluation #3 plan #4
- conclusion #5 references #6
- appendices #7

When you submit your essay, it will have the 7 sections outlined on the previous slide, in the order that they are listed in the unit plan.
However, the best place to start preparing your assignment is to look at questionnaires you answered in class (#3).

Next, search for management literature (#2) that relates to your results. E.g. search for literature that shows a relationship between ethical decision making and effective management (or best practice for managers).

You will need to consider the literature in evaluating your results. This means you will move back and forwards between sections #2 and #3.
When you have a draft of sections 2 and 3 you should proceed to make a plan (#4).

After you have drafted the plan you can write your introduction (#1) and conclusion (#5).

Your references and appendices should be developed throughout the writing process.

Introduction (300 words)

Make a general statement about ethical decision making and why it is important in business contexts.

Make a statement about the possible links between ethical decision making and its contribution toward effective managerial practice.

Write a thesis statement. Start by indicating that this essay reviews literature about the importance of ethical decision making to effective management. Say which particular skills and personality factors you are focussing on.

Indicate that the review is followed by an evaluation of your own capability development of your skills and competencies as an ethical effectivemanager.You Need to say what methods you have used to evaluate your managerial capabilities (skills and personality). You also need to state that you have created a plan for further

#2 Literature review (1000 words)

- Review recent and relevant literature about ethical decision making; include both hard and soft skills. It is better to start broad and then narrow to some key skills. This will allow you to be critical rather than simply listing skills. It is helpful to pick skills that you are keen to develop. (You may have identified these skills by doing some of the quizzes in the unit.) This will help to build cohesion through your essay.

- Review the literature on ethical decision making in a business context. Start broad and then narrow your focus. (It is helpful if you choose an area that is particularly relevant to you personally and professionally). A narrower focus will allow you to critically analyse the literature. (possible search terms to try include: ethics, ethical management, ethical behaviour, managing ethically, ethical dilemmas in business) Remember to cover (p. 13 of unit plan):
a) How ethical decision making relates to effective managerial practice
b) What capabilities/skills are needed to promote good ethical decision making
c) How personality relates to ethical decision making
d) One-paragraph summary
- This section of your essay is where you demonstrate your research skills. You need to start early in order to find appropriate literature. Most of your references will be journal articles.
- Write approximately 1,000 words. This section will be in 3rd person voice i.e. According to Jones (2010),... Or Jones (2010) concludes that...
- Cite at least 10 non-textbook references (in addition to your textbook). These should be dominated by recent peerreview journal articles. All paragraphs in the lit review must have in-text references.

#3 Evaluation (600 words)
- This section is about you, so it is appropriate to use 1st person voice.
- It includes an analysis of your personality and the level of the skills and competencies you have identified as being relevant to your ability to become an effective manager who makes ethical decisions.
- You should include a discussion of relevant in-class questionnaire results (include them as ONE table in an Appendix).
- Your task in this section is to think critically about your results, in light of what you have read about ethical decision making in the literature.

#4 Plan (650 words)
- Use the plan section to specify a minimum of two and up to three goals (using the SMART goals framework), skills or competences you will focus on,
- how and when you will learn them,
- and how you will know you have learned them.

#5 Conclusion (200 words)
Your conclusion should bring your essay to a close by summarising the key points:
- Why was this analysis undertaken?
- Where did you get your information/evidence?
- How consistent is the evidence?
- What did you learn? Did it surprise you or confirm what you already knew?
- What you intend to do with this knowledge and why?

#6 References ( At least 12 references)
- You must have a reference list which is formatted according to APA 6th guidelines.
- Reference your quizzes (by URL if not published).
- The ECU Reference Guide shows how you how to format your reference list.
- The references must be in alphabetical order and have hanging indents.
- There are further referencing materials available online via the library site and Academic Skills Centre.
- If you get stumped with how to reference a particular source, you can email the library for help.
- Please look at feedback that you have received on referencing in previous assignment tasks. Learn from the mistakes that you have made in the past. Aim to improve with each assignment.

#7 Appendices
- Label your appendices A, B, C...
- Include a detailed table of questionnaires and/or quizzes results in Appendix
A.
- You must refer to your appendices in the text of your work. E.g. For detailed test results see Appendix A.