Conflict, Decision Making, and Organizational Design

A conflict in any organization occurs when there is an involvement of many parties in duty performance. This happens because the parties concerned have different goals and interests to accomplish. In many organizational structures, different conflicts may arise such as fund allocation, terms of employment, retrenchments and promotions.Advertising We will write a custom case study sample on Conflict, Decision Making, and Organizational Design specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This mostly occurs when one business is liable to another, such as the government or business partners. The directors and stakeholders of the firm are in charge of decision-making. The employees implement the decision with the help of supervisors or departmental heads. This usually depends on the organizational structure of the individual entity. The structure divides the firm into elements of similar abilities and skills. These elements may include accounts, h uman resource, and production departments. Firms must always avoid conflict of interest since they cause operational problems (Learmonth, 2006). A conflict may arise when a given department performs better than the others in service delivery to their customers regardless of the underlying drivers. The management will put more effort into this department, and allocate more funds to improve its performance. This creates a conflict of resource allocation since more reflects towards the most delivering department and management may overstate the allocations. More personnel shift to this department and may bring about the conflict among the employees and management, caused by allocation through relations and nepotism. Employees expect the management to give promotions to personnel within the organization. Conflicts arise when a person from outside the business entity takes a position at top management levels (Ury Fisher, 1998). Businesses also lay off employees in order to decrease expe nses. A conflict arises as to which employees to send off. Conflicts of interest also arise from the employee and management duties, where each of them requires jobs to meet deadlines as well as fairness to the employee, so as not to overload them and maintain timing. The organization at which I work is the Carolina Center for Behavioral Health. This institution has conflicts between physicians and clients because it is necessary for numerous interactions to occur between the patient and doctor for better service delivery. This, in turn, causes conflicts to arise from differences in personal expectations, responsibilities and insufficient resources, which are scarce.Advertising Looking for case study on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Conflicts in this institution also arise from among the physicians, the management team and physicians and between other professionals and the physicians (Hellriegel Slocum, 2010). There arises competition for the scarce resources in the entity, and as to whether personal physicians can act as referrals or which would be the best source of their decision-making. This deteriorates the trust among physicians in resource allocation since the most salient issues is not aligned. Conflict resolution occurs through the correction of differences between the parties involved. A conflict may be positive or negative. Negotiation as a method of conflict resolution involves creating a gap between people and the problem, generation of ideas that give options, following interests, laying out of goals and objectives, and using gains to define success. An integrative approach allows the discovery of mutual gains and fair standards for decision making on challenging issues. It uses several stages to resolve conflict between the parties. First, the parties lay down their similar goals that led to the conflict. They then remove the personalization of the problem and make it professional as per the situation. A study on the driving factor occurs in the demand brought in by an interest. The parties then use creativity to bring mutual gain options that bring satisfaction to all that improves the situation. This happens using the facts and data analysis as the nature of the physician profession (Hellriegel Slocum, 2010). In order to implement the negotiation strategy to resolve a conflict, the physicians have to put into consideration various factors. The committee formed has to be free of conflicts by ensuring that all members are aware of their roles and to whom the decision-making role lays. The parties whom the conflict concerns should be the sole members of the committee and it should involve physicians with rich information on the issue at hand.Advertising We will write a custom case study sample on Conflict, Decision Making, and Organizational Design specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In any me dical institution, Evidence based management should be instituted since it deals with facts for decision-making. This arose since there are many differences between physicians such as culture and decision making processes used. Managers and students in health care institutions receive education on evidence based management practices. Managers are diverse and dynamic because of their wide scope of knowledge that enables them to be reliable in making judgments. Evidence based management requires careful and thorough analysis of data used for decision-making that staff record on the organizational functioning. It requires managers to share and record problems through a wide range of research and experiments before making decisions. This gives them time to discuss the problem related facts and a choice on the best research analysis by managers and employees. Evidence based management should be instituted at all levels of the organization structure. All new and old members of staff shoul d be trained on how to use massive research to come up with decisions. This will ensure that the whole institution at large embraces the use of evidence-based management. Physicians should use facts from previous research to administer drugs to their patients and make new experiments before giving prescriptions on new cases. This will boost the overall credibility of the institution to its clients and stakeholders. The staff in the organization move into the community of concern for their patients come from and collects data on issues affecting them. This can be conducted using cheap experiments that the organization can afford. It also requires that the institution acquire a license granting it permission to collect public data. The management should be flexible to accept junior staff facts that will assist the institution to deliver quality services to its clients. When a decision takes position, experiments occur to prove the decision’s efficiency to work. This practice en sures that decisions made are effective and that only the best methods used in conducting a given activity.Advertising Looking for case study on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More It also removes the use of believers to administer professional services and reduces the risk of drawbacks from work done by the use of latest experiment results. Physicians should ensure that the cure to a given problem is appropriate and that it has minimal side effects (Hellriegel Slocum, 2010). The management should institute evidence-based management by demanding evidence from the physicians on decisions made. The physicians should be discouraged from using experience knowledge to administer drugs and prescriptions to patients. This goes hand in hand with the use of personal information from own ideologies that emanate from own experiences or those of close relatives. The staff and management should also eliminate their personal preferences that market drugs from companies believed to be the best. The experiments should prove which drugs are best for a given ailment. The market forces of demand and supply should neither be a factor in making a choice in the administration of s ervices nor the desire to follow known professional’s decisions. The managers should embrace originality from all staff members regardless of their rank. This ensures that promotions rewarded to personnel create equality, thus promoting equity in the firm and preventing conflict opportunities. Creative decision-making involves selection of an action plan from many alternatives to arrive at a solution through generation of many ideas. It makes use of critical thinking, open mindedness and the desire to explore new discoveries from any source. It involves laying out objectives systematically, evaluation of alternative course of action and selection of the best action plan. It prevents the management from bias by their personal interests in a given issue that physicians are handling. This process is difficult since it is time consuming to come up with a solution. This may cause the managerial team not to exhaust all the merits and demerits of the proposed solutions thus, the bes t alternative is implemented. Creative decision-making process involves a series of processes. The first step is lying out of goals and objectives. This presents a focus on the expected outcome to the managerial team. The institution secretary makes the records in the minutes of the meeting. The decision makers then gather data through collection methods such as questionnaires, observation and sampling. This involves using supervisors and departmental heads to issue out the questionnaires or observes the employees, depending on the preferred data collection method chosen. The third step involves bringing the collected data together. Solutions emanate from the data to increase the scope from which to choose. An analysis of each solution and the merits and demerits of each follows. In the next step, the managers choose the solution that has the most merits and lay off those that have more demerits than merits. The management thus makes a decision follow the best alternative. An action takes place through implementing the chosen solution into the problem. It involves communication of the procedures to follow to the members of staff, directions and guidelines. The management then observes the effect of implementing the chosen solution through demanding of reports from the members of staff (Cummings, 2009). Creative decision-making involves the use of several methods to arrive at the solution. The consensus method uses group work to project the most preferred solution to an organizational problem. It is the best fit for use by institutions and organizations. The systematic method involves the detailed evaluation of all possible action plans one at a time to arrive at the best. The individualistic method of decision-making occurs when only an individual comes up with the solution. The limited procrastination method uses time to sharpen its facts. The decision occurs after a long time has expired, so that all facts pop out and the situation analyzed for effective dec ision-making. The intuitive method of making decisions occurs immediately after problem identification. Professions such as physicians use it in development of an immediate and urgent solution. The health institution environment does not have a highly competitive market for being a private firm. The private firm values its customers by providing the best services to them in exchange of high profit returns. This ensures that there is a stable environment to the market forces from competitors and suppliers. The customers’ needs and availability of resources to cater for the will influence the organization structure. The best structure to the health institution would be formal, since flexibility limits occur through the physician’s responsibility to the client. A more horizontal organization design or matrix structure would be useful according to the health institutional business strategy. This is because the staff in the health center divides according to the skills they have to tackle their clients. References Cummings, T. (2009). Organization Development and Change. London: Routledge. Hellriegel, D., Slocum, J. W. (2007). Organizational behavior. New York: Cengage Learning. Learmonth M. (2006). Evidence-Based Management: The very idea. Journal of Public  Administration. 84 (2), 245- 266. Ury, W. Fisher, R. (1998). Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In.  New York: Penguin Books. This case study on Conflict, Decision Making, and Organizational Design was written and submitted by user Brady W. to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Database project proposal Essays

Database project proposal Essays Database project proposal Paper Database project proposal Paper The Queue is a company that provides service to customers by helping them buy products. Customers can order not only hot products that spent much time to queue, but also simple products for helping customers save their times. For example: Concert tickets, Garrett popcorn, Cataracts buy one free one promotion, or Jams books at the national book fair. Customers can contact with our company by using our websites to ask for the information and order products. Customers must register as our members and there will be the order form to order products. Our company will receive orders and queue up for them. Business situation and constraints: Customer must register as companys members by giving their information such as first name, last name, telephone number, and address. One customer can order many products but at least one product per time. Customer need to fill in the order products form. Customer has to complete the payment form after ordering products which consists of using bank, amount of money, and date. Each order has order details that contain order detail d, amount, total price, product ID. Each partner companies can have zero to many products. Partner companies contain only unique company name. Products contain unique product id and product name. Order detail uses for making a queue to buy products. A staff can received many orders but many orders can come from only one staff or else a staff can be able not to receive any orders. Our company has two types of employees, which are staff and manager. Both of them contain employee ID, employee name, employee phone number. Manager is an employee who has experiences. Orders that specified by its order id can be placed or cant be placed on only one event. An event which is specified by its event name can be located at many locations which contain unique name and location address. Template 2: System (SIS) Requirements Database Application name: The Queue Description: The queue database uses to collect data of the whole business include all the products that customer order and their order detail, list of customers with information, Employees information, etc. Requirements Data Requirements: Customers information Payments information Orders and its detail Employees information Products that customer ordered and its company information Events that customer want our company to go and buy products and its location Functional Requirements: Insert There is ability for customer to order products and it will be inserted to the database. Administrator can be able to insert order for customer. Update Customers can be able to update their members information. Administrator can be able to update staff to queue for order from customer in the database. Delete Administrator can be able to delete order. System Interface Requirements: Our companys system needs to connect to credit card system for the payment method. Control Requirements: Customers pay for the payment. Customers order the orders. The orders that customer had order take placed at the events. The events located at location. Order from customers has order detail. Order detail use to queue for the products. Partners company has products. Staff received orders from customers. Payment use to pay on orders. Template 3: Database Analysis and Design Database Analysis Identify Entity: Entity Name Description Properties (Attributes) Customers Customer who want to reserve/buy via our service. Customers, Fame, Lame, Phone, C adder Events The event that customer want to reserve queue from such as concert reservation, phones reservation. Eventuate Location The place that those events take place such as Thai ticket major, apple store. Name, L adder Products Product that customers want to buy/reserve. Product, Productions Company Partner companies Companys Orders Order from customer Orders Order detail Detail of order Retardation, Tailpiece, Amount Payment Customer must pay reservation fee and the cost of products. Payment, Date, Amount, Bank Employee Employees of our company. Employed, Employment, Phone Staff The person who manages reservation process Manager The person who control company. Experience Identify Relationships: Relationship Name Degree/ Entity in the Relationship Connectivity / Cardinality One-to-One One-to-Many pay, order, placed, located, had, queue for, has, received Disjoint disjoint, disjoint System Structure Chart Initial RE Diagram

Strategic Management Personal Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Strategic Management - Personal Statement Example In fulfilling my career goal of establishing and managing my own chain of Korean restaurant with the hope of eventually going global in profitable foreign markets, I recognize the importance of fully understanding the process of creating a strategy and implementing that strategy in a day to day basis. In line with what has been discussed in this course, I will be following the specific process in strategic management: development of a strategic vision; setting of objectives; establishment of the strategy to achieve the objectives and vision; implementation and execution of the strategy; and monitoring of developments, evaluation of performance, and making adjustments. I also believe that strategic management is also largely dependent on the company's ability to strategically respond to the challenges and opportunities in its external environment by continuously ensuring the alignment of its resources in carrying out its strategies and ensuring the effectiveness of its chosen strategy and modifying it if situation requires. Like a business organization, I believe that individuals should also take a strategic approach in managing goals and objectives. ... jective is to equip myself with the necessary knowledge and skills academically, be able to secure a start-up position in an international restaurant chain, and move up the organizational ladder while acquiring the strengths and competencies needed in my prospective post. In order to achieve this, I will be building my capability and emphasize my unique skills in order to differentiate myself from my colleagues. This will ensure that I will be getting the entry position in the international restaurant. In order to implement this strategy, I will start as early as now to identify the skills and characteristics that employers require, acquire and develop these skills, and highlight this during the recruitment process. 2. As a CEO you are going with a start-up company who wants to eventually go public. What is your analysis for figuring out what strategy you want to choose What strategy do you finally choose and what steps will you have to take to implement You first need to choose your industry (hospitality)segment. You need to give the reader a scenario that would establish some background for your company. This can be fiction or you can take segments from a real company. A start-up business which eventually hopes to go public will need to survive daunting challenges along the way. The primary concern of this firm will be the identification of opportunities which are not currently taken advantage in the market, establishing a good name in the industry, battling with the established competitors, and the creation and execution of a growth strategy. Deriving its name from the most popular Korean food, Kimchi Restaurant commences its operation last January 2006. Being a start-up Korean chain, it sets up three stores in three key locations including Seoul, Pusan, and

Inadequate Staffing Ratios in Nursing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

Inadequate Staffing Ratios in Nursing - Essay Example There is a growing concern over this issue considering the fact that many solutions offered depict some weaknesses. Fist, the decision to increase nurse ratio has been linked to struggles between cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness. Studies conducted by Reiter et al (2012), to reveal the financial performance encompassing the direct cost of nursing leaves a lot to tell. According to his research, about 80% of this performance equaled the remunerations and benefits, 44% comprised inpatient care costs, and 30% reflected hospital expenditures. Given this data, one can easily deduce why the state government is struggling with insufficient budget to support adequate nurse to patient ratios. Â  Secondly, there an increased uncertainty on how new healthcare reform will affect ratios. Reiter, Harless, and Mark (2012) study on California’s assembly bill (AB394) showed an increase of 20% daily nursing hours and estimated its cost to be about $168,000 to $2.3 over the following five years. With such costs, the general public (the patients included) is expected to pay heavily if this ratio is to be met. Â  Finally, there is increased concern for the lower number of a graduate from the nursing program. Medical schools across the nation depicted low student registration, a factor that has been linked to the current problems facing the nursing field. This deficit is made even worse.

Importance of Innovation for Human Waste Treatment

Importance of Innovation for Human Waste Treatment Yuyao Wu As Rio bay waters show, we badly need innovation in treating human wastes August 13, 2016 3.41am AEST http://theconversation.com/as-rio-bay-waters-show-we-badly-need-innovation-in-treating-human-wastes-63379 By referring the issue of poor water quality in the 2016 Rio Olympic water, Daniele Lantagne, an assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering in Tufts University, demonstrates how series untreated water can pose threat to peoples health through the article. Lantagne also informs people to think highly of the issue of disposing untreated water, arguing that sewerage systems are needed to apply in our lives. Treating waste water and sewage is not only a problem happened in Rio, but also a problem happened worldwide. Therefore, technical and social innovation are not only needed for disposing contaminated water, but also the inevitable elements for the process of sustainability. The writer applies a logical tone to inform the readers that peoples health is exposed to danger if they live in an environment contaminated with human waste. the untreated water causes 760000 children die from diarrhea per year worldwide and 162 million children under five suffer stunting, which is evidence by sanitation provision (2007). The writer makes her argument seem more reliable by the use of reliable evidence. It is sorrowful to accept that a large number of children die each year because of the contaminated water. Through the evidence, we can know that the situation is serious or might be more serious if we take no measure to treat the water before disposal. Thus, it highlights how urgent and necessary we need to improve sanitation faculties in order to reverse the health threats. Furthermore, Lantagne states that apply the waste treatment in life can increase the quality of life. The writer uses the fact that the project of the sewerage system in United States achieves significant success in providing treated and safe water to households. Indeed, in our daily life, water is the basic need for every human-being. The quality of water has a direct impact on human health. Therefore, we realise how vital roles the sewerage systems play in our lives. However, Lantagne argues that in reality, it is hardly to keep using sewerage systems, septic tanks and latrines because of the financial reason and rapidly population growth. Through listing the limitation of sewerage systems, septic tanks and latrines, Lantagne makes her point seem more objective and more considerable. Although the limitation of sewerage systems exists, we still need to use sewerage system to dispose untreated water. Lantagne consummates her argument by listing three examples for the further process of treating human waste, which are community mobilization strategies, Systems-based and social enterprise services. However, nowadays, it is not enough to provide the solution to treat the untreated water. Beforehand, sense of environmental consciousness is needed to be ingrained in peoples mind. Otherwise, lack senses of environmental consciousness will be one of the most obvious barriers to stop people to care, think and work out the solution for disposing contaminate d water or other environmental issues. Overall, the writer offers her opinions based on evidence and fact in a reasonable and logical tone, which makes her arguments seem more valid. The points raised by the writer is worth to reconsider as treating water before disposal is one of the most serious environmental issues. We need to know how serious health consequences we are suffering due to the contaminated water before we realize how urgent we need to apply the sewerage system in life. Besides, the senses of environmental consciousness are the basic knowledge impels us to work out the solution for environmental issues. References; http://theconversation.com/as-rio-bay-waters-show-we-badly-need-innovation-in-treating-human-wastes-63379

Islamic Art and Architecture; Influence and Effects Essay

Introduction During the reign of the Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughal rulers, architecture and art took on more meaning than it had in the past. The types of architecture and manuscript writing have had both symbolic significance and influence on the people of these empires. The architecture can be said to have had the greatest impact on the presence of power and devotion to Islamic arts of all of the empires, while manuscripts were held privately until trends influenced their spread over greater distances and people. The Ottomans, in their quest to expand their lands and influence, conquered Constantinople in 1453, which sparked a major period of construction in the new capital of the Ottoman Empire. This large building initiative took place in order to encourage a repopulating of Istanbul, as well as the revitalization of the economy in this declining city. The buildings and complexes the Ottomans built shed an interesting light on their concerns and ideals. For example, while the complexes were mainly built as places of worship, they took on other roles, such as, centers for education, commerce, and hospital care. One complex is clear in its intentions to the public, as can be seen by the endowment deed, which read â€Å" to elevate matters of religion and religious sciences in order to strengthen the mechanisms of worldly sovereignty and to reach happiness in the afterworld†, (Bloom & Blair, 298). This combination of buildings in a complex format drew people from the old capital and cities of the empire, and generated revenue that amassed into fortunes for the rulers of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans, however, were not the only empire to enjoy great wealth and displays of that wealth. The Mughals, who descended from the same Turkish conquerors as the Ottomans, also enjoyed prosperity from great building projects. The architecture of the Mughals was able to change with great regularity during its time, due to the constant movement of the central government. The Mughals also benefited from a blend of styles and influences to create their palaces. The most famous example of Mughal architecture was the Taj Mahal, which was built in the memory of a deceased favorite wife. In the building of temples and tombs in Mughal history, it is quite common to find them built as reminders to the community of saints, heroes, or loved ones. It was  also common to find that they lacked as muc h fine detail as their neighbors to the west, but brought new styles to the architecture derived from the rich traditions of the people of India. Unlike the Ottomans and The Mughal, the Safavids were derived from the family lineage of Mohammed the prophet. Despite this difference, the Safavids built great temples and complexes for similar reasons. The Safavids built great complexes, and like the Ottomans, they moved their capital to a centralized location in order to centralize power, and increase commerce. The Safavids also shared another trait in building with the Ottomans. They both had a strong emphasis on education, and liked to keep a watchful eye over it. For this reason, religious complexes often included the highest forms of education for both the government and the religion of Islam. Though in competition for much of their histories, the Ottomans and Safavids adhered to many of the same architectural styles, with one major difference. Due to their difference in branches of Islam, the Safavids, unlike their Sunni neighbors the Ottomans, had little problem with diverging from traditional customs of avoiding the use of depictions of animals and people in their design. This proved to enhance the appearance of the buildings, but also give them a unique place in the history of Islamic buildings. Manuscripts, on the other hand, have a very different history than do the magnificent buildings of the Islamic world. In the Ottoman Empire, as was true of most of the Muslim world, the Koran was the most copied manuscript. Copies of the Koran were reproduced with astonishing art, but were usually given as gifts to other rulers. In this system, the common person was excluded from viewing the finest manuscripts. Common manuscripts were produced by artisans, but lacked the high quality of that of the royal courts. The Ottomans also used their talents to reproduce manuscripts that depicted great rulers and events in history, as well as topography paintings that displayed the prominence of conquest in the Ottomans daily life. Ottoman manuscripts were not as popular or unique as the ones created by the Safavids or Mughals, but they did posses superiority in the ar t of calligraphy. Manuscripts from the Safavid and Mughal empires possessed greater detail in art, but most of the calligraphers were not as skilled as those of the Ottoman Empire. Despite this lack of good calligraphy, the Safavids and Mughals were more skilled in art and design. Like the Ottomans, the Mughals and Safavid empires copied  the Koran at a high rate, but only the best works of art were given away as gifts. This lack of quality reproductions, which included not only writing, but also painting, led to the decline of the bound book. This decline led to the development of an industry of artisans creating single manuscripts. These manuscripts allowed for both artistic differences that were hard to avoid in large manuscripts, and it allowed more people to posses art. They were collected into books, but they had a greater impact on both the people of the Muslim world and the Europeans, who were exploring the area heavily in search of people to colonize. The arrival of the Europeans also led to a decline in the production of small manuscripts, due to the fact that the printing press and mass production of books were arriving in Europe. Conclusion Islamic art and architecture both had more than one use in Islamic life. The architecture reminded the people of saints, great rulers, martyrs, or beloved figures, as well as serving as a center for religion, education, commerce, and medicine. The art of the Islamic world was originally used to tell of battles, heroes, and most popularly recreate the Koran. Art also allowed for the growth of writing, painting, and the distribution of ideas over greater distances than the spoken word. Both Islamic art and architecture still hold as reminders to Muslims and the world that great rulers, conquerors, and artists have made a lasting impact on the region and its culture.

Why Study Ethics?

http://faculty. polytechnic. org/gfeldmeth/4. ruggiero1. pdf Ruggiero 1 Why Study Ethics? If we have laws and religion, why do we need ethics? Ethics is the study of right and wrong. Everyone makes decisions each day that are essentially choices. For some, choices are considered strictly personal and no one else’s business: Should I have a strip of bacon with my eggs? But for some, even that simple choice has ethical ramifications: Should I eat meat? Is it anyone else’s concern that I eat meat?Other choices confront us as the day progresses: Should I call in sick? Should I obey the speed laws as I drive to work? Should I answer a friend’s question honestly or lie and potentially hurt her feelings? Should I be faithful to my spouse? How does one find answers to these questions? For some, laws and religion provide the answers. But for most, those two sources are insufficient. Ethical Relativism In the past for most people and even for many people today, an objectiv e moral standard that is binding on all people for all times exists.While there might be disagreement on what the standard was, most acknowledged that there was a â€Å"right† choice. But in the last half-century, there has been considerable erosion in the idea that a standard exists or is even needed. For many, decisions about what is right and wrong are complete personal and completely subjective: what is right for me may not be right for you. This is known as ethical relativism. It asserts that whatever an individual deems morally acceptable is acceptable for that person. To judge that is often considered unacceptably intolerant.As relativism or situation ethics, as it was called by some, grew in the 1960s, some critics warned that an attitude of complete toleration would make it difficult, if not impossible to reasonably discuss ethical issues. If no one view is better than another, how can one distinguish civilized from uncivilized behavior, or good and evil. If ethical choices are essentially the same as aesthetic or taste choices, then pursuing one choice of action is essentially no different that preferring a work of art or an author or a singing group.It is all just a matter of taste and your taste is as good as mine. One result of the growth of relativism is the reluctance of many to pass judgment on an individual or a deed. If the choice is between absolutism (â€Å"that is absolutely wrong† or relativism (â€Å"in some cases, for some individuals, that action may be wrong’), many opt for relativism as it seems more tolerant, more reasonable, less black-and-white. Many civilizations in the past practiced human sacrifice in religious rituals. Is it right to judge that practice as wrong?After all, freedom of religion is a pillar of American beliefs. Should I judge another culture’s practices even if I find it abhorrent? To cite a modern example, some cultures allow marriage of girls as young as 12 years old or a husband to have multiple wives. Are those issues that should be left up to a nation or people-group to decide or are there universal principles that apply? To get even more relevant to students living in American society, is it ok to download copyrighted music or movies?How about copying and pasting a paragraph from an Internet source such as Wikipedia into a paper? If I want to do that, isn’t it my choice? Who are you to say it’s wrong? Ethics and Laws One might wonder why we need ethics if we have laws? If we have a comprehensive set of laws that are consistently enforced, isn’t that enough? Of course, we need to ask who makes 1 Ruggiero 1 the laws and how do they decide whether a behavior is criminal. Consider sexual harassment.Because a legislator or even a number of them might say â€Å"I would never commit such an act† would not be enough reason to conclude that a law should be passed preventing others from committing that act. From the perspective of an ethi cal relativist, no one has the right to criticize another’s actions. The only defensible reason for a law against sexual harassment is that the act is wrong, not just for me but for everyone. And sexual harassment was clearly wrong long before it was made illegal. So laws are not possible without ethics.For a law to be passed, a person or a group of people have to make a decision about right and wrong. That has been the case from the start of human society, whether laws were determined by kings, religious leaders, or elected legislators. It does not mean that every law is morally right but every law starts with a concept of right and wrong. In fact, laws change over times. New circumstances arise so that laws must be revised to fit them. New technologies developed the need for new laws. In addition, attitudes change over time.Women were not permitted to vote in national elections until 1920. The 18th Amendment legalized Prohibition in 1919. The 21st Amendment repealed it in 1 933. Ethics and Religion Just as laws arise from ethics, ethics arise from religion. Religious thinkers have always spoken to the greater society on issues of moral concern. Sometimes they have assumed that their position is the only acceptable one, which hinders discussion and debate. Faith does not usually provide common ground to discuss ethical issues in a dispassionate or even-handed way.Many religious thinkers are absolutists and turn to an outside authority, God or the Bible or the Koran for their authority. Of course, to say the Bible says something suggests that it is a simple book easy for everyone to interpret. In fact, it is complex and subject to many different interpretations. This is why it is important to distinguish between religious ethics and religious beliefs. Religious ethics examines moral situations from a perspective, a set of principles. It is a starting point, not a defining â€Å"right or wrong† point. Inquiries 1.Canada’s government proposed that color photographs of diseased hearts and cancerous lungs and lips be printed on the front and back panels of every pack of cigarettes sold in that country. Canada’s tobacco industry claimed the practice was illegal. What is the ethical issue in this case? 2. When a Michigan man was arrested for soliciting a prostitute, his car was impounded by the police. His wife, who co-owned the vehicle, claimed that the government’s action was improper because it punished her as well as her husband, even though she had no knowledge or part of his crime.Is her argument morally correct? 3. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) allows colleges and universities to make millions of dollars each year from the sale of tickets and television rights to games. Yet the NCAA does not permit student athletes to be paid. Is the NCAA’s position morally justifiable? 2 Ruggiero 1 4. A married couple, both drug addicts, is unable to care for their infant daughter. The cour t takes her from them and places her in a foster home for a number of years and she comes to view her foster parents as her real parents.When she is nine years old, her natural parents, now in drug recovery, ask the courts to return custody to them. The case is decided in their favor and the girl is returned to them, against her will. Does ethics support the court’s decision? 5. A Milpitas, California, boy raped and then killed his girlfriend and dumped her body in a lovers' lane gully. Over the next few days, the killer boasted to his high school friends and the word quickly spread that the girl was dead and that her body was in the gully. Carload after carload of high school students visited the gully to see the body.Some students prodded it with sticks or kicked it; one girl ripped a decal from the dead girl's jeans. Only one boy reported the murder to the high school principal, and even after the police investigation was well under way, only two students would identify th e killer or volunteer any information. Since failure to report a body or to volunteer to testify is not a crime, the students could not be charged legally. But was the behavior of any of the students morally acceptable? Why or why not? Based on Thinking Critically About Moral Issues by Vincent Ruggiero 3