Ethics and Rational Decision Making

Editors: Tomasz Dembiczak,
Wawrzyniec Ordziniak

In all aspects of life, people make decisions at all times, as members of a community, group or simply as part of a collective, including systems. These decisions may be individual or group. The issue in this essay to analyze is the behavior over time of a given system, due to individual decisions of the agents or due to interaction of individual decisions among members of the group or well due to exogenous factors of system. One way to study these systems is through System Dynamics (SD). The System Dynamics is a methodology for modeling and studying the behavior of any kind of system and its evolution over time with any delay characteristics and feedback loops. According Forester the system dynamics combines theory, methods and philosophy for analyzing the behavior of systems. This perspective has been extended to environmental change, politics, economic behavior, medicine, engineering, psychology and education, and other fields.

The SD approach is good for study of complex problems such as " the human decision making" due to the no-lineal nature this process. If decisions are individual, when are rational decisions or not? How this rationality in the decisions contributes to the temporal evolution of the system? From the SD perspective and as attempt to reach to answer those questions, we can consider different analysis for this issue. First, we need to establish the main assumptions required to constitute a system. Second, we need to analyze the dynamic characteristic responsible for the continuous changes experienced by a system over time. In the analysis it is necessary to consider the freedom of agents (physical systems) that make up the system and the free will (social systems) that would change in the behavior after the action occur. Thirdly, we must consider the issue on what constitutes or not a rational decision in a system and the relation between decisions and the emotions.Oleksyn Moral criteria of rational decision making

Analysis of the three visions that have influenced about the relationship of humans with respect to nature. We promote a new attitude based on the principle of responsibility in environmental conservation and respect for human life and other species of living organisms. This proposal values the scientific contributions in the protection and conservation of the environment.

Risky decisions invoke numerous dilemmas among decision makers. Many of them are of an epistemological nature, others of an ethical one, while some take on the form of paradoxes which have negative as well as positive consequences. They are accompanied by strictly cognitive difficulties that decision makers face while assessing reasons for this risk as well as the consequences of their actions. There are many cognitive preconditions which occur during the problem solving and decision making processes which take on the form of delusions and cognitive biases. It is those biases that generate interesting dilemmas and paradoxes. Every decision maker must assess the probability (objective and subjective) of the events that generate the circumstances for the decisions made by him or her. Evaluating the probability is subject to an array of potential delusions and mistakes which are projected on the adequacy of the decisions and thus the risk assessment which accompanies it. Although numerous heuristics (e.g. of representativeness or availability) aid in undertaking risky decisions, usually they lead to an improper assessment of the probability of the occurrence of a loss as well as its magnitude which has an impact on the practicality and effectiveness of the activity in itself. People usually take on the stance of cognitive conservatism, fearing more potential loss than expected revenue.

And yet cognitive delusions while weakening the effectiveness of the actions themselves strengthen the motivation to undertake bold and ambitious tasks. At the base of this motivation most often lie simple emotions such as hope or fear, instead of rational and cold calculations. Despite committing errors in risk assessment, in favorable circumstances people are able to formulate bold and creative plans for individual and group activities. This generates theoretical and practical consequences that shall be discussed in the paper.

Firstly, the ambiguousness of human cognitive efforts must be analyzed, for by leading to errors in the assessment of the probability and risk, they simultaneously open new cognitive and intellectual horizons. This paradox is analyzed from the psychological and epistemological perspective. Secondly, there is a practical side to this issue. It is necessary to define the objective circumstances which help to make bold, cognitively innovative decisions and plans, despite the erroneousness of the heuristics lying at their foundations. It turns out that it is not only worth correcting heuristic strategies for problem solving, but also strengthening those cognitive tendencies and practical skills of people which lead to prospective, intuitive, and not always algorithmic thinking. There is a large role to be played here by educational institutions (schools, universities, management courses or the popularization of science) and their programs dedicated to proliferating knowledge on cognitive processes, especially promoting, among the largest possible number of decision makers, the skills of the statistical analysis of data as well as information and, consequently, effectively managing situations of uncertainty and risk.

The presentation's purpose is to provide a scheme of the development of moral ideas by drawing on the results of biological sciences (especially, evolutionary theory) and game theory. The scheme is based on the distinction between an evolutionary ethic, i.e., a set of moral rules built upon, or expressive of, our predispositions shaped by natural selection, and agenuine ethic, i.e., a set of moral rules which impose much stronger requirements of impartiality than an evolutionary ethic. It will be argued that the evolutionary ethic is not a homogenous notion, as it contains three different ethics, rooted in three different sets of our biological dispositions: the ethic of reciprocal altruism (which can also be dubbed the ethic of Tit for Tat (TFTE), the ethic of compassion (EC), and the tribal ethic (TE). The claim will be defended that there is a certain continuity between TFTE, CE and the genuine ethic and a discontinuity between the tribal ethic and the genuine ethic. In other words: the genuine ethic builds upon two parts of our “ethical nature” and opposes another part of our “ethical nature”. Thus, the transition from TFTE and EC to the genuine ethic can be interpreted as an evolution, and a transition from the tribal ethic to the genuine ethic can be regarded as a revolution. It will be argued, following Karl Jaspers' insight regarding the significance of the period 800-300 BCE (which he called ‘the Axial Age’) in the history of human spirituality that such a transition took place in the Axial Age, so that the genuine ethic can be called the Axial Age ethic (AAE).

The Greek culture was based on the poetico-mimetic oral culture provided by the poems of Homer and Hesiod. Their respective poems represented the totality of the Greek knowledge at that time. The preservation and distribution of the knowledge was achieved through memorization and frequent repetition. With the advent of the philosophy, a new type of theoretical approach to reality is being created. The essay intends to indicate briefly how the change from “thinking through images” to “thinking through concepts” occurred. It will also refer to side effects of that revolution, i.e., the birth of the Socratic dialectics and necessity of the writing.

The contemporary economic crisis makes us to search for its deeper causes, both in economic and social sphere. Paul M. Dembiński is one of the interesting thinkers analyzing the causes of crisis in terms of crisis of values. Division of business interactions between transactions and relations in an important aspect of his approach. Transactions are short term relations and are set only for a profit (that is the reason for creating the so-called ‘infrastructure of trust’) while creating relations takes time. Profit is still an important factor in relations, but trust has an interpersonal nature. In a contemporary business, which is dominated by finance (homo economicus is substituted with homo financiarus) the advantage of transactions over business relations leads to an excessive concentration on a fast profit. It can be said, that ‘producing’ the profit becomes a main goal of all economic actions. As a result it leads to a decrease of trust and fosters making irresponsible decisions which are set to ‘trading of experience’ rather than a stable growth. The presented paper will be focused at the examples of conflicts between labor unions and employers.

Keywords: decision making process, values in business, economical crisis

A social stance is a disposition of the social agent which inclines the agent to respond in a certain way to social realities, such as requests, offers, proposals, threats, emerging social bonds. It is important to notice that the inclination here is not just a preference among alternatives, it has rather a normative dimension. Because of this, one can act in contrast to his stance, but in that case he has to explain his good reasons for doing that or, if need be, he has to apologise.

The social stance is a kind of “yes”, or “no”, or a neutral attitude, which can determine the agent’s decisions, acts and further stances. For example, the treaty offered by an enemy can be accepted, or refuted. It can even be suffered if there are not acceptable alternatives. One can give his assent to the treaty, thinking that it is the best thing to do. Eventually, the agent can decide to be not just the addressee of the offer, but also to be proactive, playing a fully active role. After the decision about the social stance to be taken, everything changes. Social obligations rise for the social agent and she has to deal with them, at least until she changes the stance taken or until something else, which is essential in the situation, changes. A phenomenology of social stances shows that they are at least five: to refuse (or rebel against), to suffer (or to be subject to), to accept, to assent and to make something one’s own.

From all this, some interesting consequences emerge while speaking of rational decision making processes in the context of social institutions such as organizations.

Keywords: social stances, rational decision, social institution, organization, social-moral dilemmas

Lean Management is a powerful instrument to support the creation of a change culture towards a continuous improvement in an enterprise. But although understanding lean is not difficult, it´s sustainable implementation is a challenge for all members of a company. Implementing lean does not mean to create a "one time wonder“ but to start together a long time lean journey which should never end.

In a short kind of impulse presentation, the author will discuss the idea of lean management and it´s impact on all participants during this journey. Based on this introduction, a discussion based on participants questions should start about ethical questions related to the implementation of Lean.

We would like to define rational decisions in terms of Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, Tadeusz Kotarbinski, Max Weber and Jean-Paul Sartre, to indicate some compatibilities and differences of their theories of rational decision making. The presentation of these theories will undergo ontological-phenomenological analysis of the phenomenon of rational decision making. We indicate some necessary moral (ethical) conditions for occurrence. The main thesis can be expressed in the statement that respect for some moral values is a necessary condition for rational decisions, and the decisions which do not satisfy the condition are either not rational at all or not fully rational. We – by following the aforementioned thinkers – are going to show some arguments supporting that claim.

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In our daily lives as individuals we take decisions constantly. In order to be able to take the best of the decisions, we need to established our ultimate aims, know our values, beliefs and most important to understand how our decisions may impact others. Being a moral and social responsible citizen is necessary in life and in our society. A moral and social responsible person has a variety of characteristics: he knows to accept the consequences of his actions, and how these consequences may impact other lives and most important a moral person respects the human freedom and dignity of each person. Being able to encourage our society through the education of these concepts is essential in our countries. A moral agent will be an inspiration to others to become a moral and social responsible citizen in it's community.

LITERATURE Billings, H. F. (1982, March 24).
Teaching Moral Responsibility in the Schools. Education Week, 1, 1. Retrieved March 30, 2016, from http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/1982/03/24/02180003.h01.html

What is leadership? According to the Merriam Webster dictionary it is defined as a position as a leader of a group or organization. Many organizations today, they face ethical issues and I will focus on them. Leadership comes in many different forms and understanding. There are many different beliefs about how leaders are formed. Some people believe that leaders are born and other believe that leaders are formed. Despite all those beliefs, being a fair leader requires having moral values, projecting one’s self in a convincing manner, and choosing the correct leadership style according to the culture.

LITERATURE Boundless. “Ethical Issues at an Organizational Level.” Boundless Business. Boundless, 13 Apr.
2016. https://www.boundless.com/business/textbooks/boundless-business-textbook/business-ethics-and-social-responsibility-3/business-ethics-33/ethical-issues-at-an-organizational-level-174-7767/

An entrepreneur is often confused with a businessperson. One hears these words and most of the time, they will automatically picture people in suits that work in a fancy corporation, and while the words can be synonyms, they do not mean the same thing because an entrepreneur can be a businessperson, but a businessperson is not necessarily an entrepreneur. The difference between them is the moral values that lie behind entrepreneurship.

LITERATURE Bozard, D. (2014, May 16). 6 Core Values of an Entrepreneur. Retrieved April 12, 2016, from http://david.bozward.com/2014/05/6-core-values-of-an-entrepreneur/
Cincotta, C. (2015, May 21). The 8 Values Every Company Should Live By. Retrieved April 5, 2016, from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/246480
Craven, R. (2015, March 31). Let's Be Real: Why Transparency in Business Should Be the Norm. Retrieved April 10, 2016, from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/244474
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Advertising plays a key function in our society; not only does it inform us about products and services old and new, but it also provides information regarding the benefits, features and advantages of preferring a brand over other on the same product or service. In some cases, some companies will stop at nothing to attract more customers to try their products and/ or services, even if it means resorting to dishonest practices like exaggerating the benefits of a certain product (for example claiming that scientific research has been performed to prove the actual benefits of consuming a certain brand of yogurt, but no actual scientific studies have been made to prove this claim). This is one of many examples to be used to demonstrate how the application ethics can prevent companies, especially those who face tough competition on their respective markets to resort to dishonest and deceitful claims on their advertising messages. We will look at cases where companies have made dishonest claims about the benefits from their products/ services and apply ethical values in order to contrast the difference between applying ethical values and the lack of those ethical values on an advertising message.

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Decision making concerns all aspects of human life. An ideal decision-making process should be logical, reasonable and well organized [Janis, Mann, 1977], and yet sometimes we may learn a lot from situations presented through a distorting mirror. Some of the best examples can be found in satirical programmes.

The very heart of the British satire lays in disrespect to authorities [Christopher, 2002, p.105-130]. The British television series 'The Thick of It' was described on BBC website as “Dark political comedy set in the corridors of power” [BBC website]. Therefore we can expect “a political satire of the inner workings of the British government” [BBC website]. Indeed the highly praised series is packed with analogies to the classic 'Yes Minister' cycle, and so based on nonsensical patterns of behaviour enriched with a strong element of realism. The main purpose of 'The Thick of It' is to mock the traditional governmental procedures through sweary and witty language. But what we get is far more important.

I chose this particular example, because despite saucy swearwords, heavy political context and overwhelming Britishness 'The Thick of It' has a universal message. This can be encrypt with the idiomatic title of the series, which means being “in the most active or dangerous part of a particular situation or activity.” [Cambridge English Dictionary]

The action involves a vitriolic media strategist and an inept Secretary of State for Social Affairs, as well as other advisers and civil servants. The plot contains both highly amusing and utterly stupid situations, and yet the constant struggle between politicians and the media can be easily transfer into many other spheres of life. Thus, the daily kerfuffle at the screen can be take literally and figuratively.

The characters are plunged into unfavourable circumstances. Due to them pivotal mistakes are made on a daily basis. One example, so called Snooper Force, stands out among hundreds of humorous retorts and ludicrous situations. The example presents reverse engineering of decision making. The story was presented in the first episode of the first series, aired in 2005 [BBC website].

In this case the pivotal mistake is a hastily official announcement of a new governmental project. An implied consent given by the PM appeared to be a common misunderstanding. Stages of decision-making process appear in reverse sequence as the situation evolves. The following problems can be classify as indecisiveness, over inventiveness with false excuses and lamely explanations, and unhealthy competitiveness among advisers.

The selected example concerns the issue of moral principles at risk and moral reasons of rational decision making.

LITERATURE BBC Two. The Thick of It. (online) http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qgrd
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Scholars in management field often argue on the difference between ‘rationale’ and ‘ethical’ bases of decisions in business and there is no agreement on what should be the most effective and efficient method to achieve business’ objectives. Business decisions in family firms are taken with higher involvement of family members in different management levels. While studies in this field have mostly conceptualized about family involvement in the business, they have limitedly focused on decision-making basis in an environment where family members are highly involved and contributed. The dearth of knowledge about contribution of family members in capacities as owners, owner-managers and managers in case of decisions have created a vacuum of what bases, ‘rationale’ or ‘ethical’, family firms make their decisions. Accordingly, this study focuses on to understand bases of decisions taken by both enterprising and lifestyle family firms. Locating the research in interpretivist paradigm, qualitative methodology has been adopted in the research. Multiple case-study methods facilitated to inquire the phenomena. 12 well-known family firms from different districts in Sri Lanka were used as cases and 24 respondents in positions of owners, owner-managers and managers attended the interview process providing information. Content analysis was used to identify themes in interview transcriptions. The analysis indicated that bases of decisions are also a factor to split enterprising family firms from lifestyle family firms. Enterprising family firms reflected an orientation to take rational decisions in case of their financial and non-financial objectives while lifestyle family firms showed more ethical bases in the decisions of non-financial objectives. However, irrespective of the type of the firm, decisions related to strategic level of the business have focused on more rational bases than ethical ones. Yet, decisions related to functional level had comprised more with ethical bases than rational ones.

Keywords: decision making, ethical, rational, enterprising family firms, lifestyle family firms, Sri Lanka

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The decision making process should be considered from several aspects. It is assumed that a person who considers all the “for” and “against” arguments, and who wonders which option would prove to be the best for him will achieve his goals that would be the most beneficial for him. Most people are focused on themselves during that time without taking consequences that may affect other people into consideration. It is believed that in certain situations everyone makes such a decision that would be the most advantageous for him. These decisions are supposed to affect the realization of the individual’s aim and its effect. Considering each of the problems and focusing only an individual, the influence of his decisions on environment should be analyzed in terms of both short-term and long-term consequences. Feedback and the synergy effect play an important role in the decision making process. The decision that is made by an individual who wants to benefit from it is not always beneficial to his environment. Consequently, it seems that sometimes it would be more rational to resign from benefiting from a given situation individually in the name of the development of a given group (in this case – the academic society.) Actions undertaken by one person cannot change the whole course of events in a vital way. However, the single action undertaken by a particular individual may create a trend and in consequence, others might be encouraged to act in a similar way. This kind of phenomenon may develop in a similar fashion to the snowball in the snowball effect.

Displaying a will to cooperate with the university, the person involved should consider the appropriateness of his decision. Marian Grabowski, in one of his books entitled, „Istotne i nieistotne w nauce. Szkice z aksjologii nauki”, shows the attitudes, which might be reflected by people climbing the scientific career ladder. It might seem that, these people’s aim is to simply contribute to the scientific world heritage. In my presentation, I will try to depict the most common attitudes of people involved in science, which are going to be represented with the use of Moth, Mole, Sapiens vulgaris (Common scholar), Bird of Paradise, and Kitten metaphors. In my paper, I am going to comment on the ethical aspect that applies both to the individuals and to its recognition provided the third parties are taken into consideration. The description of the specific types of researchers’ motivation will be referred to the decision-making process rationale of a particular individual and its impact on the academic community with regard to his values transformation over a particular period of time. I am also going to try to take the aspect of long-term consequences into account since such implications may develop various trends in connection with scientific workers attitudes.

Constantly evolving process of developing business, the increasing role of the economy based on knowledge and innovation, and its current challenges contribute to the reflection on the responsibility and business ethics. Business morality is the actual and interesting phenomenon because it leaves an imprint on the environment of the communities at local, regional and global level.

In this paper I applied the methodology of a comparison of the displays of morality and immorality to the explicit normative standards in specific cases. My work thesis is the statement that rational business decisions in the context of morality are interrelated with the achievement of long-term effectiveness of the business operations of the company. My side hypothesis assumes that ethics is a practical knowledge, and it definitely pays off in business.

I attempt to answer the question how moral dilemmas determine taking up appropriate steps in the enterprise, as well as relate this mechanism to the current developments in the 21st century. The vast spectrum of activities resulting from the business decisions is the consequence of the motivation that comes from personal beliefs or generally accepted standards.

Keywords: business ethics, morality, normative standards, rational business decisions

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OTHERS Strona z cytatami ekonomistów, filozofów, polityków - http://cytatymotywacyjne.pl
Strona poświęcona biznesowi - http://causecapitalism.com
California State University and California Faculty Association - http://www.csun.edu/
Encyklopedia zarządzania - https://mfiles.pl/pl/index.php/
Profesjonalny słownik języka angielskiego - http://dictionary.cambridge.org/ dictionary/english/business
Raport roczny z czynności TRACFIN z zakresu przestępczości finansowej za rok 2014 - http://www.economie.gouv.fr/files/tracfin_2014.pdf
Słownik języka polskiego PWN online - http://sjp.pwn.pl/
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - http://plato.stanford.edu
Strona z zakresu psychologii społecznej i kulturowej - www.moralfoundations.org
Wiadomości gospodarcze i finansowe - www.forbes.pl/