I feel a bit melancholy to be addressing my last blog for my Bellevue course, “Ethics and Decision Making”. It has been an interesting and inviting course and I have learned a great deal. Completing the assignments in the course and “chatting” with my fellow classmates has taught me that there are different levels of ethical conduct. Is stealing unethical? Is taking a loaf of bread from the store to feed your starving child unethical? Is stealing $200,000.00 from an employee retirement fund to buy a new Mercedes unethical? Are they equal?


Bounded awareness is a new concept to me. Understanding the preconceived notions that affect how people come to a decision or rule on an ethical concept was fascinating. Of course, I find any communication strategies fascinating though unfortunately everyone else hasn’t read the book so they don’t necessary follow the same rules.

Delving into the Enron fiasco was especially interesting to me. While I heard about it on TV and read articles about it, it wasn’t until this class that I had a full grasp of the deep level of corruption, unethical conduct and narcissism involved by those that toppled a giant in the industry. By the same token, I was surprised that the space Challenger disaster didn’t get more attention on grounds of ethics and decision making. Was it ethical to try to avoid acknowledging the problem by asking if the seal will work instead of asking if the seal would fail? In the case of Challenger disaster, a commission study found that NASA’s decision making process “contributed” to the accident. Managers knew of the design flaw and they disregarded warnings by an engineer. This decision making process, or failure to make ethical decisions, resulted in the torturous death of seven crew members while their families watched. Is this measureable to damage by Enron? Can there be a comparison?

Finally – the question: Can ethics be taught? My answer is “no”. Ethics is an on-going education developed over childhood and adolescence. By the time an adult is going to school to learn “Ethical Managerial Decision Making”, the base of that person’s ethics is set. The only thing that further ethical education will do is make them aware of tools to defend their ethics or understand the next guy’s lack of ethics. Personal ethics in management cannot be taught. It can only be expanded.