NAMW: Shunan Wan Student No.

ACX8033

Word s:298

Activity 2 - Bounded Ethicality

Question: Do you think that acting ethically is just a matter of wanting to badly enough?
Why or why not?

Answer: As Herbert Simon stated, people are rational, but is bounded (Bridge, 2009).
However, this does not mean that acting ethically is just a matter of wanting to badly enough.
In a sense, peoples acts will be affected by different situational factors that may cause people
to make some unethical decisions and behaviors that people want to be and often will regret.
From this point of view, most of people generally want to act ethically and comply with
ethical standards. Therefore, acting ethically is not a matter of wanting to badly enough.

Question: What kinds of situational factors can you think of that might make it difficult for a
well-intentioned person to always do the right thing?

Answer: In a sense, situational factors often will cause people to make some ethical decisions
and conducts. In other word, some situational factor might make it is difficult for a well-
intentioned person to do the right thing. Here below are some kinds of situational factors that
will lead people to make some wrong thing. On the one hand, the bosss pressure should be
considered as one of situational factors. For example, if some bosses often will ask their
employees to do something unethical, the employees may do it and do not realize their
mistake because they intend to interesting their boos in order to keep his/her job instead of
the consideration of some ethical dimensions of their acting.

Question: Can you think of a time when you did not live up to your own ethical standards?
What caused you to depart from your own standards?

Answers: When I was a higher students, I cheated on the exam in order to pass the exam.
This kind of behavior made me did not live up to my personal ethical standards

Question: Can you think of an example of a friend who acted unethically? Or someone in the
news lately? Without making excuses for them, can you explain why they might have made
bad ethical decisions even though they are generally good people?

Answer: During my high school years, my classmates asked me to help him cheat on an
English exam. As students, their behavior is unethical decision because this kind of conduct is
against their personal ethical standards. From this point of view, it can identify that they
might have made bad ethical decision even though they are generally good people.

Question: Do you think its possible to be completely rational when making ethical
decisions? Why or why not?

Answer: In my opinion, it is impossible to be completely rational when people making

ethical decisions. According to the theory of bounded rationality, people are rational, but only
boundedly (Simon, 1995). Under this condition, it is hard for people to be completely
reational. In addition to this, personal decision making also will be affected by many
situational factors, which will cause people to make some unethical decisions. Therefore, it is
impossible to be completely rational when making ethical decision.