Critical Essay: Ethics

Summary of the Case

South Australia (SA) police retracted an email sent by a manager with a gift card prize for officers who issued more speeding and traffic fines. The gift comes after the department initiated an Operation Fatal Distraction targeting distracted drivers using mobile phones, social media, and other behaviours and practices that might cause inattention. Although the gift card targeted officers perceived to have made the "greatest contribution to road safety", the SA police described the incentive to be against the official policy and practice (ABC News, 2019). The department argued that such incentives would encourage unprofessional behaviour and portray the police as a revenue collection centre which would affect the relationship between the police and road users. The police reminded the officers of their duty to keep South Australia roads safer by stopping dangerous behaviours on the roads using the available channels such as issuing an expiation notice or a formal caution.

Ethical Issues and Frameworks

Business leaders need consistency in making ethical decisions since their actions affect all aspects of the organisation including its image and relationship with stakeholders. In the case of the retracted gift card price to police officers in South Australia, ethical decision-making frameworks are essential in explaining the ethicality of the judgment. In this case, a manager bought a gift card and sent it to police officers who had issued more speeding and traffic fines. However, the officers retracted the gift on the two bases: it sent the wrong message to the traffic officers and it will affect the relationship between the police and road users. On the first hand, rewarding officers that issue the highest speeding and traffic fines turn the police department into a competition and revenue collecting centre. According to virtue ethics, decisions should be made based on personal character and moral virtue (Ohio University, 2019). This involves asking questions on how stakeholders will perceive an organisation by the decisions they make. The SA police examined the impact of the gift on the moral virtue of the police officers and decided to retract the gift to tame and remind the officers on their duty to ensure road safety and not extort road users. The decision conforms to the virtue ethics framework that emphasizes personal virtue such as discipline, honesty, and trustworthiness. If the officers practice their duties with personal virtue, they will build long-term relationships with road users and influence the number of traffic offences committed on the Australian roads (ABC News, 2019).

The SA police decision to retract the gift and reinforce the duty and commitment of police officers in ensuring the safety of road users conforms to the consequentialist theory. This ethical framework explains an ethical course of action by considering the result. The framework provides decisive transparency by aligning the decision-making process to ethically reflective goals (Ohio University, 2019). The decision to retract the gift card was reached after a critical analysis on its impact based on the message it portrayed about the South Australian police department. The police insist that the traffic officers have no quota for issuing fines and incentives to officers who issue more fines imply that the police department is turning into a revenue collection centre. Indeed, drivers showed their frustration on the extortive nature of the officers illustrating the potential of the gift card creating bad blood between the police and the citizens. The consequentialist ethical framework adopts the utilitarian principle of maximizing positive consequence. In application, the SA police condemned the incentive as a practice against the official policy and its consequence of motivating officers to issue more fines categorised as an unacceptable behaviour since it would affect the image of the SA police and the relationship between the police and road users (ABC News, 2019).

Identify-consider-act-reflect model is a four-step framework used to address variables that do not cause challenges on the daily running of an organisation (Ohio University, 2019). This is applicable in the SA police case since the issuance of incentives such as the gift card is not a daily event. The framework provides four steps that are necessary to make decisions that sustain their brand or image. The first step identifies the scenario from an ethical perspective by asking questions regarding the ethical implication of the decision and its impact on the stakeholders. In the case, such questions would involve an inquiry on the message sent to the officers, the impact on the drivers, and the possible professional behaviour change to the traffic officers. The ‘consider' phase assesses the decision-making paths and takes into account other perspectives through brainstorming (Ohio University, 2019). In this case, the officers looked at the SAPOL's policy and practices to assess the legitimacy of the action and concluded that "the incentive went against official policy." The third phase is the action stage which entails implementing the decision made based on the assessment of the situation. Here, the SA police decided to retract the gift card on the basis that it contradicts its policy and practice, sends the wrong message to the road users, and influences a negative behaviour to the officers. Finally, the reflect phase calls the decision-makers to reflect on the actions to evaluate the weaknesses or strength of the team.

Theoretical Implication, Application, and Interpretation

Utilitarianism theory

Utilitarianism theory is a form of consequentialism that argues pleasure to be a valuable consequence and pain as the disvalued consequence. The theory advocates for a decision or action that yields the greatest benefit (Baron, 2017). One the one hand, act utilitarianism advocates for an action that benefits the most people while rule utilitarianism seeks to benefit most people through the fairest and just means available. The effectiveness of the theory depends on the decision-makers ability to predict the outcome. In the case provided, the SA police easily predict the outcome based on the expressed frustration of the drivers and the expected consequence of unprofessional incentives. Accordingly, the police implement both acts and rule utilitarianism by retracting the incentive to discourage extortion; thus, benefiting the majority road users. The rule utilitarianism is exhibited by the just and fair explanation of the retraction based on the organization policy and practice. The decision is based on sound analysis of the situation and its impact which shows a potentially negative outcome if the police would embrace fines as a means of law implementation instead of creating a beneficial relationship with the drivers (ABC News, 2019). Safeguarding the image of the police department is the greatest benefit for the officers and the citizens.

Deontology theory

The deontology theory argues that people should adhere to their obligations and duties. The theory prioritizes duty and obligation as the correct ethical actions. Deontological ethics concerns the rule, law, reason, or maxim for taking an action (Gawronski et al., 2016). According to Kant, the only thing that influences our action is the maxim based on moral worth. In the SA police case, it is important to interpret the scenario based on the duty/obligation of the manager, the police department, and the police/traffic officers. The manager must motivate the traffic officers to execute their work diligently. One of the strategies of motivation is through incentives and recognitions as exhibited by the issuance of the gift card (ABC News, 2019). The police department has a duty and obligation to monitor and control the actions of its officers. Therefore, they look into any activities that promote unfair or unprofessional conducts that might affect the image of the police force and contain it using the established policies and standards of practice. Finally, the officers are obligated to exercise safety on the roads by monitoring the behaviours of road users (ABC News, 2019). Although each of the police categories acted based on duty and law, the deontological theory is insufficient in interpreting and justifying the actions of each of the officers.

Virtue Ethics Theory

Virtue ethics emphasizes individual character and virtues as it offers an account of right and wrong based on what a virtuous agent would perform (Sakellariouv, 2015). A virtue person or agent is an individual without vices and exhibits virtue characters such as honesty, kindness, and generosity (Lee et al., 2017). The implication of this theory on the scenario puts the manager and the SA police as virtues people. The manager is kind, generous, and honesty in rewarding the officers that put more effort to bring safety on the roads. Assuming that the manager did not consider the implications of the reward, it is arguable that his drive was to motivate and encourage the officers to execute the duty diligently and ensure compliance to traffic rules (ABC News, 2019). Similarly, the SA police acts are virtues since they exhibit characters of kindness and honesty towards road users/drivers. 

Conclusion

The SA police acted ethically to retract the gift card sent to the traffic officers by the manager. Based on the deontological theory, the actions of each officer (manager, SA police, and traffic officers) adhere to their obligations. However, the utilitarianism and the virtue ethics theories, as well as the ethical decision-making frameworks, justify the retractions based on the virtue character and consequences of the gift to individual officers, the police department, and its relationship with the public. Therefore, the retraction was necessary to uphold good moral practice among the officers and portray a good reputation and positive image of the SA police.