Ethics is basically a branch of philosophy which is being used to study about the ideal human behavior and ideal ways of being as well (Tomas and Baier, 1960).

Ethics can also be defined as a term which is responsible in the providing a set of different standards which are responsible for behavior that also helps people in deciding that how a person should react in a certain condition. In general we can say that ethics is a branch which relies completely on making different decisions, choices and providing different reasons that why a certain decision should be made.

With the passage of time, different meanings and definitions have been known related to the word ethics. Many of the philosophers and ethicist have given all such different meanings of the term ethics.

According to the philosophical discipline, ethics is one of the understanding approach to understand, analyze and distinguish different matters on the basis of wrong and right or good and bad. Ethics is many of the times gets confused with many of the other ways of making different choices which includes religion, morality or law. There are many type of religions which are responsible in the promoting of ethical decision making but they do not usually address all the wide range of the ethical choices that a person face in daily life. Only a good system of law follows ethical rules (Tomas and Baier, 1960). Law is something different which states that it can have different time state designing of the standards in the areas which are important. Law and ethics both are responsible in the dealing of questions which tells about that how an individual should live and interact with one another, whereas ethics states that how an individual person should react even in the cases when other people are not being involved. In short, ethics provides different reasons to an individual and good reasons as well that why something is moral.

(B)

In the case study it has been explained that attempt was being made to merge five different colleges present in midwifery along with the nursing school as well. All these institutions were being merged to form new and large institute known as Midshires College of Midwifery and Nursing. Now obviously as colleges were situated at different places and they had large faculty and according to the ethical rules when five institutes got merged all the people working there start losing their jobs and started becoming jobless. Steering committee decided to do all this and obviously they were being selfish without thinking about the people and their jobs. Decision making was not being done on the basis of stake holders. Appointee who merged different colleges was actually a principal of one of the five colleges which were getting merged. He was a person with no experience that how a college should get merged and how all the previous faculty should get adjusted. Also one of the ethical dilemmas was that the merger meant progress for the organization as a whole but it lacked vision and direction, heading towards change and integration without a proper plan by risking jobs of many was an ethical concern. The appointment of an inexperienced project leader despite availability of more experienced principals showed merit not being the priority of decision making which added to legal yet unethical approach towards matter of concern. Another thing in the case study was the ones in charge were not taking ownership of their responsibilities. The project leader confessed of not having the authority and being able to do much reflect the ethical crisis of the organization. The employees, students and management being in a limbo due to no clear policy show the unethical ways of operation of the organization. The organization was looking to fulfill legal requirements but never had an ethical framework in place and lacked empathy for employees and stakeholders.

(C)

The ethical issues had direct effect on the working of the organization. There was no clear policy and there was no framework or direction for the future of the organization. The employees were motivated yet unsure about the job. The project leader had to come up with a new strategy but there was no full implementation. Employees were not sure and which affected their efficiency at the work place. There were many ways by this situation could have been averted and handled in a much better way. First of all before moving into the merger employees should have been addressed about what is to come and what should they expect. To layoff the workforce without giving them a prior notice is unfair and can affect them financially. The matters should have dealt with more empathy and on merit. Also what would have been better before moving on to the merger was an internal organization constitution which defined roles and sphere of authority for everyone to avoid confusion and provide direction to the organization.

An ethical framework should have been adopted at the earliest to ensure that decisions were based on a model and not done to satisfy few. Profit maximization is not only the aim for an organization but best practices should be enforced to be an example for other. Ethical approach towards decision making should be followed. Ethical theories should be considered when making a decision (Bartlett, 2003). The need for ethical governance in the organization is very evident and introducing it would help the not only the organization but the stakeholders associated with it. In my opinion out of the five major theories of ethical approach, the fairness/ justice approach should be followed. This means that every employee should be treated in all fairness and equality. By following this approach it means the organization is willing to head towards change on the basis of equality and taking hard decisions will be seen and be part of the greater good. Employees should be compensated and the decision impacts the overall hierarchy. The organization is heading towards change and by having this ethical approach it will be heading towards minimizing the imbalance of power and give a more positive message to every stake holder.