The essay below was writting for my leadership class during my Spring 2025 semester. Written partly by Chat GPT - 4o, it was certainly an ususual assignment. My professor wanted us to go through and have an AI write an essay, then go through and analize it for our paper. The information contained within the essay may no longer be accurate, however I have cited my sources for the time it was written. My overall thoughts on AI have shifted since April 2025. I am more scared of it now than I was in 2025, and I have very real fear in my mind regarding its rapid introduction to society. I have hopes that it will not be the end of us, but I do hold concerns about it.
Ethical Mergers through the eyes of AI
Alexander J Firlik
Bowling Green State University
Title: Ethical Decision-Making During Corporate Mergers: Ensuring Integrity Through Leadership
Author: [Your Name]
Institution: [Your Institution]
Course: [Course Name]
Professor: [Professor's Name]
Date: [Date]
Abstract Corporate mergers can be both promising and problematic, offering economic opportunity while presenting ethical challenges. This paper explores how corporate leaders can ensure that their decisions during mergers are ethical. Specifically, it examines the integration of conflict management, the role of employee values, and the reinforcement of corporate ethics to guide ethical decision-making processes. Emphasis is placed on proactive leadership strategies and ethical decision-making models to promote transparency, fairness, and organizational harmony.
Ethical Decision-Making During Corporate Mergers: Ensuring Integrity Through Leadership
In the rapidly evolving world of corporate business, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are common strategies for expansion and growth. While these moves can lead to economic advantages, they also involve a complex set of ethical considerations. Corporate leaders play a crucial role in navigating these ethical waters by ensuring their decisions are guided not only by financial reasoning but also by moral integrity. This paper discusses how corporate leaders can uphold ethical standards during mergers through effective conflict management, understanding employee values, and strengthening corporate ethics.
Conflict Management in Mergers Conflict is inevitable during mergers due to differences in organizational cultures, policies, and work practices. Ethical conflict management is necessary to ensure that these differences do not hinder the merger's success or lead to negative consequences for employees and stakeholders. Ethical leaders should engage in proactive conflict resolution by fostering open and honest communication among stakeholders.
One proven conflict management strategy is interest-based relational (IBR) approach, which focuses on building mutual respect and collaboration rather than adversarial negotiation. Leaders should act as mediators who encourage empathy, recognize concerns, and work toward equitable solutions. For instance, when two merging firms have differing compensation structures, leaders must engage both sides in the decision-making process to ensure fairness and transparency.
Employee Values and Ethical Integration Employee values significantly shape an organization’s ethical climate. During mergers, clashes may arise when corporate cultures and values do not align. Corporate leaders must prioritize understanding and integrating these values into the merged organization’s culture. This can be achieved through qualitative methods such as employee surveys, focus groups, and culture audits.
Employees should be involved in decision-making processes to the greatest extent possible. This participatory leadership approach helps ensure that employees feel valued and respected, which in turn fosters a smoother transition. Ethical leaders should also show empathy and compassion when making difficult decisions such as layoffs or restructuring. Transparent communication and offering support services can mitigate negative impacts and demonstrate a commitment to ethical leadership.
Corporate Ethics as a Framework for Decisions Corporate ethics serve as a foundational guide for decision-making. These ethical principles are often formalized in codes of conduct and mission statements. During a merger, it is critical for leaders to revisit these codes and ensure that all decisions align with the core values of both organizations.
Ethical leadership involves more than adhering to rules; it requires embodying principles such as honesty, fairness, and accountability. For example, avoiding insider trading, maintaining confidentiality, and practicing transparency in financial dealings are all essential behaviors that reflect ethical leadership. Mergers also offer an opportunity to reassess and combine the best ethical practices from each organization to create a unified and stronger ethical culture.
To support this integration, leaders should provide training sessions, ethical workshops, and regular discussions that reinforce ethical behavior. Such efforts create a shared ethical vision that guides the organization through the complexities of the merger.
Ethical Decision-Making Models and Strategies Corporate leaders can enhance their decision-making by applying structured ethical frameworks. One such model is the PLUS ethical decision-making model, which considers:
Policies: Does the decision align with internal policies?
Legal: Is the decision legally compliant?
Universal: Is it consistent with universal values?
Self: Is it in line with personal integrity?
Using such models helps ensure consistency and accountability in decision-making. Additionally, stakeholder analysis is another useful tool that helps leaders evaluate the ethical implications of decisions on various parties including employees, customers, investors, and the community.
Another effective strategy is implementing ethical leadership theories such as transformational leadership, which emphasizes vision, inspiration, and consideration for others. Transformational leaders guide employees through change by fostering trust and commitment to shared values.
Conclusion Corporate mergers challenge leaders to make decisions that are not only strategically sound but also ethically responsible. Through conflict management, the integration of employee values, and a commitment to corporate ethics, leaders can ensure that their organizations emerge from mergers stronger and more united. By employing ethical decision-making models and inclusive leadership practices, corporate leaders can maintain integrity, build trust, and lay a sustainable foundation for future success.
References [Insert your APA-formatted references here based on the sources you use]
Above is the writings of Chat-GPT, a language learning model of artificial intelligence. I decided to approach this final essay of LEAD 3020, ethical leadership, by looking into something people fail to consider rather often, that being the effects of mergers to all the employees.
Before I began, I would make an account with Chat-GPT. I never used AI for any assignments before this class, I try very hard to be an honest student. I would mess around and eventually settled on this this for the prompt, as written below:
“Write a 4 page paper (APA) on looking into how corporate leaders can make sure their decisions during a merger are ethical. The project should explore the different theories and processes to make a good and ethical decision. Some of the theories I want to look at include: - Conflict management - Employee values. - Corporate ethics”
That prompt, along with the above 4 pages of text, are verbatim to what was written for and by Chat GPT. The writings of a computer showcased just how advanced a computer has become, far exceeding the beige boxes that ran Windows 98 that my father used to complete his degree in 2002. In fact, he built his computer himself in the summer of 2000, and at the time, a 100 gigabyte hard drive was in the several hundred dollar range, and was seen as unnecessary outside of commercial applications. Now, cell phones are capable of having one terabyte of internal storage, computers can seemingly think, and I witnessed it write the first several pages of the essay in mere moments.
Looking into the ethics of corporate mergers, we have to look into what are the biggest issues for the mergers. Chat GPT first discusses how to manage conflicts during a merger. It goes on to say, “Conflict is inevitable during mergers due to differences in organizational cultures, policies, and work practices.” The AI has a good point here, and during my research I would find an article that also backs up the ideas of the ethical conflict management held by the AI. The article Mergers: What Ethical Leaders Can Do To Help Ensure Success, it discusses on page 10 about the problem conflicts bring in mergers. It discusses how “Conflict frequently arises during mergers and acquisitions, and how leaders deal with conflict impacts the success of the merger. Conflict often leads to trauma which negatively impacts mergers.” Noura Hurstel would also go on to write about conflicts in her LinkedIn post from August of 2023, stating, “The convergence of different entities can give rise to conflicts of interest. Leaders must identify potential conflicts and take measures to manage them. Avoiding undue influence and ensuring decisions are made in the best interest of stakeholders are ethical imperatives.” These sources I found seem to go on and hold up the idea that conflicts will occur, and measures need to be taken to smooth out the rough spots.
Employee values are absolutely important for a business to be a well-oiled machine, and mergers bring in different ideas and values from both sides, which can lead to conflicts as discussed above. Looking into the values held by said employees, we need to remember that all their feelings need to be considered. An article written by Ethics.org, The PLUS Ethical Decision Making Model, discusses the risks held by failing to remember the values, going on to say, “When decisions are classified as being “business” decisions (rather than “ethics” issues), values can quickly be left out of consideration and ethical lapses can occur.” The article also explains the PLUS method to make sure lapses of judgement can be avoided. PLUS stands for Policies, Legal, Universal, and Self. The article “Leveraging brand-specific transformational leadership as corporate brand identity for M&A performance in an emerging market” discusses how keeping the values help keep the brand identity alive, stating, “Brand-specific TFL involves leaders who not only inspire and provide vision but also align their leadership style with the brand's core values and identity. This unique leadership approach is hypothesized to significantly influence the integration process and overall success of M&As, particularly in B2B settings.” Overall, the AI seems to line up with my research about the employee values needed to be held up during large, or small, mergers, and how we both found the PLUS method for values, it seems to have a strong point”
The AI would discuss corporate ethics, writing, “Corporate Ethics as a Framework for Decisions Corporate ethics serve as a foundational guide for decision-making. These ethical principles are often formalized in codes of conduct and mission statements. During a merger, it is critical for leaders to revisit these codes and ensure that all decisions align with the core values of both organizations.” This part was strangely the only part I could not find any good sources for, and it made it challenging to analyze what it said. I really meant it when I looked for some sources to back these ideas up.
Overall the AI seems to have strong ideas regarding corporate mergers, and the ethics and conflicts behind them. Watching a computer come up with such strong, and good points in mere minutes when it would have taken me hours, if not days, to rival its computational output, humbled me in a way I have never felt before.
References
Ethics & Compliance Initiative. (n.d.). PLUS ethical decision-making model. Ethics.org. https://www.ethics.org/resources/free-toolkit/decision-making-model
Hurstel, N. (2023, May 22). Navigating ethical considerations in mergers: A guide for leaders. LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/navigating-ethical-considerations-mergers-guide-noura-hurstel
Sung, C. H., & Kim, H. J. (2024). Leveraging brand-specific transformational leadership as corporate strategy in mergers and acquisitions. Industrial Marketing Management, 115, 61–72. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0019850124000713
Velasquez, R. (2021). Mergers: What ethical leaders can do to help ensure success. Southern Institute for Leadership and Ethics in Commerce Journal, 1(1), 1–10. https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=silecjournal
Weber, Y., & Tarba, S. Y. (2007). The role of business ethics in merger and acquisition success: Why it matters and how to achieve it. Journal of Business Ethics, 73(2), 123–138. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-006-9070-0