Final answer:
The missing element influencing ethical decisions in an organization is D) Industry standards. These standards guide ethical behavior in business, reflecting the collective morality within an industry and aligning with broader ethical considerations.
Step-by-step explanation:
The missing element in the statement "ethical decisions in an organization are influenced by (1) individual moral standards, (2) the influence of managers and co-workers, and (3) ______" is D) Industry standards. This is because ethical decisions in a business context are often governed by a set of formal and informal standards that are widely recognized within a particular industry. These industry standards form part of the broader governance frameworks and can greatly influence the ethical behaviors and decisions within an organization.
Corporate responsibility often encompasses adherence to industry standards, which are sometimes codified in professional codes of ethics like those offered by IEEE-CS for software engineers. These standards help in guiding professionals to make decisions that are ethically sound and aligned with the expectations of their industry, alongside legal regulations, and societal moral norms.
Industry standards help form a consensus on ethical practices and serve as a guide to what is generally considered acceptable and unacceptable behavior. These standards may also reflect the collective moral reasoning based on traditional, legal, and care ethics considerations that impact both the internal stakeholders, such as employees and managers, and the external stakeholders, including customers and the community at large.