Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1
Introduction
Business Ethics
• Public’s interest in business ethics
increased during the last four decades
• Public’s interest in business ethics spurred
by the media
2
Introduction
• Employee-Employer Relations
• Employer-Employee Relations
• Company-Customer Relations
• Company-Shareholder Relations
• Company-Community/Public Interest
3
Public’s Opinion of Business Ethics
• To understand public sentiment towards
business ethics, ask three questions
– Has business ethics really deteriorated?
– Are the media reporting ethical problems
more frequently and vigorously?
– Are practices that once were socially
acceptable no longer socially acceptable?
4
Business Ethics: What Does It Really
Mean?
Business Ethics:Today vs. Earlier Period
Society’s
Expectations
Expected and Actual Levels
of Business
of Business Ethics
Ethics
Ethical
Problem
Actual
Ethical Problem Business
Ethics
5
Business Ethics: What Does It
Really Mean?
Definitions
• Ethics involves a discipline that examines
good or bad practices within the context of
a moral duty
• Moral conduct is behavior that is right or
wrong
• Business ethics include practices and
behaviors that are good or bad
6
Meaning of Ethics
Moral
standard
7
Nature of Ethics
Deals with
Concept
Human Conduct
Of
Ethics
Nature of
Ethics
Science of Study of
Ethics Ethics
8
Need of Business Ethics
• Business operates within the society
• Every business irrespective of size exists
more on ethical means or in total regard to
its social concern to survive
• Business needs to function as responsible
corporate citizen in the country.
9
Factors Influencing Business Ethics
Individual
Characteristics
Culture
Nature of
Leadership
Ethics
Strategy and
performance
Environment
10
Objectives of Ethics
Study of human behaviour.
Establishes moral standard/norms of
behaviour.
Makes judgment on human behaviour
based on these norms.
Prescribes moral behaviour
Express an opinion or attitude about
human conduct in general.
11
Scope of Business Ethics
Personal
level
Societal
level
Stakeholder
level Scope of
Business
Ethics
Internal
Policy level
12
Different Ethical Practices of
People
Value
Ethics Moral System of
Standard people
D
I
F
F
E
Their R
background E
N
T
13
Characteristics of an Ethical
Decision
Equitable
Right
Characteristics
Needed for a Good
Just Ethical decision
Right
Proper
14
Business Ethics: What Does It
Really Mean?
Two Key Branches of Ethics
• Descriptive ethics involves describing,
characterizing and studying morality
– “What is”
• Normative ethics involves supplying and
justifying moral systems
– “What should be”
15
Conventional Approach to
Business Ethics
• Conventional approach to business ethics
involves a comparison of a decision or
practice to prevailing societal norms
– Pitfall: ethical relativism
16
Sources of Ethical Norms
Regions of
Fellow Workers Fellow Workers
Country
Family Profession
The Individual
Conscience
Friends Employer
17
Ethics and the Law
• Law often represents an ethical minimum
• Ethics often represents a standard that
exceeds the legal minimum
Frequent Overlap
Ethics Law
18
Making Ethical Judgments
Value judgments
and perceptions of
the observer
19
Ethics, Economics, and Law
6-14
Four Important Ethical
Questions
• What is?
• What ought to be?
• How to we get from what is to what ought
to be?
• What is our motivation for acting ethically?
21
3 Models of Management Ethics
1. Immoral Management—A style devoid of
ethical principles and active opposition to what
is ethical.
2. Moral Management—Conforms to high
standards of ethical behavior.
3. Amoral Management
– Intentional - does not consider ethical factors
– Unintentional - casual or careless about ethical
considerations in business
22
3 Models of Management Ethics
23
Three Approaches to Management
Ethics
6-18
Three Models of Management
Morality and Emphasis on
CSR
6-19
Moral Management Models
and Acceptable Stakeholder
Thinking
6-20
Making Moral Management
Actionable
Important Factors
• Senior management
• Ethics training
• Self-analysis
27
Developing Moral Judgment
6-22
Developing Moral Judgment
6-23
Developing Moral Judgment
31
Elements of Moral Judgment
• Moral imagination
• Moral identification and ordering
• Moral evaluation
• Tolerance of moral disagreement and
ambiguity
• Integration of managerial and moral
competence
• A sense of moral obligation
32
Elements of Moral Judgment