Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Omar Shaikh
Morality
The standards that an individual or a group has about what is right and wrong or good and evil It includes the norms we have about the kind of actions we believe are morally right and wrong
Ethics
Is the discipline that examines ones moral standards or the moral standards of the society. It asks how these standards apply to our lives and whether these standards are reasonable or unreasonable. Ethics: A branch of philosophy that teaches us to distinguish between right and wrong. It is also called Moral Philosophy.
Ethical Dilemma: Any situation in which right or wrong cannot be easily identified Stakeholders: People who will be affected by the behavior/performance of the organization.
Common Unethical Acts in Business Lying to customers Lying to management Stealing Bribery Misuse of corporate resources Discrimination
21-May-2009
Business Ethics
Main Reasons of Unethical Behavior Meeting business goals/targets Meeting deadlines Competitive pressures
21-May-2009
Business Ethics
Business ethics
Application of our understanding of what is good and right to business.
Corporate
Ethical issues raised about a particular organisation about the morality of the activities, policies, practices structure etc.
Individual
Ethical issues raised about a particular individual or individuals within a company and their behaviours and decisions
Source: Based on L. Kohlberg, Moral Stages and Moralization: The CognitiveDevelopment Approach, in T. Lickona (ed.). Moral Development and Behavior: Theory, Research, and Social Issues (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1976), pp. 3435.
Values
Basic belief about what is right or wrong on a broad range of issues
Individual Characteristics
Personality Variables
Ego strength
A personality measure of the strength of a persons convictions
Locus of Control
A personality attribute that measures the degree to which people believe they control their own life. Internal locus: the belief that you control your destiny. External locus: the belief that what happens to you is due to luck or chance.
Other Variables
Structural Variables
Organizational characteristics and mechanisms that guide and influence individual ethics:
Performance appraisal systems Reward allocation systems Behaviors (ethical) of managers
Conditions under which a person is morally responsible for causing wrongful injury
The person knowingly and freely perform an act The person knowingly and freely fail to perform his duties
Conditions under which a person is eliminated from moral responsibility for causing a wrongful injury
Utilitarianism
A general term of any view that holds that actions and policies should be evaluated on the basis of the benefits and costs they will impose on society It is morally good if its immediate and future benefits are greater than the costs
Relativism
1. Nave relativism: it holds that there are no single universal standards that can be used to guide or evaluate the morality of an act What is right for you may be wrong for me 2. Cultural relativism: moral standards vary from culture to culture
In which style do we make decisions usually? Think of a time when you made a decision as an individualist, altruist, pragmatist or idealist.