...ETHICS Introduction The behaviour of the practicing management accountant is prescribed and regulated by the management accountant's personal code of ethics, the code of ethics of the employer, societal norms, and the law. In addition members of the Society are regulated by the Society's code of ethics. As more organizations adopt codes of ethics, management accountants will increasingly be asked to design systems to control, evaluate, interpret or apply ethical judgement. The following develops the basis for forming ethical judgements. The management accountant fulfils four broad roles concerning ethics: 1. to ensure that management has developed and installed a comprehensive and internally controlled code of ethics. 2. to verify that the code of ethics and its controls are comprehensive and that everyone in the organization understands and complies with it. 3. to report to management any deviation from the code of ethics and its control systems. The Board of Directors may ultimately have to address any failures in the code or its controls. 4. to act in accordance with the code of ethics in making personal decisions. What are Ethics and Morals? Ethics are the rules people use to define and regulate moral behaviour. Morals distinguish right from wrong. Descriptive ethics are codes of ethics as actually practiced. Descriptive ethics provide no value judgements. Normative ethics, or moral reasoning, develops statements about whether a practiced ethical system is good or bad...
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...Reflection on Ethics Luis Heredia STR/581 May 20, 2015 Robert Cantu Role of Ethics In the business organizations ethics represent the base core management beliefs and credo. When implementing a code of ethics, organizations need to ensure that they are working towards the objective of protecting interest of shareholders and employees. At the present time, ethics has become a priority for the organization. It is important for organizations to ensure that it makes this particular thing as priority for its activities. After various kinds of scandals occurring within the organizations in Wall-Street, role of ethics is definitely important for the organizations over a period of time in the future. Ethics in organization is crucial regarding certain kinds of areas. First area for role of ethics within the organization is the area regarding benefit of shareholders of the organization. Second are for role of ethics in organization is regarding organizational employees. Regarding the shareholders, organization should make sure that it is working for the purpose of ensuring that it provides transparent information to the shareholders. Financial reporting of the organization should be accurate. In this area, ethics is important as it will help organization to a larger level for ensuring that, shareholders are motivated to invest more in the organization. Ethics will avoid any instance of fraudulent activity within the organization. Such activities will result in the area that...
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...Cancer Society Ethics Codes Heather HCS435 – Ethics: Health Care and Social Responsibility April 5, 2010 Professor: Beryl Keegan The American Cancer Society Ethics Codes Every organization, whether it have employees or is based on volunteer work has a code of ethics that it requires its personnel to follow. The American Cancer Society is no different. The code of ethics clearly defines the goals and ethical principles of the organization, as well as how to protect an individual when reporting a co-worker who is performing in an unethical manner, also called the whistleblower protection policy. An outsider’s opinion on enhancing this code as well as ideas on how to make it better is also looked at, so that the code is always clear and maintains understandability. The definition of goals for the organization, within the code of ethics, is very important, as it lays out the groundwork for each society. The American Cancer Society code of ethics sets their goals early on in the code and states that their goal is to “provide evidence of the Society’s commitment to the lawful and ethical conduct of its business and to promote lawful and ethical behavior by its associates” (American Cancer Society, 2008). This particular code is asking each of its members to act honestly and fairly and to exercise the best judgment, care, and skill for the sole benefit of the society (ACS, 2008). In the long run, all this code is asking for is that each member of the organization needs...
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...BUSINESS ETHICS 'COLLECTIVE ACTION PROBLEMS' IN PARTICULAR HOW MUCH RESPONSIBILITY DOES AN INDIVIDUAL MANAGER HAVE FOR THE ETHICAL CULTURE OF HIS/HER ORGANISATION? Ram Visvanathan Business Ethics May 28, 2014 Introduction. Ethics is very important for the prosperity of any organization. Every employee or stakeholder of an organization has got an important role to play in nurturing an ethical culture in an organization. This research paper discusses the level of responsibility that an individual manager has in the ethical culture of his or her organization. This is done with close attention to academic journals and research. The paper will derive its arguments from veteran theories like the Utilitarian and the Kantian theories. The paper will also relate its discussions with the case study about Enron a USA company that collapsed as a result of unethical behavior in the management. Some of the components that will be highlighted in the paper include; the importance of an ethical culture in an organization, the dangers of lack of ethics in an organization and the strategies that can be used to promote ethics in an organization. Justification of the research. The study of the role of individual managers in the ethical culture of an organization is a justified venture. This is because of the increased calls for ethical behaviors in organizations. The expectations of the staff and the society at large on ethical behaviors have increased tremendously...
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...ETHICAL PRINCIPLES IN BUSINESS 3.1 Ethics Ethics has been defined as concerned with the development of moral standards by which actions, situations and behaviour can be judged. (Boyd et al) Oelgeschlager. et al gave the simplest definition of ethics as standards conduct. Ethics is the discipline that examines one’s moral standards or the moral standards of a society. It asks how these standards apply to our lives and whether these standards are reasonable or unreasonable, that is, whether they are supported by good reasons or poor ones. Therefore, a person starts to do ethics when he or she takes the moral standards absorbed from the family, church and friends and asks: “What do these standards imply for the situations in which I find myself? Do these standards really make sense? What are the reasons for or against these standards? Why should I continue to believe in them? What can be said in their favour and what can be said against them? Are they really reasonable for me to hold? Are their implications in this or that particular situation reasonable?” Ethics is the study of moral standards, the process of examining the moral standards of a person or society to determine whether these standards are reasonable or unreasonable in order to apply them to concrete situations and issues. The ultimate aim of ethics is to develop a body of moral standards that we feel are reasonable to hold standards that we have thought about carefully and have decided are justified standards for us...
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...Ethics and Social Responsibility in Strategic Planning MGT498 Dr. Matt Keogh Ethics and Social Responsibility in Strategic Planning Ethics and social responsibility are concepts used in business all the time when someone is trying to explain that business is not all the time about making a profit. Shareholders in business are a group of people that are directly affected by decisions that organizations make Wheelen and Hunger ask the question, should strategic decision makers be responsible only to shareholder, or do they have broader responsibilities? Sometimes as an organization they must decide if the decisions they make will impact the environment or society at large. Some organizations have rules and policies set up so that they are not violating these ethical and social responsibilities they have over society, such as how to properly waste toxic waste. Strategic planning are steps taken by an organization to come up with a strategy or come up with a direction of where the company wants to go in the future. “The concept of social responsibility proposes that a private corporation has responsibilities to society that extend beyond making a profit.” (Wheelen T.L. & Hunger J. D., 2010) When corporation come up with a strategic plan they have to think of aspects that are outside of their organization. They have to think of society and the environment as to try and not harm it but make them better. These strategic plans need to make sure that they are not endangering...
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...IMPORTANCE OF ETHICS Most of us would agree that it is ethics in practice that makes sense; just having it carefully drafted and redrafted in books may not serve the purpose. Of course all of us want businesses to be fair, clean and beneficial to the society. For that to happen, organizations need to abide by ethics or rule of law, engage themselves in fair practices and competition; all of which will benefit the consumer, the society and organization. Primarily it is the individual, the consumer, the employee or the human social unit of the society who benefits from ethics. In addition ethics is important because of the following: Satisfying Basic Human Needs: Being fair, honest and ethical is one the basic human needs. Every employee desires to be such himself and to work for an organization that is fair and ethical in its practices. Creating Credibility: An organization that is believed to be driven by moral values is respected in the society even by those who may have no information about the working and the businesses or an organization. Infosys, for example is perceived as an organization for good corporate governance and social responsibility initiatives. This perception is held far and wide even by those who do not even know what business the organization is into. Uniting People and Leadership: An organization driven by values is revered by its employees also. They are the common thread that brings the employees and the decision makers on a common platform....
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...Professional Ethics Introduction Importance of Ethics in Public Administration The study of the foundations of ethical administration is an important topic to explore when working in a public organization, especially when pursuing a future role as a public administrator. Ethics in public administration is not a transient concept but has proven to be an approach which has shown a great deal of sustainability which is fundamental to the area of public administration. Ethics is gaining prominence in the discourse about governance today. Public organizations and public administrators should strive for high ethical standards and an ethical workplace. “The general goal of identifying ethical precepts is relatively straight forward—to develop standards of “right conduct” that are known and knowable beforehand and apply to more or less everyone—but maddeningly difficult to specify with precision, an even more onerous to practice (Martinez, 2009, p.1).” Organizations need to abide by ethics or rule of law and engage themselves in fair practices and competition; all of which will benefit the public and organization. Ethics is important because of the following: satisfying basic human needs, creating credibility, uniting people and leadership, improving decision making, long term gains, and securing the public. Ethics tries to create a sense of right and wrong in the organizations and often when the law fails, it is the ethics that may stop organizations from harming the society or environment...
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...Developing an Ethical Business Environment: A Report to Executive Management Introduction Ethics and business rules always go together. The fact that business policing is based upon the different measures of complete recognition of social norms and social limitations, ethics is indeed a large part of the ways by which business organizations try to strive to be able to become more effective within their operational engagements with regards their aim of being able to influence the society as well. It is indeed certain that the rules and regulation that a business puts up should be able to meet certain standards of social compromises. Any business organization could not afford to be questioned simply because of the fact that the business procedures that they are adapting to are not meeting the set standards for business organizations. (Kuhn, 2005, 12) To be able to have a clearer view of the matter being reported herein, it is first most importantly to be given attention to as to how management is indeed in relation with the actual application of ethical standards within the society. To be able to do this, there are three major points to consider. The said points are as follows: • The effect of organizational culture on ethical operation • The roles and responsibilities of executive management in fostering an ethical operating environment • The impact of ethical standards as they are used in business operations Through the consideration given to these particular...
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...Ethics Ethics Society has been unfortunate enough to see what will occur when organizations and individuals who run them, do not include ethics and social responsibilities in their decision- making process. Because of detrimental events such as Arthur Anderson and Enron, organizations have had to change their manner of thinking and actions during strategic decision- making and planning processes. Organizations must take into account the impact the decision will have on every stakeholder and the environment. Organizations must also create and uphold a high level of ethical standards and beliefs, thus ensuring the view of the organization in the eyes of society remains positive. As explained by Wheelen and Hunger (2010, p. 73), the “ethical responsibility” of an organization is to “follow generally excepted beliefs and behaviors,” as dictated by society. The hierarchy of an organizations job is defining, practicing, and enforcing the ethical standards set for internal stakeholders and in some instances the external stakeholders. To help ensure the organization includes ethics in the decision-making process, questions must be asked. For instance, the organization must ask; will the decision made reap optimum benefit for stakeholders, are the stakeholders inherent rights compromised and is the decision within the guidelines of federal, state, and local laws (Wheelen, & Hunger, 2010, p. 85). When organizations define, practice, and enforce the ethical standards, the...
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...The Role of Ethics and Social Responsibility when developing a strategic plan - consider stakeholder needs Ethics paper: write 700 - 900 word paper in which you do the following: explain the role of ethics and social responsibility in developing a strategic plan while considering stakeholder needs and agendas. *include at least one example of a company overstepping ethical boundaries for stakeholder agendas, and what types of preventative measures could be taken to avoid this type of situation. Solution Loss of employment and retirement funds, double bonuses, tax evasion, and the dark side of office politics are some of the challenges affecting organizations like a virus causing professionalism and efficiency to be questioned. Walker and Lanis (2009) found that an organization influences and is influenced by the society within which it operates (Cengage, 2009); therefore, an organization needs to take into consideration issues such as product safety, regulations, legal, ethical and economic responsibilities to the society within which it functions. One of the methods which could be used to do so is to integrate ethical and socially responsible techniques in an organization’s strategic plan whilst taking into consideration the needs and agendas of stakeholders. This concept is supported by Drozdenko, and Jin (2010) who suggested core values and beliefs exhibited at the strategic level influences decision making and outcomes throughout an organization. The objective...
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...VALUES AND ETHICS INTRODUCTION Values and ethics are central to any organization; those operating in the national security arena are no exception. What exactly do we mean by values and ethics? Both are extremely broad terms, and we need to focus in on the aspects most relevant for strategic leaders and decision makers. What we will first discuss is the distinctive nature of ethics for public officials; second, the forces which influence the ethical behavior of individuals in organizations; and third, explore the actions strategic leaders can take to build ethical climates in their organizations. THE CHARACTER OF VALUES AND ETHICS Values can be defined as those things that are important to or valued by someone. That someone can be an individual or, collectively, an organization. One place where values are important is in relation to vision. One of the imperatives for organizational vision is that it must be based on and consistent with the organization's core values. In one example of a vision statement we'll look at later, the organization's core values - in this case, integrity, professionalism, caring, teamwork, and stewardship- were deemed important enough to be included with the statement of the organization's vision. Dr. John Johns, in an article entitled "The Ethical Dimensions of National Security," mentions honesty and loyalty as values that are the ingredients of integrity. When values are shared by all members of an organization, they are extraordinarily...
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...Introduction The history of business ethics is as old as the religious books like the Bible and the holy Quran. These religious books have talked about truthfulness, transparency and honesty among people. The prohibition of theft, self-interest at the cost of others, and malice in these religious sources have a direct application the world of business. The history of business ethics has evolved during the long course of time and is still in this phase of development. The application of business ethics varies in different context. There have been radical changes in the world of business which has evolved the business ethics to its current form. And with continuously changing business world we can presume that in the future business ethics will undergo more changes. It will evolve continuously. The business ethics has an immense scope touching every human living in the society. The affects the daily decision making in the society, irrespective of whether it is a big decision affecting large masses or small decision affecting just one person. Business ethics can be looked at by different perspectives. One perspective is that of organization point of view which concerns about the things that an organization should do. While the other perspective is the things that must really be done irrespective of an organization. The latter one gauges the different aspects of an organization. The literary evidence for the history and development of modern era business ethics can be traced back to 1930s...
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...paper, I will discuss how social responsibility and ethics interacts with the business world. I will discuss different styles to management ethics, the benefits companies will find from acting ethical and socially responsibly and some examples of unethical behavior in the workplace. I will also look at social responsibly and its benefits, as well as give my opinion on both topics. Businesses have always been known to shoot for maximum profits in order to please both those inside and outside their company. However, the concept of business ethics and social responsibility has put principled boundaries on organizations so that they cannot achieve their profit goals in any way they please. In order for a company to function within today’s global business society, they must be able to take a strong stance ethically on how they are going to sell their products and conduct their everyday work activities. Alongside being ethical, companies must also take on social responsibility; showing their community that they are involved, alert and willing to be philanthropists even in tough times. Corporate ethics and social responsible, if overlooked, can be detrimental to an organizations outward appearance and customer base. It is not only the right thing to do, but it has always been seen as good business. Both business ethics and social responsibly, although different, play fundamental roles in an organization’s successes. Ethics can be defined as the study of standards of behavior...
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...like—Globalization, technology, assets, framework, recruiting and retaining the talent. These factors have brought so many changes and challenges to the company policies regards to their management practices, relationships in different domestic, international, multinational and global contents. So to establish an ethical infrastructure and integrate ethics in organization working we need to study the ethics in new economy keeping the consideration of those mentioned dimensions. ETHICAL DIMENSIONS Globalization The growing integration of economies and societies around the world has been one of the most hotly debated topics in international economies over the past few years. Many forces are driving globalization—Communication, improved infrastructure, technology, regulation, free trade and free movement of people. Rapid growth and poverty reduction in India, China and other countries that were poor 20 years ago, has been positive aspect of globalization. On the other hand, globalization has also generated significant international opposition over concerns that it has increased inequality and environmental degradation. Ethics, morality and globalization are connected with each other the ethical dimension of globalization is beginning to be debated world widely. The renowned utilitarian philosopher Peter Singer puts the questions attached to globalization in this way—“To what extent should leaders see their role narrowly, in terms of promoting the interests of their...
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