...What is ethics? Ethics is “the rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of human actions or a particular group, culture” (Dictionary.com). Ethical principles are embedded contracts that represent who we are and what we stand for, “Ethics must be lived not just talked about” (Karla Robertson p.26). The reason ethics are a major concern in organizations is because, one’s character and ethical behavior within an organization affects attendance, safety, loyalty, security, quality, profitability, and productivity. Organization leaders should practice good ethical behavior so their employees can have blueprint on how they should behave. Leaders must also make sure the employees are well aware that ethical values are highly valued. If leaders learn of an employee’s misbehavior, and choice to do nothing about it, that shows other employees that the organization doesn’t value their code of ethics policy; which isn’t good because this will make some employees fell that if they do the same they wouldn’t have any repercussions. So it’s very important that the leaders act the way they expect their employees to act in order to influence their behavior as far as ethics are concerned, “The behavior and ethical attitude of an employee’s boss is seen as the most important factor determining whether the employee will behave unethically on the job” (Liebig, J.E. 1990). By implementing an ethical policy organizations will prevent harm to others, fulfill public expectations and...
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...What is ethics and how should we approach it? Ethics is defined as moral principles that govern a person’s behaviour or the conducting of an activity. This definition on its own does not tell us much about what ethics really is. If you try asking people what they think ethics is, you would also get many different answers. Just as in our ethics classes where different scenarios were put forward and we were required to evaluate the situation and take a stand based on what we believed, there were always opposing views. More interesting though, was the fact that even among the people in the same camp, the reasons that they based their decision on differed greatly. The common approach The three most common perceptions relate ethics to feelings and beliefs, following the law and what society accepts. Feelings and beliefs Our feelings and personal beliefs are probably the first things we consider when we come across a situation requiring us to make a choice. However, ethics is not the same as feelings and beliefs – that is, being ethical is not as clear cut as simply following one’s own feelings and beliefs. This is primarily due to the fact that feelings and beliefs are likely to be influenced by the environment we live in – our parents, our friends and our cultures, amongst others. Take for example a neglected child whose parents are criminals and are constantly committing crimes and going in and out of jail. It is possible that the child may grow up thinking that committing crimes...
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...Abstract The articles, “What is business ethics?” by Peter Drucker and “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits” by Milton Friedman are about Business ethics and social responsibility to society at large. While both authors agree that we should have ethics in the business world, they argue that society holds corporations and ordinary individuals to different set of standards. Keywords: Social Responsibilities and Business Ethics In order to exam the assigned articles, it was important to understand the true definition of what is meant by social responsibility and business ethics to better understand whether Drucker and Friedman fully exploited ethics as we understand it in the business world today. Equally important was to examine the backgrounds of Milton Friedman and Peter Drucker. According to Wikipedia, Social responsibility is defined as an ethical ideology or theory that an entity, be it an organization or individual, has an obligation to act to benefit the society at large. According to Wikipedia, Business ethics (also known as corporate ethics) is defined as a form of applied ethics or professional ethics that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that arise in a business environment. It applies to all aspect of business conduct and is relevant to the conduct of individual and business organizations as a whole. Based on Woopidoo “Milton Friedman (born July 31, 1912), won The Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences...
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...What Is Business Ethics? Our textbook states that business ethics comprises the principles, values, and standards that guide behavior in the world of business. Being ethical in business is nothing new and has been around a long time. Business ethics are both good and bad. Unfortunately we hear more about the unethical business behavior than we do about the good behavior of the business world. Unethical business practices have been around since slavery and continue today in the corporate world with firms such as Enron and Lehman Brothers. As a baby boomer and a part of the work force since 1967, I have seen a lot of changes in the corporate world of business ethics. After reading our text, it seems to me that teaching business ethics to the corporate world is the same as what most of our parents taught us growing up, “do the right thing”. They taught us the difference between right and wrong and the golden rule to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Ethical issues have been around since the beginning of time and the majority of those issues were social and moral issues. As the times and cultures changed so did the social and moral issues but they are still either right or wrong and given different names. Gone are the days when a business deal was decided by a handshake and a promise. In today’s society a handshake is only a formality to introduce two people who may make a decision to choose unethical practices to be sure that the bottom line is met in a business...
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...What is Business Ethics Troy Jaskolka MGT/216 July 26, 2010 William Carroll What is Business Ethics In today’s business culture, ethics is a trait highly publicized by not only the media but also by business professionals. According to “BNET Business Dictionary” business ethics is a system of moral principles applied in the commercial world. Business ethics provide guidelines for acceptable behavior by organizations in both their strategy formulation and day-to-day operations. Business ethics is also known as morality in business. This definition constitutes a trait that should be acceptable business acumen. Today, business ethics are portrayed as skewed and self serving. Because of such scandals as Bernie Madoff, Enron and the Arthur Anderson scandal, millions of people have come to the conclusion that businesses have pushed aside these ethics and welcomed the bottom line as their only source of morality. With such scandals taking over print media, television and radio, it is hard for one not to develop mistrust. Consumer confidence issues are a category of business ethics that affect not only the community but also the well being of the company. In order for a company to sustain in both the community and business world, sales must incrementally adjust to the growth of the company. A drop in sales because of mistrust issues can result in declining stock performance, layoffs, and eventually company closings. Consumer confidence also...
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...What is Ethics? Ethics is about values, consistently making decisions to be the best person you can be. Eudemonia is a type of happiness, one that only comes from an active well-being by living virtuously. The career of a CAs(SA) involves a great amount of acquired skills, but also the capacity for others to instill their trust. Trust is a value only placed in people of strong moral principle and integrity. The motto of SAICA is “Integritas” meaning ‘totality’,’ integrity’ and for accountants and auditors integrity is without a doubt a non-negotiable ethical value. It is possible for ethics and values to be non-negotiable. The IFRS has been adopted in over 100 countries, although the same cannot be said for ethics. Even though different countries and businesses around the world are creating and adopting their own ‘Code of Conduct for Ethical Behaviour’, there is no organisation to enforce a Globe Code with international ethical standards to guard public and corporate interest. Without a set of ethical codes, a company cannot presume that other organizations around the world act under the same array of ethical standards and codes as they do, and it could ultimately lead to the diminished merit of financial statements that are prepared using the IFRS. Often people are inclined to go down a road that challenges their ethical values because it appears to be less confrontational, easier than the alternative and more beneficial. People fail to think for the long term, past...
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...What is business ethics Name MGT/216 Professor Name University of Phoenix August 21, 2010 What is business ethics? Business ethics often measured good standards, by his or her business conduct and professionalism. It is imperative that leaders and management of businesses uphold the business to its highest degree of ethics, also in his or her personal lives. The motive for this is essential, business can influence social and to consumers confidence. If a business is constantly showing unprofessional ethical behaviors, the business communities will consider them not trustworthy. To build business cliental it is vital to maintain a high sense of business ethics. According to the UFCW, 2010 working’s union said the public think the merchandise Wal-Mart sales are made right here in the United States, most of Wal-Mart department store private label clothing were manufactured in countries worldwide (UFCW, 2010). Wal-Mart is one of the major importers of overseas merchandise according the to UFCWs website. This is an ethical decision because the sweatshops pay is little to nothing, when being compared to the United States. Wal-Mart is as slave masters, put workers in a small room, put material before them, and tell them to work, these overseas countries work at a poverty wage, this is measured as an ethical decision since these sweat shops usually pay workers at very low hourly rate compared to American workers. When businesses outsource their...
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...hire based on the hiring manager’s gut feeling about applicants. Examining this practice using teleological thinking can verify what the purpose of hiring and employment is. Then, by deriving authentic norms for the methods of hiring for fit, it can be determined if the practice, in any form, is ethical. In its original form, hiring for fit aimed to hire employees who blended into the organization well. Managers wanted employees who would mesh with the...
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...https:/www.scu.edu/ethics/ethics-resources/ethical-decision-making/what-is-ethics/ Sociologist Raymond Baumhart asked once business people "what does ethics mean to you?". People replayed different, for example, hat is the feeling that tells them what is good and what is wrong, some individuals relayed ethics to the their religions and some linking ethics with the law. It is hard to answer on this term with one words or one sentence. Ethics should not be linking with the religion. Of course most recognized religion has high ethical standards, but not everyone on the planet is a religion person. Also the good religious people while back burn women on the stake. So religious does not mean good- at least not always. And of course, we have...
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...“What is "business ethics"?” Peter F. Drucker Drucker’s work takes a look at what is business ethics and what is not business ethics as it pertains to some of the major approaches taken by philosophers throughout time. No matter what the place in time the code of ethics as it pertains to Western tradition is based solely on one principle. That principle is “There is only one code of ethics, that of individual behavior, for prince and pauper, for rich and poor, for the mighty and the meek alike.” Drucker P. F. (1981). Given this principle what is business ethics or even ethics at all with given the implications that behavior which is neither immoral nor illegal for an individual would be immoral or illegal if committed by business? There seems to be a lack of compatibility with what ethics is supposed to be and business ethics. For example a person handing his money over to a mugger threatening physical harm isn’t considered unethical although the mugger is a criminal but in the business world paying off union racketeers to prevent disruption is considered to be unethical practice. The confusion around ethics in general and business ethics continues when we start looking at other business systems outside of the United States. Take for example the Japanese and German who consider the appointing of a counselor who was previously a distinguished civil servant based on the recommendation of his colleagues is essential to the public interest. However, if this practice were to...
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...Chapter 1 – What Would You Do? Business Ethics (section 01) 1. What are the ethical issues? There are several ethical issues involved in this scenario. The first is the confidential information that Ralph had a test to determine if he carried the gene for alcoholism. This report is marked confidential and should not be shared with others, whether it is inside the company and definitely should not be shared outside the company. The second ethical issue is pursuing Ralph to take a blood test to test for this genetic issue. Since company policy states that an employee would be ineligible for coverage of a medical condition if diagnosed prior to employment, Jane shouldn’t worry about it. Ralph was not diagnosed prior to employment with COBA. The next ethical issue is Ralph’s acknowledgement of having the test and the results. When he spoke to Jane, he stated, “just between you and me.” In order for Jane to be ethical, she should not repeat what Ralph told her in confidence since he acknowledges the problem and is trying to fix it. When Jane spoke to Chuck, she let him know that she was worried about Ralph’s quota for the next quarter. I think she already expressed concern and it would be best to sit back and see what Ralph’s performance is for the upcoming quarter before addressing the situation. Jane should address the situation with Ralph first and if unable to come to a resolution, she should pursue it further with Chuck. Jane has to be ethical to the COBA...
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...This article review is about an article entitled “What can Psychology Tell us About Business Ethics?” by David Messick (2009). This article was published in the Journal of business ethics. The article explores the relationship between business ethics and psychology through examining the concepts of discrimination and conflict of interest and how they influence ethics in business settings. The article affirms that as much as numerous studies have explored these two concepts from a psychological perspective; there is very limited information on how they influence decision making in business settings. The researcher explores various circumstances related to the two concepts while highlighting scholarly positions to position his arguments. The article is concluded by asserting that analysis of business ethics from a psychological perspective can enhance the ability of promoting high ethical standards business decision-making The position taken by the author is well founded as it is generated through amalgamation of relevant scholarly sources in the positioning of the relationship between business ethics and psychology (Fassin et al., 2011; Shakeel et al., 2011). The author also highlights individual circumstances where his individual unconscious thoughts may have influenced his decision-making. This not only enhances the authenticity of the work, but also its effectiveness to address the research issue. For this reason, it is a good read both in writing and content. Based on...
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...Aldo Leopold, in “The Land Ethic”, elucidates the title of this chapter by stating: “A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.”1 This implies that no matter what instrumental value a biotic community may have to human beings, it is also of paramount importance to preserve biotic communities based on our “obligations to land”2. This concept of a prima facie responsibility to protect our environment and the communities within it is known as the preservationist intuition3. We certainly attribute this value to our fellow man, putting laws in place to prevent harm and maltreatment in our communities, and breaking these laws would indeed render the culprit to be considered morally wrong. We attribute value (be it intrinsic or instrumental) to sentient animals, even plant-life. But what of ecosystems? Can we consider ecosystems to be morally considerable, and therefore attribute any value to them? It is a question that has many variables, and in this essay I will be evaluating various arguments for and against the premise that ecosystems command any value with regards to an environmental ethic. First we must consider what it means for something to be morally considerable. It would appear that this definition would depend on what moral determinant we deem appropriate in pursuing an environmental ethic. Many philosophers, including K.E.Goodpaster adopt Joel Feinberg’s view that a thing...
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...Aristotelian Virtue ethics is the most developed of the classical philosophy. Virtue Ethics is concerned with the development of ‘virtues’ within a moral agent. Aristotle argues that a ‘virtue’ is an ethical quality that lies between excess and deficiency. His book ‘Nicomachean Ethics’ features a table of personality traits in which there is ‘excess’ and ‘deficiency’ and the doctrine of the mean, which outlines the optimum development of an ethical quality, but it is relative to the people involved, it is described in the book as ‘that which is neither excessive nor deficient, and this is not one and the same for all’. One example he uses in the table of virtues is ‘Shame’, in which shamelessness is excessive and shyness is deficient while modesty lies between them and is the doctrine of the mean. In modern times, Scholars have criticised Aristotle’s Virtue ethics for being too relative, vague and self-centred. Many Modern Ethicists have written their own theories of virtue ethics to try and address some of the issues. Aristotle’s teachings of virtue have been criticised by J.L Mackie, Louden and Sidgewick for being too vague for actual application. Sidgewick said that it ‘only indicates the whereabouts of a virtue’. Benjamin Franklin’s Virtue Ethics attempts to address the vagueness of Aristotle’s teachings. Franklin was a utilitarian who believed that all actions should bring about the ‘greatest good for the greatest number’- he believed that in order for this to work...
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...1) Why do you think Starbucks has been so concerned with social responsibility in its overall corporate strategy? Starbuck is a known corporation local and international for their freshly brewed coffee and other products that are offered. Social responsibility helps the company image, to care about the community and the environment, these are positive stand points that define the company self portrait. It's important how you look on the outside, in the end it's all about sales. As mention in the text “people first and profit last” once a corporation can fulfill its duties that benefit the consumer and the parties involve then there is no need to worry about the business profit. 2) Is Starbucks unique in being able to provide a high level of benefits to its employees? The text mention “it is better for a company to take some short-term loses than to lose sight of its core values in the long term “yes Starbucks is unique because not many restaurant offer the kind of benefits as Starbuck. The employees are important to the business and it helps to retain them. Offering health insurance, paid time off, and other perks are ways to keep employees happy which lead to great work effort and a successful business. It also helps to lower the business employment turnover rate and save the corporation money because they do not spend much money and recruiting new employees and to train them. 3) Do you think that Starbucks has grown rapidly because of its ethical and socially responsible...
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