ethics

• Ethics


  Moral philosophy, the empirical study of moral decisions, concerned with what is morally good and evil, right and wrong
• Ethos


  Greek word meaning tradition, habit, character, or attitude
• Ethics


  • A systematic analysis of the nature of human actions, concerned about the correctness and wrongness of the act based on intent, circumstances, or character
• Branches of ethics


  • Normative ethics
  • Meta-ethics
• Normative ethics


  Concerns human behavior in general, examines whether a particular act should or should not be carried out
• Fields of normative ethics

  • Moral philosophy
  • Applied/practical ethics
• Moral philosophy


  Deals with moral ideas, moral obligation, meaning and purpose of acts
• Applied/practical ethics


  Discusses strong and basic moral issues like abortion
• Meta-ethics


  Seeks to address non-moral questions about morality, the nature of moral statements, purpose and significance of moral facts, interpretation and justification of moral statements
• Normative ethics seeks to examine how human beings respond to a moral question, clarify and prescribe common expectations on what human beings should do to interact with others in society and in a meaningful way
• Importance of ethics


  • Provides guidance on right and wrong, good and bad
  • Helps make ethical decisions and take responsibility for actions
  • Establishes good habits of character
  • Provides basis for rational decisions when facing ethical dilemmas
  • Reminds people to be sensitive to needs of others over self-interest
  • Helps people fully understand their conscience and obligations to society
• Differences between moral and non-moral standards


  • Moral standards promote common good, deal with serious harm or benefit, not determined by authority, should be adopted over self-interest, based on objective considerations, perceived as universal, correlated with feelings of guilt/disgust
  • Non-moral standards are unrelated to moral/ethical considerations, lack ethical sense, apply to laws, etiquette, statutes, codes of professional ethics
• Moral standards are a blend of norms (basic guidelines) and values (universal convictions of what is acceptable, desirable, and beneficial)
• Legality and morality are distinct, not all that is lawful is moral
• Professional code of ethics

  Set of guidelines to help practitioners differentiate right from wrong, define purpose and ideals of the organization, expectations of members
• Moral standards are formed from the experiences, beliefs, and values of an individual
• Self-inflicted dilemma


  A moral dilemma that arises as a result of a prior personal mistake
• A moral dilemma may arise when moral values are of equal importance, or when a person has strong moral reasons for acting in one way but not equally strong moral reasons for acting in another way
• Ethical dilemma


  A situation where a person has to make a decision between competing alternatives, trying to determine the right (ethical) alternative and the best one
• Characteristics of moral/ethical dilemmas

  • Making an option to one moral value over the other
  • A situation where moral values are equally significant
  • A scenario where a person has a strong moral reason in action, but not equally strong moral reason in acting in another way
  • A state where a person should morally do one, two, or more and have difficulty in deciding any of those conflicting choices
• Moral dilemmas apply to personal life, job, profession, education, and other areas where an individual must analyze every aspect, scrutinize the pros and cons, and then decide
• Levels of moral dilemmas

  • Organizational ethical/moral dilemma
  • Individual moral dilemma
  • Structural moral dilemma
• Organizational ethical/moral dilemma


  • Refers to a situation that causes an organization to respond negatively or positively to an ethical issue that affects staff, shareholders, society, corporate ethics, and customers
  • Includes leaders' ethical actions in preserving financial reporting integrity
• Common ethical issues in organizations

  • Unethical leadership/bad leadership behavior
  • Toxic workplace culture
  • Discrimination and harassment/Peril of employee favoritism
  • Unrealistic and conflicting goals
  • Use of the organization's technology, social media use, technology, and privacy concerns
  • Business travel ethics
• Individual moral dilemma


  A situation where individuals confront with factors such as peer pressure, personal financial position, economic and social status which may influence their ethical standards
• Socialization is part of every individual's life, and the question is whether an individual remains aware of doing what is good and what is right
• Individuals may face moral dilemmas due to peer pressure, personal financial position, economic and social status
• Structural moral dilemma


  • Arises from the structure of the organization, society, or system
  • Involves ethical issues that are deeply rooted in the way the organization, society, or system is designed and operates
• Structural moral dilemmas are the most challenging to resolve as they require changes to the underlying systems and structures
• Rational


  (in classical economic theory) economic agents are able to consider the outcome of their choices and recognise the net benefits of each one
• Rational agents will select the choice which presents the highest benefits
• Consumers act rationally by


  Maximising their utility
• Producers act rationally by


  Selling goods/services in a way that maximises their profits
• Workers act rationally by


  Balancing welfare at work with consideration of both pay and benefits
• Governments act rationally by


  Placing the interests of the people they serve first in order to maximise their welfare
• Groups assumed to act rationally


  • Consumers
  • Producers
  • Workers
  • Governments
• Rationality in classical economic theory is a flawed assumption as people usually don't act rationally
• Marginal utility


  The additional utility (satisfaction) gained from the consumption of an additional product
• If you add up marginal utility for each unit you get total utility
• A leader and an employee are in official business and in doing that, they have per diem every meal and must use the fund of the organization appropriately