what concept refers to a persons personal philosophy about what is right or wrong?

Defining Ethics

Ethics are the prepare of moral principles that guide a person's beliefs.

Learning Objectives

Define ethics and how it applies to organizations

Key Takeaways

Key Points

• Ethical behavior is based on written and unwritten codes of principles and values held in society.
• Ideals reflect beliefs nigh what is right, what is incorrect, what is but, what is unjust, what is good, and what is bad in terms of homo behavior.
• Ethical principles and values serve every bit a guide to behavior on a personal level, within professions, and at the organizational level.

Key Terms

• beliefs: The way a living brute acts.
• ethics: The report of principles relating to right and wrong conduct.
• values: A collection of guiding principles; what one deems to be right, of import, and desirable in life, especially regarding personal conduct.

Ethics are the set of moral principles that guide a person'southward behavior. These morals are shaped by social norms, cultural practices, and religious influences. Ethics reflect beliefs about what is right, what is wrong, what is just, what is unjust, what is good, and what is bad in terms of human beliefs. They serve equally a compass to direct how people should acquit toward each other, empathise and fulfill their obligations to society, and live their lives.

While ethical beliefs are held by individuals, they can too be reflected in the values, practices, and policies that shape the choices made past decision makers on behalf of their organizations. The phrases business ethics and corporate ethics are often used to describe the application of ethical values to business activities. Ethics applies to all aspects of conduct and is relevant to the actions of individuals, groups, and organizations.

In addition to individual ethics and corporate ethics in that location are professional ideals. Professionals such every bit managers, lawyers, and accountants are individuals who exercise specialized knowledge and skills when providing services to customers or to the public. By virtue of their profession, they have obligations to those they serve. For example, lawyers must hold client conversations confidential and accountants must display the highest levels of honest and integrity in their record keeping and financial analysis. Professional person organizations, such every bit the American Medical Association, and licensing authorities, such equally state governments, set and enforce ethical standards.

Example

The concept of corporate social responsibility emphasizes ethical behavior in that it requires organizations to sympathise, identify, and eliminate unethical economic, environmental, and social behaviors.

Ideals Grooming

Moral reasoning is the procedure in which an private tries to determine what is right and what is wrong.

Learning Objectives

Explain the role of ethical moral reasoning in the business organisation environs

Key Takeaways

Key Points

• There are four components of moral behavior: moral sensitivity, moral judgment, moral motivation, and moral character.
• To make moral assessments, i must kickoff know what an action is intended to attain and what its possible consequences will be on others.
• Studies have uncovered 4 skill sets that play a decisive role in the practise of moral expertise: moral imagination, moral creativity, reasonableness, and perseverance.

Cardinal Terms

• goodwill: The power of an individual or business to exert influence within a customs, gild, market, or some other blazon of group, without having to resort to the utilize of an asset (such as money or property).
• ethics: The study of principles relating to correct and wrong deport.

Moral reasoning is the procedure in which an private tries to make up one's mind the difference between what is correct and what is wrong in a personal state of affairs past using logic. To make such an cess, one must first know what an activeness is intended to attain and what its possible consequences will be on others. People use moral reasoning in an endeavour to do the right affair. People are ofttimes faced with moral choices, such equally whether to prevarication to avert hurting someone'due south feelings, or whether to take an action that will benefit some while harming others. Such judgements are made by considering the objective and the probable consequences of an action. Moral reasoning is the consideration of the factors relevant to making these types of assessments.

Co-ordinate to consultant Lynn Westward. Swaner, moral behavior has four components:

• Moral sensitivity, which is "the ability to come across an ethical dilemma, including how our actions will affect others."
• Moral judgment, which is "the ability to reason correctly nearly what 'ought' to be washed in a specific state of affairs."
• Moral motivation, which is "a personal commitment to moral action, accepting responsibility for the outcome."
• Moral character, which is a "courageous persistence in spite of fatigue or temptations to take the easy way out."

The ability to think through moral bug and dilemmas, so, requires an sensation of a set of moral and upstanding values; the capacity to think objectively and rationally about what may be an emotional issue; the willingness to accept a stand up for what is right, fifty-fifty in the face of opposition; and the fortitude and resilience to maintain i's upstanding and moral standards.

Realizing adept carry, being an effective moral agent, and bringing values into ane's work, all require skills in addition to a moral inclination. Studies have uncovered four skill sets that play a decisive function in the exercise of moral expertise.

• Moral imagination: The ability to see the situation through the optics of others. Moral imagination achieves a residue between becoming lost in the perspectives of others and failing to leave i's own perspective. Adam Smith terms this balance "proportionality," which we can achieve in empathy.
• Moral creativity: Moral creativity is closely related to moral imagination, simply information technology centers on the ability to frame a situation in unlike ways.
• Reasonableness: Reasonableness balances openness to the views of others with commitment to moral values and other of import goals. That is, a reasonable person is open, but not to the extent where he is willing to believe but anything and/or fails to keep primal commitments.
• Perseverance: Perseverance is the ability to decide on a moral plan of action and then to adapt to whatsoever barriers that arise in social club to proceed working toward that goal.

Example

William LeMesseur designed the Citicorp Edifice in New York. When a educatee identified a critical blueprint flaw in the building during a routine grade exercise, LeMesseur responded non by shooting the messenger only by developing an intricate and effective program for correcting the problem before it resulted in drastic real-globe consequences.

Civilization and Ethics

Culture reflects the moral values and ethical norms governing how people should comport and interact with others.

Learning Objectives

Explain the role of culture in shaping moral and ethical behavior

Key Takeaways

Cardinal Points

• Civilization refers to the outlook, attitudes, values, goals, and practices shared by a group, organization, or guild.
• Interpretation of what is moral is influenced by cultural norms, and different cultures can have different behavior about what is correct and wrong.
• Co-ordinate to the theory of cultural relativism, there is no atypical truth on which to base ethical or moral behavior, every bit our interpretations of truths are influenced by our own civilisation.

Fundamental Terms

• ethnocentric: Of the idea or belief that ane'southward ain culture is more than important than, or superior to, other cultures.
• moral relativism: Refers to any of several philosophical positions concerned with the differences in moral judgments among different people and beyond unlike cultures.
• norms: Rules or laws that govern a group'southward or a society's behaviors.

Culture describes a collective manner of life, or mode of doing things. It is the sum of attitudes, values, goals, and practices shared by individuals in a group, system, or society. Cultures vary over time periods, between countries and geographic regions, and among groups and organizations. Culture reflects the moral and ethical beliefs and standards that speak to how people should deport and interact with others.

Cultural map of the world: This diagram attempts to plot different countries by the importance of unlike types of values. One centrality represents traditional values to secular-rational values, while the other axis accounts for survival values and self-expression values. Different groups of countries can be grouped into sure categories, such as Catholic Europe, English speaking, and Ex-Communist.

Cultural norms are the shared, sanctioned, and integrated systems of beliefs and practices that are passed downward through generations and narrate a cultural group. Norms cultivate reliable guidelines for daily living and contribute to the wellness and well-being of a culture. They human action as prescriptions for correct and moral behavior, lend significant and coherence to life, and provide a means of achieving a sense of integrity, safety, and belonging. These normative behavior, together with related cultural values and rituals, impose a sense of club and control on aspects of life that might otherwise announced cluttered or unpredictable.

This is where culture intersects with ethics. Since interpretations of what is moral are influenced past cultural norms, the possibility exists that what is ethical to ane group volition non exist considered so by someone living in a dissimilar culture. According to cultural relativists this ways that at that place is no singular truth on which to base ethical or moral beliefs for all time and geographic space, as our interpretations of truths are influenced past our own culture. This approach is in dissimilarity to universalism, which holds the position that moral values are the same for everyone. Cultural relativists consider this to exist an ethnocentric view, as the universal set of values proposed past universalists are based on their fix of values. Cultural relativism is likewise considered more than tolerant than universalism because, if there is no ground for making moral judgments between cultures, then cultures take to be tolerant of each other.

Example

The French and Americans have different views on whistle-blowing. Compared to the French, American companies consider it to be a natural office of business. So natural, in fact, that they set bearding hotlines. The French, on the other hand, tend to view whistle-blowing equally undermining solidarity among coworkers.

The Manager's Function in Ethical Conduct

Employees can more easily make ethical decisions that promote a company'southward values when their personal values match the company'south norms.

Learning Objectives

Explain the role of personal values in influencing beliefs in organizations

Central Takeaways

Key Points

• Personal values provide an internal reference for what is expert, beneficial, important, useful, beautiful, desirable, and effective.
• Personal values take on greater significant in adulthood equally they are meant to influence how we carry out our responsibilities to others.
• To make upstanding and moral choices, ane needs to have a clear agreement of 1's personal values.

Key Terms

• value: A standard by which an private determines what is proficient or desirable; a measure of relative worth or importance.
• norms: According to sociologists, social norms are the laws that govern society's behaviors.

Personal values provide an internal reference for what is adept, beneficial, important, useful, beautiful, desirable, and constructive. Over time, the public expression of personal values has laid the foundations of police force, custom, and tradition. Personal values in this way exist in relation to cultural values, either in understanding with or divergent from prevailing norms.

Personal values are developed in many dissimilar ways:

• The most important influence on our values comes from the families we abound upwardly with. The family is responsible for educational activity children what is right and wrong long before at that place are other influences. It is thus said that a child is a reflection of his or her parents.
• Teachers and classmates help shape the values of children during the school years.
• Faith (or a lack thereof) likewise plays a role in teaching children values.

Personal values have on greater meaning in adulthood equally they are meant to influence how we carry out our responsibilities to others. This is true in the workplace, especially for managers and leaders, who are charged with overseeing resources for the benefit of others. Because of their authority structures, social norms, and cultures, organizations tin can take a powerful influence on their employees. Employers do their all-time to rent individuals who match lucifer well with the organization's norms and values. In this fashion they seek to promote their standards of upstanding behavior.

Conversely, conflicts tin can occur between an individual's moral values and what she perceives to be those of others in their organization. Since moral judgments are based on the analysis of the consequences of behavior, they involve interpretations and assessments. Ane might be asked to practice something that violates a personal belief simply is considered appropriate by others. To make ethical and moral choices, one needs to have a clear understanding of i'south personal values. Without that sensation, it can be difficult to justify a decision on ethical or moral grounds in a way that others would discover persuasive.

Case

If you value equal rights for all and you get to piece of work for an organization that treats its managers much amend than it does its workers, you may class the attitude that the company is an unfair identify to work; consequently, yous may not produce well or may even leave the visitor. It is likely that if the company had a more egalitarian policy, your attitude and behaviors would have been more positive.

Blurring Ethical Lines

Upstanding decisions involve judgments of facts and situations that are subject to interpretation and other influences.

Learning Objectives

Analyze the gray areas of upstanding expectations within the context of corporate decision making and ethical concern practise

Primal Takeaways

Key Points

• Identifying the upstanding selection can be difficult, since many situations are ambiguous and facts are bailiwick to interpretation.
• In organizations, employees can look to the code of ideals or the argument of values for guidance about how to handle upstanding gray areas.
• Individual upstanding judgement can be clouded past rationalizations to justify i'due south deportment.

Primal Terms

• concern ideals: The branch of ethics that examines questions of moral right and wrong arising in the context of business practice or theory.
• norms: According to sociologists, social norms are the laws that govern society's behaviors.

Constabulary and ethics are not the same thing. Both exist to influence behavior, but complying with the law is mandatory, while adhering to an upstanding code is voluntary. Laws define what is permissible, while ethics speak to what is right, expert, and merely. Lawyers and judges are responsible for clarifying the meaning of a police when there is ambivalence or when a matter is discipline to estimation. Where ethics are concerned, that responsibility lies with each individual. In organizations, employees can wait to the code of ethics or the statement of values for guidance almost how to handle ethical gray areas.

Even when an individual has a clear sense of right and wrong, or good and bad, it can exist difficult to know what is ethical in a given situation. Ethical choices involve judgment because they involve weighing the potential consequences of one's actions for other people. One analyzes ethical issues by asking questions such every bit: What could happen? How likely is it happen? What might the harm be? Who might be hurt? The answers are not ever clear cut.

Private judgments can exist influenced, fifty-fifty clouded, past a number of factors. A study by Professor Robert Prentice suggests that self-prototype tin influence an individual'south decision -making procedure, making him or her feel justified in taking shortcuts or doing things that could be seen as ethically questionable. In addition, there are times when people believe that the ends justify the means. In other words, if the event of an action is good, then information technology is okay if the activeness itself is unethical.

There is a proverb that a good person is i who does adept deeds when no i is looking. The aforementioned goes with ethical decisions. People who are ethical follow their beliefs even when they believe no i will notice out nigh what they take washed. In many cases of upstanding breaches in organizations, those who acted unethically likely believed that they wouldn't be discovered. Others may have idea that if the problems were discovered, the actions wouldn't be traced dorsum to them. They had the opportunity to be ethical but chose non to be.

Business Ethics Effectually the Globe

Social norms aren't identical in different countries, and ethical standards can vary every bit well. A business may operate in a land that permits actions that would be considered unethical under that business concern's ethical code. How will employees working in that country handle that situation, peculiarly if something that could be considered unethical in one place is really thought to be important to business organisation success in the other? For case, in some cultures information technology is customary for business partners and customers to be invited to weddings, with the expectation that guests volition requite a cash gift to the bride and groom. A company might consider the souvenir an unethical ransom in exchange for a customer'southward business, yet it may be essential to enter a new market. Adhering to ethical standards in such instances can exist difficult.

This way to ethics: Ethical decisions are not e'er clear-cut.

Example

American companies are ofttimes criticized for the treatment of workers who produce their products in Cathay. However, rules concerning the rights of workers are much more relaxed in Cathay than in the United States. Does an American company have the correct to order factory owners in China to change their mode of doing business organization? That is one example of an upstanding grayness expanse in today's globalized economic system.

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Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-management/chapter/ethics-an-overview/

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