Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Many of the most vexing ethical problems arise because very real dilemmas
are inherent in them and correct action is obvious.
Nevertheless, managers can and should do many things to make sure they
adhere to basic ethical principles and routinely insert ethical issues into
international business decisions
Businesses should strive to identify and hire people with a strong sense of
personal ethics
Prospective employees should find out as much as they can about the ethical
climate in an organization prior to taking a position
Decision-Making Process
Step1: Managers identify which stakeholders (the individuals or groups who have
an interest, stake, or claim in the actions and overall performance of a company) a
decision would affect and in what ways
Internal stakeholders are people who work for or who own the
business such as employees, the board of directors, and stockholders
External stakeholders are the individuals or groups who have some
claim on a firm such as customers, suppliers, and unions
Step 3: Managers establish moral intent (the business must resolves to place
moral concerns ahead of other concerns in cases where either the fundamental
rights of stakeholders or key moral principles have been violated)
Step 5: The business audits its decisions, reviewing them to make sure that they
were consistent with ethical principles
Ethics Officers
Moral Courage
Enables managers to walk away from a decision that is profitable, but
unethical
Gives an employee the strength to say no to a superior who instructs her to
pursue actions that are unethical
Gives employees the integrity to go public to the media and blow the whistle
on persistent unethical behavior in a company
Does not come easily and employees have lost their jobs when acting on this
courage
Moral courage enables managers to walk away from a decision that is
profitable, but unethical
Moral courage gives an employee the strength to say no to a superior who
instructs her to pursue actions that are unethical
Moral courage does not come easy and employees have lost their jobs when
acting on this courage
• Useful for structuring our discussion and seeing the different elements that come
into play but…
– Not always particularly straightforward (or sensible) to break down various elements
into discrete units
– Various stages related or interdependent
– National or cultural bias
•
• Must be aware that the model is intended not as a definitive representation of ethical
decision-making, but as a relatively simple way to present a
ETHICAL ISSUE RECOGNITION. Before a person can apply any standards of ethical
philosophy to an issue, he or she must first comprehend that the issue has an ethical
component. This means that the ethical decision-making process must be .triggered. or
set in motion by the awareness of an ethical dilemma.
Some individuals are likely to be more sensitive to potential ethical problems than others.
Numerous factors can affect whether someone recognizes an ethical issue; some of these
factors are discussed in the next section.
ETHICAL (MORAL) BEHAVIOR. The final stage in the four-step model of ethical
decision-making is to engage in some behaviour in regard to the ethical dilemma.
Research shows that behavioural intentions are the strongest predictor of actual behaviour
in general, and ethical behaviour in particular.
However, individuals do now always behave consistent with either their judgments or
intentions in regard to ethical issues. This is particularly a problem in the business
context,
as peer group members, supervisors, and organizational culture may influence individuals
to act in ways that are inconsistent with their own moral judgments and behavioural
intentions.
Some specific factors that influence the individual ethical decision-making process, as
outlined above, are presented in the final section of this discussion.
It posits that an individual.s level of .moral development. affects their ethical issue
recognition, judgment, behavioural intentions, and behaviour. According to the theory,
individuals. level of moral development passes through stages as they mature.
Theoretically, there are three major levels of development. The lowest level of moral
development is termed the .pre-conventional. level. At the two stages of this level, the
individual typically will evaluate ethical issues in light of a desire to avoid punishment
and/or seek personal reward.
The middle level of development is called the .conventional. level. At the stages of the
conventional level, the individual assesses ethical issues on the basis of the fairness to
others and a desire to conform to societal rules and expectations.
Thus, the individual looks outside him or herself to determine right and wrong.
According to Kohlberg, most adults operate at the conventional level of moral reasoning.
The highest stage of moral development is the .principled. level. The principled level,
the individual is likely to apply principles (which may be utilitarian, deontological, or
justice) to ethical issues in an attempt to resolve them.
According to Kohlberg, a principled person looks inside him or herself and is less likely
to be influenced by situational (organizational) expectations.
The cognitive moral development framework is relevant to business ethics because it
offers a powerful explanation of individual differences in ethical reasoning. Individuals at
different levels of moral development are likely to think differently about ethical issues
and resolve them differently.
Philosophers have studied and written about ethics for thousands of years. The moral
philosophies or ethical .theories. that have been developed form the foundation for ethics
in business.
Table 1 shows some of the major ethical philosophies that are applied to business ethics.
Each of the ethical philosophies is briefly considered in this section.
TELEOLOGY.
EGOISM.
Egoism defines right and wrong in terms of the consequences to one.s self.
Egoism is defined by self-interest.
An egoist would weigh an ethical dilemma or issue in terms of how different courses of
action would affect his or her physical, mental, or emotional well being.
Thus, an egoist, when faced with a business decision, would tend to choose the course of
action that he or she believes would best serve self-interest. Although it seems likely that
egoism would potentially lead to unethical and/or illegal behaviour, this philosophy of
ethics is, to some degree, at the heart of a free-market economy.
Since the time of political economist Adam Smith, advocates of a free market
unencumbered by governmental regulation have argued that individuals, each pursuing
their own self-interest, would actually benefit society at large.
This point of view is notably espoused by the famous economist Milton Friedman, who
suggested that the only moral obligation of business is to make a profit and obey the law.
However, it should be noted that Smith, Friedman, and most others who advocate
unregulated commerce, acknowledge that some restraints on individuals. selfish impulses
are required.
UTILITARIANISM
. In the utilitarian approach to ethical reasoning, one emphasizes the
utility, or the overall amount of good, that might be produced by an action or a decision.
For example, companies decide to move their production facilities from one country to
another. How much good is expected from the move? How much harm? If the good
appears to outweigh the harm, the decision to move may be deemed an ethical one, by the
utilitarian yardstick.
This approach also encompasses what has been referred to as cost-benefit analysis. In
this, the costs and benefits of a decision, a policy, or an action are compared. Sometimes
these can be measured in economic, social, human, or even emotional terms.
When all the costs are added and compared with the results, if the benefits outweigh the
costs, then the action may be considered ethical.
One fair criticism of this approach is that it is difficult to accurately measure costs and
benefits. Another criticism is that the rights of those in the minority may be overlooked.
Utilitarianism is like egoism in that it advocates judging actions by their consequences,
but unlike egoism utilitarianism focuses on determining the course of action that will
produce the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Thus, it is the ends that
determine the morality of an action and not the action itself (or the intent of the actor).
DEONTOLOGY.
Deontology proposes that the principles of ethics are permanent and unchanging.and
that adherence to these principles is at the heart of ethical behaviour. Many deontologists
believe that the rights of individuals are grounded in .natural law.. Deontology is most
closely associated with the German philosopher Immanuel Kant.
JUSTICE.
Finally, interactional fairness relates to the personal treatment one receives in the
administration of a decision-making process.
Interpersonal fairness has to do with the respect and consideration shown in the
administration of decisions. Informational fairness has to do with the explanations and
accounts provided for the decisions made.
The study of organizational justice has become a major field within organizational
behaviour. To date, however, there has not been a complete integration between justice
perceptions and ethical theory.
RELATIVISM.
Teleological, utilitarian, and justice theories of ethics are all .universal.theories, in that
they purport to advance principles of morality that are permanent and relatively enduring.
Relativism states that there are no universal principles of ethics and that right and wrong
must be determined by each individual or group.
The relativist believes that standards of right and wrong change over time and are
different across cultures.and does not accept that some ethical standards or values are
superior to others.
The concept of relativism can probably be summarized as .What.s right for one may not
be right for another,. or .When in Rome, do as the Romans do..