AN INTRODUCTION TO ETHICS

Ethics is not a recent discovery. The word Ethics which is coined from the Latin word Ethics
and Greek word ethikosPertains to character. Ethics is thus said to be the science of conduct.
As a matter of fact it deals with certain standard of human conduct and morals. The field of
ethics involves systematizing, defending and recommending concepts of right and wrong
behavior. Ethics is a mass of moral principles or set of values about what is right or wrong, true
or false, fair or unfair, proper or improper, what is right is ethical and what is wrong is unethical.

MEANING AND DEFINITION OF ETHICS

Ethics is the branch of philosophy which is the systematic study of selective choice, of the

standards of right and wrong and by which it may ultimately be directed.

Introduction to Business Ethic
There is a combinations of two familiar words, namely business and ethics in business ethics.
Business ethics concentrated on moral standards as his apply to business policies institutions and
behaviour. It is a specialized study of moral right or wrong. It is a form of applied ethics. It
includes not only the analysis of moral norms and moral values but also attempts to apply the
conclusions of the analysis to that assortment of institution, technologies, transactions, activities
and pursuits that we call business. Business ethics are nothing but the application of ethics in
business. It proves that business can be and have been ethical and still make profits more and
more interest is being given to the application of ethical practice in business dealing and the
ethics implications of business. It also relates to the behaviour of managers. Business ethics are
concerned with moral issues in business just as medical ethics are concerned with morality of
medical practices and policies or political ethics are concerned with the morality of political
affairs in business ethics.
Definition: Business ethics is generally coming to know what is right or wrong in the
workplace and doing what is right- this is in regard to effects of products/ services and in
relationship with stake holders.

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Nature of Ethics
The nature of ethics can be explained by these points:

The concept of ethics is applied to human beings only as they have freedom of choice and
means of free will. They can only decide the degree of ends they wish to pursue and the
means to achieve the ends.

The study of ethics is nothing but a field of social science in which a set of systematic
knowledge about moral behavior and human conduct is learned.

Ethics deals with human conduct, which is voluntary not forced by circumstances or
humans. So we can say that at the ground level ethics deals with moral judgment
regarding set directed human conduct.

The science of ethics is a normative science. It is a search for an ideal litmus test of
proper behavior. Normative science involves arriving at moral standards that regulate
right and wrong conduct.

Nature of Business Ethics

Most ethical questions could be of two types overt which can be seen (Bribery, theft,
sabotage, collusion) and convert which is hidden, cannot be seen (Corporate acquisition,
Marketing Policies, HRM policies, Capital Investment)

Ethical issues commonly occur in management it goes many of times for beyond the
commonly discussed problems of bribery collusion and theft reaching into areas of
corporate acquisitions, merge of firms, marketing policies of capital investments.
o For example if two firms are merged, ethical question arises with regarded to
demoting or firming the employees of those who have been serving honestly of
many years.

Ethics want a manager to be honest within himself and also in the society. The manager
has to perform his jobs well and his quality reflects in the success of a business ethical
issues may be sometimes occur as managerial dilemmas, measured by revenues, cost and
profits and the stated performance.

Following characteristics for a decision to be ethical are needed.

Equitable: The decision be just and equal
Right: Morally correct and due.
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Proper: That which is appropriate to the situation and generally acceptable.

Good: which highest good for highest number of concerned people.
Fair: which is honest and due.
Just: Justice is done to all and it should appear that justice is given to due.
Importance of Business ethics.

Positive consequences:
Business depends on the approval of the society, acceptance of rules, mutual trusts and
confidence. Prof. Robert day writes-when ethical conduct is displayed, it puts some kind
of trust and confidence in relationship. So business with ethics always leads to positive
consequences.

Goodwill of the business and businessman:

Good ethical behavior will increase the goodwill of both business as well as the
businessman. Strong public image is a symptom of success in the long run. On the other
hand once an organizations image is tarnished it would have direct consequences on
sales, profits, morale or day-to-day running of the business.

Protectionboth sides:
If ethical implications are there in organization businessmen act more sincerely and the
level of commitment would be higher. Ethics protects people in dealing with each other.
Prof Robert day writes, Good ethics is sound business insurance.

Self-satisfaction:
In the dynamic world, businessmen are seeking self-satisfaction, mental relief, freeform
anxiety, and release tension. To attain the inner satisfaction certain people consider only
good ethics can promote good business. As a businessman is first a member of the society
than a businessman, so some do not implement a decision, which stands on unethical
ground because it wouldnt provide the satisfaction to their sub-conscious mind.

Encourage others:
When a few people start following ethics side by side to profit making, they encourage,
motivate others and set examples for them. As Prof. Learned & Associates writesBusinessman who follows the ethical principles in the conduct of business, motivates
others also to follow the same principles.
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Success and development:

Ethical conduct of business leads to development and series of success. Learned writesA sincere person who does hard work becomes ethical and always succeeding his efforts
but an unethical person cannot.

New management:
In the era of global economy, new principles are required in new management. Prof. Day
writes that management cannot become a profession so far as it does not follow good
ethics. An important feature of a profession is that it has a laid down code of conduct,
which remains on all the principles of service to Humanity.

To gain the goodwill of the community

To increase the lifetime of an organization
Produce safe and effective products
Provide excellent service & Maintain customers
Develop and maintain strong employee relation
Suffer less turnover
Enjoy better employee morale
Suppliers and other business partners prefer companies that operate in a fair and ethical
manner

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Ethical dilemma
Introduction
An ethical dilemma is a moral situation in which a choice has to be made between two equally
undesirable alternatives. An ethical dilemma puts the decision maker in to a conflicting situation
that might threaten the quality of ethical decision, not because of failing to choose between right
and wrong but between right and right and it impacts on (a) the organizations profitability and
competitiveness, and (b) its stakeholders.
Example.
A manager working as a supervisor in the organization finds that products produce in his
organization are not up to the industry standards and will harm the large number of consumers
who buys and uses the same.. If he raised the voice will result in loss of revenue in company, and
to carry on work in same manner will result in harm to society. Now he may face ethical
dilemma about what to do
So we can say

It is a Conflict between ones personal and professional values

Two values/ethical principles

Two possible actions each with reasons strongly favorable and unfavorable

Two unsatisfactory alternatives.

Ones values/principles and ones perceived role.

The need to act and the need to reflect.

Sources of Ethical Dilemma.

Lack of character

Ramesh who is just recruit in the company used to misuse funds, take supplies from the
company, pad expense accounts, take unjustified leave, avoid obligations to fellow-workers,
take bribes for favoring suppliers, use inside information for their personal benefit. All these
activity is result in loss of company. Companies, through no fault of their own, may recruit
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people whose personal goals and values are not desirable, without knowing the workers
history, and focus on education qualification and work experience. If the recruiters know that
among otherwise qualified candidate, some are undesirable, they will weed them out, but it is
very difficult to spot persons with unethical qualities or to anticipate them to be so in future
or to measure their ethical nature.

Clash of Personal Values and Organizational Aims

The second source which rise ethical dilemma when there is a contradiction between the
personal goal and organizational goal. An organization ways to achieve the dream and the
methods to tracks aims is unacceptable to the manager.
In this case, individual values conflicted with the goal. Many times because of target pressure
and market competition attract the employee to such practice and result in ethical dilemma.

Contradiction between the individual opinion, and Organization

In todays ere organizations are becoming more flexible and heterogynous so far as working
culture is concern. Employees are from different religion, culture, place and having different
set of beliefs, opinion and value. Sometimes it results in racial discriminations and gender
bias in the work place which become ethical dilemmas in organizations when they employ
multi-racial and multi-religious employees. Several organizations are accused of racial
discriminations and gender bias in the work place and have been paying fines of corers of
rupees or as out-of-court settlements.
Choice between two action having equally favorable or unfavorable elements in
decision
An employees are in the situation of ethical dilemmas when they have to choose option
which is equally favorable or unfavorable elements in decision. For example, consider a case,
a newly private educational institute for various courses propose to air an advertisement at
the peak time on popular TV channel in a metro calming 100%jobs in Government office.
Now in this case manager of the T V Channel into a dilemma whether to accept it or not. If
he is accepting it result in supporting a wrong information and refusing the same would
means loss of revenue.
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Thus, Procter & Gamble withdrew its product, which was linked to some user deaths, while
Johnson & Johnson cleared all retail shelves of its Tylenol analgesic within days of the
discovery that some containers had cyanide poison traces and had caused deaths. Though
both.
Choice between an action and its consequence.
At the market, there are a number of unsafe products and services that is produced and sold
to their users notwithstanding the fact that a huge majority of people is aware of their harmful
effects. People know that smoking cigarettes causes cancer, excessive drinking causes
accidents and liver problems, use of drugs causes both psychological and mental problems,
and yet these products are being produced and consumed. Is this practice ethical?
Steps in Resolving Ethical Dilemmas

Identify the moral issues

It involve identify the ethical dilemma and list out where they are conflicting with the
values belief, opinion, systems, laws, responsibilities, virtues.

Analyse the consequences:

Who will benefited and who will be hurt and what will be the benefits or what would be
the harms etc. it has to be checked in the light of honesty, fairness, equality, respecting,
and dignity of others and rights of people.

Check out the available alternative.

In this step one has to identify the all available alternative actions from different angle.

Select the best alternative.

In this stage select the alternative which offer maximum benefit to all the stakeholders in
all the ethical aspect.

Make the final decision of implementation.

The last and final step is put the decision in action.

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Morality and Moral Standards

Meaning and characteristics of morality

Meaning and origin of moral standards

MORALITY

Morality can be defined as the standards that an individual or a group has about what is
right and wrong, or good and evil.

Moral quality or character; rightness or wrongness, as of an action; the character of being in

accord with the principles or standards of right conduct.

Not imposed from outside, but innate and can even be unconscious. We have a fundamental
urge to connect. Ultimately, it's our moral qualities that force us to live in harmony with the
unconscious; doing so is the highest form of morality. Morality is individual; the morality of
a group decreases as its size increases.

Morality is an informal public system applying to all rational persons, governing behavior
that affects others, and has the lessening of evil or harm as its goal.

Morality is a complex of concepts and philosophical beliefs by which an individual

determines whether his or her actions are right or wrong. Often, these concepts and beliefs
are generalized and codified in a culture or group, and thus serve to regulate the behavior of
its members. Conformity to such codification is called morality, and the group may depend
on widespread conformity to such codes for its continued existence. A "moral" may refer to
a particular principle, usually as informal and general summary of a moral principle, as
applied in a given human situation.

Characteristics of Morality

To say that morality is a public system incorporates the essential feature that everyone
who is subject to moral judgment knows what kinds of actions it prohibits, requires,
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discourages, encourages, and allows. It also guarantees that it is never irrational to act
morally.

It would take considerably more space than is appropriate here to show that defining
morality as a public system that applies to all rational persons also results in morality
being a universal guide to behavior that all rational persons would put forward for
governing the behavior of all moral agents. I should make clear that the claim that all
rational persons would put forward this system only follows if limitations are put on the
beliefs that rational persons can use and if they are attempting to reach agreement with
similarly limited rational persons.

To say that morality is an informal system means that it has no authoritative judges and
decision procedures that provide unique answers to all moral questions. When it is
important that disagreements be settled, societies use political and legal systems to
supplement morality. These formal systems have the means to provide unique answers,
but they do not provide a moral answer to the question.

The claim that morality governs behavior that affects others is somewhat
controversial. Some have claimed that morality governs behavior that affects only the
agent himself/herself. Examples of behavior that supposedly affects only oneself,
often include taking recreational drugs, masturbation, and developing one's talents.

The final characteristic of morality -- that it has the lessening of evil or harm as its
goal -- is also somewhat controversial. The Utilitarians talk about producing the
greatest good as the goal of morality. However they include the lessening of harm as
essential to producing the greatest good and almost all of their examples involve the
avoiding or preventing of harm. The paradigm cases of moral precepts involve rules
which prohibit causing harm directly or indirectly, such as rules prohibiting killing,
causing pain, deceiving, and breaking promises. Even those precepts that require or
encourage positive action, such as helping the needy, are almost always related to
preventing or relieving harms.

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Moral Standards

Moral standards include the norms we have about the kinds of actions we believe are
morally right and wrong as well as the values we place on the kinds of objects we believe are
morally good and morally bad. Moral norms can usually be expressed as general rules, i.e. Always
tell the truth. Moral values can usually be expressed as statements describing objects or features of
objects, ie. Honesty is good.

Origin Of Moral Standards

During childhood moral standards are absorbed from family, friends and various societal
institutions. Later in life experiences, learning and intellectual development help a person in
forming these standards.

Moral Standards Vs. Non-Moral Standards

Moral standards deal with matters, which can seriously injure or seriously benefit human
beings while it is not the case with non-moral standards. Examples of non-moral standards
include the standards of etiquette by which we judge manners as good or bad, and the
standards we call law by which we judge legal right and wrong.

Moral standards are not formed or changed by the decision of particular authoritative
bodies and the validity of these standards lies on the adequacy of the reasons that are taken
to support and justify them.

If a person has the moral obligation to do something, then the person is supposed to do that
even if this conflicts with other non-moral values or self-interest.

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Moral standards does not evaluate standards on the basis of the interests of a particular
individual or group, but one that goes beyond personal interests to a universal stand point
in which everyones interests are impartially counted as equal.

Moral standards are associated with special emotions and a special vocabulary. If a person
tells a lie so as to fulfill a purpose and then afterwards he starts feeling guilty or ashamed of

his behavior.

Ethics V/S Moral (Winter GTU 2014)

Ethics and morals both relate to right and wrong conduct. However, ethics refer to the
series of rules provided to an individual by an external source, e.g. their profession or
religion. Morals refer to an individuals own principles regarding right and wrong.

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Ethics

Moral

What are they

The rules of conduct recognized in respect Principles or habits with respect to right
to a particular class of human actions or a or wrong conduct. While morals also
particular group or culture.
prescribe dos and don'ts, morality is
ultimately a personal compass of right
and wrong.
Social system - External
Individual - Internal
Where do they come
from?

Why we do it?
Flexibility

The "Gray"

Origin
Acceptability

Because society says it is the right thing to

do.
Ethics are dependent on others for
definition. They tend to be consistent
within a certain context, but can vary
between contexts.
A person strictly following Ethical
Principles may not have any Morals at all.
Likewise, one could violate Ethical
Principles within a given system of rules
in order to maintain Moral integrity.
Greek word "ethos" meaning"character"

A Moral Person although perhaps bound

by a higher covenant, may choose to
follow a code of ethics as it would apply
to a system. "Make it fit"
Latin word "mos" meaning "custom"

Ethics are governed by professional and Morality transcends cultural norms

legal guidelines within a particular time
and place

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Because we believe in something being

right or wrong.
Usually consistent, although can change
if an individuals beliefs change.

Whistle Blowing
Whistle blowing is reporting the company you work for, or someone above you in the company
hierarchy, for doing something unethical or illegal. there have been laws passed to protect people
who report such behavior, because in the past, they have been subject to sanctions, such as losing
their jobs or being demoted for reporting things that are in the public interest to be reported.
Whistle-blowing takes place when a government employee, company employee or independent
contractor goes public with claims of illegal or unethical business practices or activities within
his company. Many times, the whistle-blower has attempted to communicate the problem
internally and has received no response from management.
Making disclosures of serious wrongdoing is colloquially known as whistle-blowing.
Employees who have inside knowledge (which is not usually available to those outside the
organization) are often reluctant to disclose serious wrongdoing for fear of retaliation by their
employer.
Why is Whistle blowing important?
The Council is committed to high quality services and being open, fair and honest.
Managers have a duty to prevent dangerous or illegal actions at work. All staff, including
those who work for a contractor or agency, has an important part to play. Often it is only
through whistle blowing that information comes to light.
Advantages
1: Public Safety:
One of the principle reasons to blow the whistle on illegal or unethical activities is to protect the
public, colleagues or others from risk. The more immediate and the more significant the risk, the
more important to take action efficiently. When companies engage in activities that could cause
physical or mental harm to people, or environmental damage, many believe it is your duty to
make those activities known.
2: Moral Responsibility:

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Blowing the whistle out of a sense of moral obligation is generally regarded as the best reason to
do so. In his Denver Business Journal article "`Blowing the Whistle' Requires Courage,"
Marshall Colt explains that "What motivates you?" is a key question you should ask before
whistle-blowing. If you are attempting to protect the public or fulfill a sense of moral duty, you
are likely justified. If revenge against your organization is the motive, you may not have a good
motivation for action.
Disadvantage
1: Retaliation:
One of the primary disadvantages of blowing the whistle is the potential retaliation you
face from management and colleagues. Some federal protections are in place to encourage
whistle-blowing, but those offer little support when you show up at the office each day to a
sense of resentment and hate from your co-workers. Colt encourages whistle-blowers to
have a physical and mental escape plan should things turn ugly at the office.
2: Conflicts of Interest:
For many potential whistle-blowers, the conflict of interest between serving one's company,
co-workers and friends and protecting the public is very real and challenging. You must
weigh the possible damage to your working relationships and your career against the
merits of blowing the whistle in a given situation. Many people feel a sense of loyalty to
their company that prohibits whistle-blowing. Others simply are too burdened by the
thought of making bold accusations against an employer.
The purpose of the whistle blowing policy is to encourage employees to disclose any malpractice
or misconduct of which they become aware and importantly to provide protection for employees
who report allegations of such malpractices or misconduct. The policy applies to all employees,
suppliers, agents, contractors and customers of the group. A potential whistleblower should have
good documentation of the evidence of the evidence of wrongdoing before disclosing it to others.
The whistleblower should also be prepared to deal with employer retaliation and have a
contingency plan.

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