Professional Documents
Culture Documents
- Consists of moral principles governing the right and wrongs of human conduct
- Is about the principles of right and wrong accepted by individuals or social groups
- A code of behaviour considered morally correct
- Code of moral principles that guide the action of people and groups
- Ethical behaviour is doing what is morally right
Business ethics
Business ethics are the principles and standards that:
- Define acceptable conduct in business
- Should underpin decision making
An alternative definition is: the moral values which govern business behaviour and restrains
companies from pursuing the interest of the shareholder at the expense of all other
considerations
- Some activities might be profitable and legal but nevertheless are considered to be unethical
- An ethical decision is one that is both legal and meets the shared ethical standards of the
community
The following business activities are legal but might pose ethical dilemmas for individuals:
Moral principles
- Evaluate decisions on whether it is consistent with accepted moral principles
Utilitarianism
- Looks at decisions from the perspective of who gains
- What is good for the greatest number is right
- The test is whether or not it is consistent with the greatest happiness of the greatest number?
Justice model
- The test is does it distribute benefits and penalties in a fair and equitable way?
Human rights
- People have fundamental human rights and liberties - consent, privacy, conscience, free
speech, fair treatment, life, safety
- The test is: does it violate human rights?
- An ethically correct decision is one that best maintains the human rights of those affected
- Decisions that violate human rights are unethical
Individualism
- Is it in the individuals best interest?
- This is the ethics of self interest
Spectrum of firms
- It would be nave to believe that all business organisations behave in an ethical, moral way
- We can classify firms in terms of their ethical stance in the following ways: