Family, Friends, Personality, and Experience Are Sources of ________ Ethics.

Defining Ethics

Ethics are the gear up of moral principles that guide a person's behavior.

Learning Objectives

Define ethics and how information technology applies to organizations

Cardinal Takeaways

Key Points

• Ethical behavior is based on written and unwritten codes of principles and values held in society.
• Ethics reflect beliefs about what is correct, what is incorrect, what is just, what is unjust, what is skillful, and what is bad in terms of human behavior.
• Upstanding principles and values serve as a guide to behavior on a personal level, within professions, and at the organizational level.

Key Terms

• behavior: The way a living creature acts.
• ideals: The study of principles relating to right and wrong conduct.
• values: A drove of guiding principles; what one deems to exist correct, important, and desirable in life, especially regarding personal conduct.

Ideals are the set of moral principles that guide a person'south beliefs. These morals are shaped past 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 skilful, and what is bad in terms of human behavior. They serve every bit a compass to direct how people should behave toward each other, empathise and fulfill their obligations to society, and alive their lives.

While upstanding beliefs are held by individuals, they tin also exist reflected in the values, practices, and policies that shape the choices made past decision makers on behalf of their organizations. The phrases concern ethics and corporate ideals are oft used to describe the application of ethical values to business organisation activities. Ideals applies to all aspects of conduct and is relevant to the actions of individuals, groups, and organizations.

In add-on to individual ethics and corporate ideals there are professional ethics. Professionals such equally 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 concur customer 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 as land governments, set up 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, ecology, and social behaviors.

Ethics Training

Moral reasoning is the process in which an individual tries to determine what is right and what is wrong.

Learning Objectives

Explain the role of upstanding moral reasoning in the business organization environment

Key Takeaways

Key Points

• At that place are iv components of moral behavior: moral sensitivity, moral judgment, moral motivation, and moral character.
• To brand moral assessments, ane must first know what an action is intended to reach and what its possible consequences will be on others.
• Studies have uncovered four skill sets that play a decisive role in the exercise of moral expertise: moral imagination, moral creativity, reasonableness, and perseverance.

Primal Terms

• goodwill: The ability of an private or concern to exert influence within a customs, club, market, or another type of group, without having to resort to the use of an asset (such as coin or property).
• ethics: The study of principles relating to right and wrong conduct.

Moral reasoning is the procedure in which an individual tries to determine the departure between what is right and what is wrong in a personal situation by using logic. To make such an assessment, one must outset know what an activity is intended to accomplish and what its possible consequences volition be on others. People utilise moral reasoning in an attempt to do the right affair. People are often faced with moral choices, such as whether to lie to avoid hurting someone's feelings, or whether to have an action that volition do good some while harming others. Such judgements are made by because the objective and the likely consequences of an action. Moral reasoning is the consideration of the factors relevant to making these types of assessments.

Co-ordinate to consultant Lynn Due west. Swaner, moral behavior has iv components:

• Moral sensitivity, which is "the ability to run across an upstanding dilemma, including how our deportment will affect others."
• Moral judgment, which is "the ability to reason correctly about what 'ought' to exist washed in a specific situation."
• Moral motivation, which is "a personal delivery to moral action, accepting responsibility for the outcome."
• Moral character, which is a "mettlesome persistence in spite of fatigue or temptations to have the piece of cake way out."

The ability to remember through moral issues and dilemmas, and then, requires an awareness of a prepare of moral and ethical values; the capacity to think objectively and rationally most what may exist an emotional outcome; the willingness to take a stand for what is right, even in the confront of opposition; and the fortitude and resilience to maintain i'due south ethical and moral standards.

Realizing skilful conduct, being an effective moral agent, and bringing values into i's work, all require skills in addition to a moral inclination. Studies have uncovered 4 skill sets that play a decisive function in the practice of moral expertise.

• Moral imagination: The ability to see the situation through the optics of others. Moral imagination achieves a balance between becoming lost in the perspectives of others and failing to leave one's ain perspective. Adam Smith terms this balance "proportionality," which nosotros can achieve in empathy.
• Moral creativity: Moral inventiveness is closely related to moral imagination, merely it centers on the ability to frame a situation in different ways.
• Reasonableness: Reasonableness balances openness to the views of others with commitment to moral values and other important goals. That is, a reasonable person is open, just not to the extent where he is willing to believe merely anything and/or fails to keep fundamental commitments.
• Perseverance: Perseverance is the ability to make up one's mind on a moral plan of action and then to adapt to whatever barriers that arise in order to keep working toward that goal.

Example

William LeMesseur designed the Citicorp Building in New York. When a student identified a critical blueprint flaw in the edifice during a routine class exercise, LeMesseur responded not by shooting the messenger merely by developing an intricate and effective plan for correcting the problem before it resulted in drastic real-world consequences.

Culture and Ethics

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

Learning Objectives

Explain the function of culture in shaping moral and ethical beliefs

Key Takeaways

Cardinal Points

• Civilization refers to the outlook, attitudes, values, goals, and practices shared by a group, organization, or society.
• Estimation of what is moral is influenced by cultural norms, and dissimilar cultures tin can have different beliefs about what is correct and wrong.
• According to the theory of cultural relativism, there is no singular truth on which to base upstanding or moral behavior, as our interpretations of truths are influenced by our own culture.

Key Terms

• ethnocentric: Of the idea or belief that i's 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 unlike people and across unlike cultures.
• norms: Rules or laws that govern a group's or a society'southward behaviors.

Culture describes a collective manner of life, or way of doing things. Information technology is the sum of attitudes, values, goals, and practices shared by individuals in a group, organization, or society. Cultures vary over time periods, between countries and geographic regions, and amid groups and organizations. Culture reflects the moral and upstanding beliefs and standards that speak to how people should behave and collaborate with others.

Cultural map of the world: This diagram attempts to plot different countries past the importance of dissimilar 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 tin can be grouped into certain 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 down through generations and characterize a cultural group. Norms cultivate reliable guidelines for daily living and contribute to the health and well-being of a culture. They act as prescriptions for correct and moral behavior, lend meaning 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 order and control on aspects of life that might otherwise appear chaotic or unpredictable.

This is where culture intersects with ethics. Since interpretations of what is moral are influenced by cultural norms, the possibility exists that what is ethical to one group will non exist considered then by someone living in a different civilization. Co-ordinate to cultural relativists this means that in that location is no singular truth on which to base upstanding or moral behavior for all fourth dimension and geographic infinite, as our interpretations of truths are influenced by our ain culture. This arroyo is in contrast to universalism, which holds the position that moral values are the aforementioned for anybody. Cultural relativists consider this to be an ethnocentric view, as the universal set of values proposed past universalists are based on their set of values. Cultural relativism is also considered more tolerant than universalism because, if at that place is no basis for making moral judgments between cultures, and so cultures have to exist tolerant of each other.

Case

The French and Americans have dissimilar views on whistle-blowing. Compared to the French, American companies consider information technology to be a natural part of business. And so natural, in fact, that they set up anonymous hotlines. The French, on the other hand, tend to view whistle-blowing every bit undermining solidarity amongst coworkers.

The Manager's Role in Upstanding Carry

Employees tin can more hands make ethical decisions that promote a visitor's values when their personal values match the visitor's norms.

Learning Objectives

Explain the role of personal values in influencing behavior in organizations

Cardinal Takeaways

Key Points

• Personal values provide an internal reference for what is good, beneficial, important, useful, cute, desirable, and constructive.
• Personal values have on greater pregnant in adulthood equally they are meant to influence how nosotros acquit out our responsibilities to others.
• To make ethical and moral choices, one needs to have a clear understanding of one's personal values.

Primal Terms

• value: A standard by which an private determines what is good or desirable; a measure of relative worth or importance.
• norms: Co-ordinate to sociologists, social norms are the laws that govern guild'south behaviors.

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

Personal values are adult in many different ways:

• The virtually important influence on our values comes from the families nosotros abound up with. The family is responsible for teaching children what is right and wrong long before in that location 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.
• Religion (or a lack thereof) too plays a role in education children values.

Personal values have on greater significant in machismo as they are meant to influence how we bear out our responsibilities to others. This is truthful in the workplace, especially for managers and leaders, who are charged with overseeing resources for the benefit of others. Because of their say-so structures, social norms, and cultures, organizations can take a powerful influence on their employees. Employers do their best to hire individuals who match match well with the arrangement'south norms and values. In this fashion they seek to promote their standards of upstanding beliefs.

Conversely, conflicts tin can occur between an individual'south 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. One might be asked to do something that violates a personal belief but is considered appropriate past others. To brand ethical and moral choices, one needs to have a clear understanding of i's personal values. Without that awareness, it can be difficult to justify a conclusion on ethical or moral grounds in a way that others would notice persuasive.

Example

If you value equal rights for all and you become to work for an organization that treats its managers much meliorate than it does its workers, you may class the mental attitude that the company is an unfair place to work; consequently, you lot may not produce well or may even leave the company. It is likely that if the company had a more than egalitarian policy, your mental attitude and behaviors would take been more positive.

Blurring Upstanding Lines

Ethical decisions involve judgments of facts and situations that are discipline to estimation and other influences.

Learning Objectives

Analyze the gray areas of ethical expectations inside the context of corporate conclusion making and ethical business exercise

Key Takeaways

Key Points

• Identifying the ethical choice can exist difficult, since many situations are cryptic and facts are subject to estimation.
• In organizations, employees can look to the code of ethics or the statement of values for guidance near how to handle upstanding gray areas.
• Private ethical judgement can be clouded by rationalizations to justify one's actions.

Key Terms

• business organisation ideals: The co-operative of ethics that examines questions of moral right and incorrect arising in the context of business practice or theory.
• norms: Co-ordinate to sociologists, social norms are the laws that govern society'due south behaviors.

Law and ethics are non the aforementioned thing. Both exist to influence behavior, but complying with the law is mandatory, while adhering to an ethical code is voluntary. Laws ascertain what is permissible, while ethics speak to what is right, good, and just. Lawyers and judges are responsible for clarifying the meaning of a police when in that location is ambiguity or when a matter is subject to interpretation. Where ethics are concerned, that responsibility lies with each individual. In organizations, employees can look to the lawmaking of ethics or the argument of values for guidance about how to handle upstanding greyness areas.

Even when an individual has a clear sense of right and incorrect, or expert and bad, it tin be difficult to know what is ethical in a given situation. Ethical choices involve judgment because they involve weighing the potential consequences of one'southward actions for other people. One analyzes upstanding issues past request questions such every bit: What could happen? How likely is information technology happen? What might the harm be? Who might be injure? The answers are non always clear cut.

Individual judgments can be influenced, even clouded, by a number of factors. A study by Professor Robert Prentice suggests that self-image can influence an individual's decision -making process, making him or her feel justified in taking shortcuts or doing things that could be seen equally ethically questionable. In improver, there are times when people believe that the ends justify the means. In other words, if the consequence of an action is good, and then it is okay if the action itself is unethical.

There is a saying that a good person is one who does expert deeds when no one is looking. The same goes with ethical decisions. People who are ethical follow their behavior fifty-fifty when they believe no one will find out nigh what they take done. In many cases of ethical breaches in organizations, those who acted unethically likely believed that they wouldn't be discovered. Others may have thought that if the problems were discovered, the actions wouldn't be traced back to them. They had the opportunity to be ethical merely chose not to be.

Business concern Ethics Around the Globe

Social norms aren't identical in dissimilar countries, and upstanding standards can vary too. A business may operate in a country that permits actions that would be considered unethical under that business'southward ethical code. How volition employees working in that country handle that situation, specially if something that could be considered unethical in ane place is actually thought to be important to business success in the other? For instance, in some cultures information technology is customary for business partners and customers to be invited to weddings, with the expectation that guests will give a cash gift to the bride and groom. A company might consider the gift an unethical bribe in exchange for a customer'southward concern, yet it may be essential to enter a new marketplace. Adhering to ethical standards in such instances can be difficult.

This fashion to ethics: Upstanding decisions are not always clear-cutting.

Instance

American companies are often criticized for the treatment of workers who produce their products in China. However, rules concerning the rights of workers are much more relaxed in Cathay than in the U.s.. Does an American company have the correct to order manufacturing plant owners in China to modify their way of doing business organization? That is one example of an ethical grayness surface area in today's globalized economy.

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