Professional Documents
Culture Documents
What is Ethics?
Ethics is a set of rules that define right and
wrong conduct.These ethical rules tell us when our behavior is acceptable and when it is disapproved and considered wrong. Ethics deals with fundamental human relationships.
Organizational Values. Managers Values and attitudes. Competitive Pressures. Cross-cultural contradictions.
ETHICS MEANS :
A set of actions born out of our beliefs. These beliefs give rise to values. Values condition attitudes. Attitudes condition behavior . Behavior can be ethical or unethical. Ethics are an activity based concept.
wrong, good or bad in any context whatsoever and from the basis of behavior. These beliefs are often conditioned by upbringing and the general environment.
Kinds of Values
When we speak of values having been based
on a set of beliefs that we hold sacrosanct we are in the subjective realm of values. When an organisation operates on the basis of such values it is called value based.
Kinds of Values
When we speak of value addition by the
actions or thoughts of a person, the functioning of a process and the sale or use of a product we are in the objective realm of values. When an organisation operates such that value ought to be added at the level of the person, the process or the product it is called value driven.
Sustainable Business Excellence thru' Ethics and Governance
Kinds of Values
When we speak simultaneously of the
subjective and the objective notions of value then we are in the realm of rationality. When an organisation operates simultaneously in both realms (subjective and objective) it is called value centered
held by a person, a group of persons or a nation about what is good or bad for it and this forms its basis of social, political and economic policies.
ETYPOLOGICAL ROOTS
Ethics comes from the Greek word
ethos while Morality comes from the Latin word mores. Both root words imply from a culture
human conduct.
SPECIFICITY OF ETHICS
Ethics is person specific Ethics is context specific Ethics is culture specific
GREAT IMMENSITY
THE ONLY ABSOLUTE CERTAINITY IS
DEATH [DURKHEIM]
light of the person, the culture and the context. It should never be seen in isolation as an act devoid of the surroundings.
States are not moral agents; people are, and can impose moral standards on power institutions. Hence the ideology or religion or politics driven moral policing is unethical.
Sustainable Business Excellence thru' Ethics and Governance
of the larger civil society. No person works in isolation nor is an organization an island unto itself. We can see globalised relations of business in the form of concentric circles viz:
5 4 3 2 1
claims to possess? Does it pose a threat to the general humanity, the geo-physical environment or the innocent consumer?
competitive and organizations get more complex, we are forced to make decisions under conditions of relative uncertainty. All facts relevant to the issue are never available.
Individual values
CLEAR APPROVAL
HAZY
HAZY
CLEAR REJECTION
NOT OK
Organizational values
PROCESS
PRODUCT
INDIVIDUAL
When we place one triangle over the other, we get a six pointed star that exemplifies the form and nature of business ethics.
Sustainable Business Excellence thru' Ethics and Governance
INTRODUCTION TO ETHICS
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