Business ethics

Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.

Ethics, the word has originated from Ethos meaning character or manners. It is said to be the source of morals.

Ethics are the rules or moral principles that individuals or group of individuals agree on and use as aspiration goals .

Meaning of Ethics

1) NORMATIVE ETHICS2) DESCRIPTIVE ETHICS3) META-ETHICS

THREE APPROACHES TO ETHICS

1) NORMATIVE ETHICS: This was the prevalent form of ethics in philosophy until the end

of the 19th century.

What things are good and bad and what kind of actions / behavior are right and wrong.

It involves how people ought to act on the principles, how they make moral choices , and how rules apply to individual lives.

Normative ethical theories seek to provide action-guides;

procedures for answering the Practical Question ("What ought I to do?")

This is the traditional way of doing Ethics.

THREE APPROACHES TO ETHICS

In short, normative ethics addresses questions like the following:

What should be our moral obligations?What is Right and what is Wrong?What should be our moral values?What is Good and what is Evil?

3 types of Normative Ethics:

a) Teleological Theory.b) Deontological Theory.c) Virtue Ethics.

Derived from two Greek Words, “telos” meaning end or goal and “logos” meaning logic or reason.

Also known as the Theory of CONSEQUENTIALISM.

“An action is morally right if the consequences of that action are more favorable than unfavorable."

The Rightness & the Wrongness depends upon the Consequences of the Act.

3 types of Teleological Ethical Theories: Egoism Utilitarianism Altruism

a)Teleological Ethical Theory

Egoism- An action is morally right if the consequences of that action are more favorable than unfavorable only to the individual performing the action.

Utilitarianism- An action is morally right if the consequences of that action are more favorable than unfavorable to everyone. Propounded by Jeremy Bentham.

Altruism- An action is morally right if the consequences of that action are more favorable than unfavorable to everyone except the individual.

Derived from the Greek word “deno” meaning duty or obligation.

States that the rightness & the wrongness of an action depends upon the action & not the consequence.

Deontological moral systems are characterized by a focus upon adherence to independent moral rules or duties.

b)Deontological Ethical Theory

Advocated by Greek Philosopher Aristotle.

Virtue may be defined as any disposition or tendency of a character that an individual desires in himself or others.

E.g. Self-discipline, sincerity, loyalty, truthfulness, etc.

c)Virtue Ethics

2)DESCRIPTIVE ETHICS: Descriptive ethics tries to focus on how human beings

actually operate in the real world, rather than attempt to theorize about how they should operate. Descriptive ethics attempts to be more scientific in its approach, rather than philosophical or theoretical.

Descriptive ethics gathers information and observations about what the choices that people actually make, and if individuals make the same choices in different circumstances. This branch of ethics deals with topics of situational ethics.

3)META-ETHICS: This is sometimes called moral philosophy or

philosophical ethics. This group attracts most interest today.

It seeks to understand the meaning and function , of ethical terms like good and bad.

It looks at the logic used in arriving at the conclusion of an argument that justifies a moral choice.

Meta-ethics asks such questions as: "What is the meaning of ethical terms, such as

'good' and 'right' and 'should'?"  "What are the motives for acting ethically?" "What is the nature of moral reason? How is it

different (if it is different) from other types of reasoning?"

Descriptive Ethics: What do people think is right?

Normative (Prescriptive) Ethics: How should people act?

Metaethics- What does Right even Mean?

Questions to be Asked

“Ethics conflicts with profits, whereasBusiness always choose profits over ethics”.

Ethics and business

Business ethics (also corporate ethics) is a form of applied ethics or professional ethics that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that arise in a business environment.

Business Ethics is the study of good & evil, right & wrong actions of businessmen.

It is an extension of values of personal life to business. Business Ethics is also termed as Corporate Ethics. Business Ethics are those principles & philosophies that are concerned with

moral judgment & good conduct as they are applicable to business solution. It applies to all aspects of business conduct and is relevant to the conduct of

individuals and business organizations as a whole. Applied ethics is a field of ethics that deals with ethical questions in many fields such as medical, technical, legal and business ethics

Business ethics 

Examples of ethical behaviour include: Not using child labour Not testing on animals Respecting the human rights of workers Ensuring working hours are not excessive Keeping pollution to a minimum

OVERVIEW OF ISSUES IN BUSINESS ETHICS

MY SPACE SURPRISE You are Director of HR for 21st Century

Pharmaceuticals; in the final stages of filling a Senior Systems Analyst position in IT. It’s a critical position, overseeing several key systems for the organization. Director of IT has identified Jason Martin as top candidate; asks you to conduct reference check on his background. All professional/personal references checked out; your final step is to “Google” him and to see if he has home pages on myspace.com and facebook.com. You find the normal photos, overview of interests and a personal blog. While reading the blog, you discover that Jason is passionate in his opposition to the use of animals in medical research, something that is a common practice at your company and in your industry. Will you hire Jason?