1.introduction to ethics & features

7/31/2019 1.Introduction to Ethics & Features

1/17

Introduction to BusinessEthics

Introduction to BusinessEthics

Prepared by: Priya Shukla

Asst. Prof. SVMC

Prepared by: Priya Shukla

Asst. Prof. SVMC


2/17

Morality

A person develops moral standard from his very childhoodby observing the sources around him/her like family,friends, neighbor, society, media, even to specific situationetc.

As child grow up his and start encountering more sources,he starts exhibiting moral standard, these standard arefurther modified as he grow up, starts experiencing realworld.

It is expected that we live by these moral standards thatwe develop and hold. If the standard matches that what isgenerally believed to be acceptable or morally good andright by the society we live, we called that personMORAL.

Thus moral standard of the person reflect his or herattitude and orientation in which he grows, thinks, feels,

behaves, judges and act in life


3/17


4/17

Moral reasoning forethics

Development of our moral understanding goes withour maturity. What is moral at one stage of our lifemay not necessarily be moral at another stage.

According to famous psychologist Lawrence

Kohlberg, there are 3 levels of our development ofmoral understanding starting from childhood tomaturity which can be further divided into twostage:

Level I : Childhood stages:

1. Punishment and obedience orientation: Wherephysical consequences of an act wholly determinethe goodness or badness.

2. Instrument and relatively orientation: when rightactions become those that can serve as instrument


5/17

Level-II Conventional Stage

3. Interpersonal concordance orientation: wheregood behavior is living up to the expectations ofthose for whom one feels loyalty, affection andtrust. Here the right action is what is expected of

an individual by his family, friends.

4. Law and order orientation: where the sense ofright and wrong comes from loyalty to theconventions of the society in particular and thelaws of the nation at large.


6/17

Level-III Principled stage

5. Social contract orientation: when the personbecomes aware that people hold different conflictingviews and opinions and fair way of reach anagreement and path is of consensus after reasoning.They should be tolerated or adjusted with.

6. Universal ethical principles orientation: where rightactions are came to defined in terms of moralprinciples which are chosen because of their logicalcomprehensiveness, universality and consistency. It

is not rigid like law but flexible and can be changedfor the welfare of the people and society. At thisstage the individual reasons of doing right and wrongdepends on his or her understanding of moralprinciples.

At the later stage people can justify their deeds onthe basis of their moral principles that are relatively


7/17

Moral reasoning tries to place or project facts andfigures that help one to judge human behaviour,policies and programmes.

Two component of reasoning:

1. An understanding of what acceptable moralstandard or value with regard to specific situation.

2. Evidence and information which shows that

persons, policies or behavior have a kind of featureswhich are required.


8/17

Thus moral or ethical reasoninghas 3 distinct features:

1. Identifying what constitute themoral standard.

2. Examining facts and figures

concerning the policy, behaviorand action under specificsituation.

3. Arriving to a moral judgement


9/17

Features of Ethics

1. Ethics contains a set of principles ofpersonal and professional conduct.

2. Existing norms and judgments may

contain valuable insights but ethics teststhem in terms of ultimate norms.

3. Principles not feelings give us ethics.

4. Ethics is not legal.

5. Ethical behavior in one society may beunethical in another society.

6. Ethics is involved in all human activitiesincluding business.


10/17

Development of Ethics

1. Greek Ethics:

It deals with duties of a person as moralcitizens of the nation. Famous advocate of thisview are Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.

2. Medieval Ethics:

It does not deal with duties of a person, ratherit deals with increasing inner aspect of onesmorality.

3. Modern Ethics:

Believes in performing actions whose resultsbring good to us and others.

A. Theory of value or good

B. Theory of the right


11/17

Business Ethics

Business ethics deals with determining rules orbehavior of business enterprises. It determinesrightness or wrongness of actions of

businessmen. Management Ethics is a concept related to the

concept ofsocial responsiveness of a firm

It is the set of moral principles that governs the

actions of an individual or a group. Business ethics is the application of ethical

principles to business relationships and activities.It governs the way a business runs and carries its

operations.


12/17

Features of BusinessEthics

1. It determines issues that business housesface in operating their activities.

2. It distinguishes between right or wrong, fair

or unfair, just or unjust. 3. It is an important component of corporate

social responsibility.

4. It demands that corporate houses should be

good corporate citizens. 5. It demands that corporate houses should

obey the law.

6. It is broader than law.


13/17

Unethical Behavior

1. Environmental competition

2. Inter organisational dependence

A. Bribery B. Kickback

3. Pressure for high performance

4. Poor financial performance

5. Labour dissatisfaction


14/17

Factors influencingbusiness ethics

1. Legal concern

2. Government regulations

3. Industry and company ethicalcodes

4. Social Pressures

5. Tension between personalstandards and needs of theorganization.


15/17

Relevance of Ethics inBusiness

1. Business practices affect our lives considerably.Scandals and disasters like Bhopal gas tragedy can bedisastrous for people within and outside the businessorganizations.

2. There is increasing awareness amongst societythat business houses are the creation of society, andtherefore must work for benefit of society.

3. Liberalization and globalization have united

markets in the world into a single market. 4. Business houses that do not have ethical profile in

favor of public at large may face threat of consumerboycotts.

5. Unethical business firm will invite governmentregulations and interference.

Th d f thi


16/17

The code of ethics serves

the following purposes:

1. It protects the interest of consumers as theyknow they are not being misled or misguided byfalse advertisements or price fixing.

2. It helps firms in obeying the law and treatingpeople honestly and fairly.

3. It promotes employment ethics: fairness inhiring people, working conditions etc.

4. It helps in making valid contracts with thirdparties.

5. It ensures safety of investor dealing with firm.

6. It promotes healthy and fair competition

amongst business firms in the same industry.


17/17

THANKS A LOT

1.introduction to ethics & features

Documents