I make ethical decisions every day in my personal and professional lives. Some are easily made and others require some reflecting on the basis of the decision. Ethics is sometimes used interchangeable with values by some people. Pfeiffer & Forsberg (2000) defines values “as principles that help us make decisions implementing the ethical point of view (p. 6.). My ethical beliefs were forming over the years. I had several influences, parents, job, life experiences, and the environment in which I was exposed. My ethical beliefs are constantly being developed through training and experiences Organizations need ethical principles. According to Guido (2003), ethics provides structure for placing conduct into action.…
Donaldson, T, & Werhane, P.H. (Eds.). (2002) Ethical issues in business: A philosophical approach (7th ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.…
When one takes an ethics course, several thoughts may come to mind. Some examples of these thoughts include, “This class is useless. How will it help me in my career? Why is this class even required?” However, I believe ethics is a very important topic, especially to myself because in less than two years, I will enter the business world as a professional accountant. As an accountant, we are responsible to report the financials of a company. Investors depend on these financials to decide which company or companies they will invest their hard earned money. If these financials were skewed by the accountants or upper management for merely personal benefit, an investor could be fooled into investing into a company who is about to declare bankruptcy or in serious financial trouble. The investor could then lose their hard earned money due to lack of ethics from the accounting department. This is why ethics means to me to always be honest and do the right thing even if it causes harm to yourself.…
"Sound personal ethics are typically those that positively impact the experience of others when used to govern an individual 's social or business related behavior, and at the very least, such ethics should not have a negative impact on others" (BusinessDictionary, 2014). In this paper I will discuss how my personal ethical system and ground rules were developed. What my influences were in shaping my values and the principles I live by. I will also discuss how the importance of ethics in business. EARLY ETHICAL DEVELOPMENT To understand how my ethics developed I think it would be best if I provided…
My underlying ethical system primarily is a duty-base ethical system, in which I acted in a certain manner, a manner that is a clear right or wrong. As a child, my parents and family were the ones who lay the ground rules for my ethical decisions. Knowing what is right from what is wrong, to say please and thank you when asking for and receiving something, to say good morning, good afternoon and good night, and to always speak the truth, pray before bed time, and again in the morning when I wake up. School teachers taught me how to enforce strict discipline,…
My personal ethical and moral ideations created from birth to adulthood. My duty based ethical system identified my life scenarios and my environment growing up. The people and surrounding are what developed my values and morals to who I am today. My outside authority being the God in heaven is what has made me who I am today. My commitment to act in a certain way based on what I believe is right or wrong. My parents, the Church of God I previously attended, and the friends that had influence in my life are what developed my character and values. I was a deputy sheriff prior to…
Ethics are values that are nurtured in an individual by society influences and personal experience. I would like to believe that I have grown up in an unbiased society where respect, honesty and fairness are valued above all, and my experience has taught me to cherish these values, as they are not very common. By nature, I am a very pensive individual, and I usually spend a lot of time thinking about the consequences of my actions before I make a move. I try to balance the rationality and my sensibility to establish my next course of action, and I was surprised to find that this was exactly what the ethical lens exercise says about my…
Business Ethics is very important subject to a work place and it demands that a company examines its behavior towards the outside world. “The field of business ethics deals with questions about whether specific business practices are acceptable.” (Ferrell, Fraedrich, Ferrell, 2011) Employees and managers must have moral concerns into their decision-making process. Ethical concepts are important to resolving moral problems confronting business. At a work place there are policies, codes of ethics, code of conduct, organizational values, and company cultures, lapse in workplace ethics occur every day. “Ethics is the principles of conduct governing an individual or a group. It is the study of morality.” (Velasquez, 2001) In the work place ethics results either from expense account fraud, involvement in conflict of interest, and sexual harassment. It is very important also, to have an ethical behavior so; there won’t be any issues with other workers.…
In businesses today managing ethical behavior has become a very tough and complex task for some organizations. Employee’s decisions to behave ethically or unethically are influenced by the individual and their situational factors. Ethics can affect the well being of employees and their performances. When employees are affected with ethical issues, the organization takes a slow production of products and decrease in the product’s quality. (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2009). If the employees are happy, satisfied, and dedicated they will take very good care of the customers.…
In modern business environment it is imperative to have an ethical climate. Traditional commerce is fundamentally based upon performance and profit. With the ever changing workforce, it is imperative that organisations open themselves up to reorganisation, including the application of ethical and moral decision-making, and incorporating interest of ethics in the corporate structure. According to Victor and Cullen (1988 cited by Cohen 1993, p.343) organisational norms and values are means to show how ethical problems should be addressed, creating an ethical climate which has a powerful impact on employees capacity to do the right things. However, the degree to which organisation encourages ethical practices varies distinctly. .…
In today’s economy, managing ethical behavior is one of the tough and complex problems that business organizations are facing. Employees ' decisions to behave ethically or unethically are influenced by the individual and situational factors. Examples of those factors are background, personality, decision history, managerial philosophy, and reinforcement, which had been identified by researchers that affect employees ' behavior when faced with ethical dilemmas. The relation to ethical behavior is reviewed in this paper. Furthermore, I will mention an example of ethical issue that happened to be addressed by the organization.…
up-bringing, family values, customs and beliefs. Through this paper, I will discuss my personal guidelines and ethical development that examines my system of ethics and the origins of development. I will explain what my values consist of and what sources help to influences and shape my values. I will touch on what effect ethics has on my work performance and provide a personal experience to support it. Finally, I will discuss why ethics is important to an organizations goal, individual’s lifestyle, and society.…
This paper discusses about how observing ethical behavior in the workplace develops or improves business operations. It delves into the workplace culture and introduces the positive and negative ethical practices that affect its processes. It also points out the research gathered about the codes of conduct and behavioral standards that contribute and further advance the company’s undertaking.…
Throughout the history, Business Ethics has been a constant problem in almost all organizations around the word. According to Joanne B. Ciulla, the problem of Business Ethics still exist although the world has gone through many technological and cultural changes that are related to the Business Ethics concept. (Ciulla, 2011) But the question here is: are the employee’s business ethics improving regardless of the changes an organization is going through? Well to answer this, there are many factors to be considered. As a start, moral development has a great influence on a person to help him know the right act from the wrong one, in which the moral development changes while a person is growing up and could be enhanced or ruined by formal and informal education. In addition to moral development factor, there are other factors that contribute in the existence of the unethical behavior, such as: gender, age, education, government work experience, etc. (Mujtaba and Afza, 2011)…
To express regards to the above concern, I will first address the definition of ethics. Ethics, in the context of workplace, is defined as the study of what is right and wrong human behaviour in a business (William 2010, p. 9). This gives rise to a concern of whether individuals carry out activities according to the best interests of their own personal characteristics or of organisational characteristics, assuming that they think is right to carry out.…