Preview

The Ethical Imperative – Contrarieties

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
456 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Ethical Imperative – Contrarieties
The Ethical Imperative – Contrarieties
"A global ethic is only practicable as a personal commitment," says the author, Dalla Costa. He explains that for businesspeople, this does not mean valuing profit less, but instead valuing people more. Throughout the article, the author shows that business reflects who we are as a society and the beliefs that we live by as individuals. He uses several examples of organizations that have been hurt by unethical behavior to support his statement.

Business leaders must assess their values and make appropriate changes since they operate in a global economy where market forces have left the human aspect weaker and the profit element skyrocketed. Dalla Costa attempts to convince businesses to pursue moral and ethical policies. He addresses the principle of right and wrong but emphasizes the importance of ethical behavior to long-term survival and profit. The article dissects the different characteristics attributed to those optimistic and pessimistic. It describes the institutional pessimism of business, and explains how it is a product of fear – the fear of making mistake and of trying something new.
The author argues that today's universal interdependence requires a global ethic – concern for the consumers, workers, and the environment of the overall community. He also discusses the pressures that lead to unethical behavior by individuals and organizations. He develops on five core fallacies that ground the pessimists' antipathy and prevent correction.

In the article, Dalla Costa outlines the process for incorporating ethical principles to the direct benefit of customers, shareholders, employees and profits. The author makes clear why corporate ethics must be a fundamental component of any firm. As managers and consumers, many people are concerned about issues like discrimination in the workplace, and are struggling to integrate their beliefs into their jobs. The Ethical Imperative links these personal values to business

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Best Essays

    human resourcs-task 2

    • 2357 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Hemphill, T., & Lillevik, W. (2011). The Global Economic Ethic Manifesto: Implementing a Moral Values Foundation in the Multinational Enterprise. Journal of Business Ethics, 101(2), 213-230. Doi: 10.1007/s10551-010-0718-4…

    • 2357 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Better Essays

    Ethics must be global, not local. In order to build a truly great global business the leaders need to bring forward a global standard of ethical practices.…

    • 1770 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Organizations come in many different forms and sizes. An organization is any entity that purses a mission or serves a purpose in a society or community. Businesses, governments, schools, charities, etc., are all different types of organizations. Society and communities in American and throughout the world rely on organizations to provide goods and services necessary for people to sustain life. In today’s world societies and nations are becoming more and more connected together through a global economy. Advancements in technology have allowed organizations to expand into different countries throughout the world. When an organization moves into a new society and culture different from their own there is always ethical and social issues the organizations must deal with. Sometimes organizations reach out to another country to offer support and help address pre existing ethical and social problems within a society. Other times ethical and social issues arise overtime as a result of an organization moving into a new society. In this paper I will discuss a global organization and a cultural issue that affects this organization’s interactions outside the United States. I will explain the ethical and social responsibility issues this organization deals with as a result of being a global organization by identifying different ethical perspectives in the global organization as well as comparing these ethical perspectives across cultures involved with this global organization.…

    • 1030 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    “. . . I think it is fair to sum up the prevailing attitudes of businessmen on ethics as follows: we live in what is probably the most competitive of the world’s civilized societies. Our customs encourage a high degree of aggression in individuals striving for success. . .”…

    • 467 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Velasquez, Manuel. “Globalization and the Failures of Ethics.” In Business Ethics Quarterly. Vol. 10, No. 1 (January 2000), 343-352. (accessed October 5, 2008).…

    • 3923 Words
    • 16 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Ethical Standards

    • 129 Words
    • 1 Page

    Ethical standards and integrity has become increasingly important for a company’s long-term success. Ethics is an individual’s moral judgment about right and wrong. Immanuel Kant believed that everyone could decide right and wrong based on the will behind the action. When trying to decipher if an action is moral or not, one should consider what the universal benefit would be if everyone behaved in such a fashion. For instance, if everyone stole, it would result in chaos and violence. Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx, however, didn’t believe in a universal code of ethics. They perceived that all ethics and philosophy are relative to the economic situations of each individual society. Each society would therefore create its own system of ethics that’s relative to their environment.…

    • 129 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In a corporation, the leaders are always required to perform a perfect management ability, which plays an important role in the firm's success. The perfection here includes business ethics. In fact, moral standards are real challenges for every business because the conflict between corporate ethics and success happens sometimes. The leaders can solve this situation through three perspectives: take a position on criticism challenged corporate actions, illustrate the firm's responsibilities by justifying the integrity of its business activities, and finally, develop competitive and argumentative working environment for its employees. In additional, to overcome this challenge, the “conditio humana” have to be considered as a core for all questions: Each individual is a moral subject, possessing dignity and endowed with liberty. To sum up, what is the relationship between morality and self-interest?…

    • 1295 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    -New deal evolved to fair deal by pres Truman-program defined civil right and environmental responsibility ethical issues that businesses had to address…

    • 1206 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ethic Approach

    • 2948 Words
    • 12 Pages

    A few years ago, sociologist Raymond Baumhart asked business people, “What does ethics mean to you?” Among the replies were the following:…

    • 2948 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Busines Ethics

    • 1794 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Nowadays in the era of economic relations and international trade business ethics plays a very important role. It is of vital importance at any level of activity: corporate, state or international. Questions of corporate social responsibility and business ethics are engaging business more and more - both domestically and internationally (Sims 2006). This tendency is emphasized by outrageous cases in international trade illustrated by violating rules of ethical behavior. Rules and regulations on ethics and behavior are affected unavoidably by basic values about the goal of company in the community. However, some organization members think the only social goal of a company is to gain benefit. On the other hand, other members consider that that the goal of a company is much wider than one of gaining profit and that all those participants who are influenced by the firm 's activity - shareholders, staff, consumers, suppliers, the domestic society, babies (in particular concerning environmental protection) - have a reasonable concern and commitment in the corporate activity. Many of these commitments are important to a company whether it is domestic or international in its activity. Nevertheless, international companies face specific difficulties and requirements and above those operating only in local market.…

    • 1794 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    All companies must have ethics if they want to succeed. It’s the basic condition of success. In fact, commercial ethics apply not only to how owners treat both customers but also to how they treat employees, who are “the [essential] cogs … in…

    • 1214 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Business Ethics of Kfc

    • 6855 Words
    • 28 Pages

    References: [Book]: Crane, A. and Matten, D. 2007, Business Ethics: Managing Corporate Citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization, 2nd Edition, Oxford University Press Inc., New York, accessed on 15th December 2009, available.…

    • 6855 Words
    • 28 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Manager

    • 752 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Business ethicists always ask, ‘’what is right and wrong, good and bad, harmful and beneficial regarding decision and actions in organisational transactions?” Ethical solutions to business and organisational problems may have more than one alternative, and sometimes no right solution may seem available. Learning to think, reason, and act ethically can enable us to first be aware of and recognize a potential ethical problem. Then we can evaluate values, assumptions, and judgement regarding the problem before we act. Ethics concern an individual moral judgement about right and wrong. Decisions taken within an organisation may be made by individuals or groups, but whoever makes them will be influenced by the culture of the company. Ethical behaviour and corporate social responsibility can bring significant benefits to a business. Due to this reason, ethic is important. We must to create among all staffs regarding the importance of ethics at the workplace through some activities.…

    • 752 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    At the Dun and Ready (D&R) Company, Sid was responsible for monitoring the Japanese stock market to determine patterns and identify stocks that could become active. One of ten company representatives in Japan, Sid, who was of Japanese descent and fluent in the language, had been assigned to Tokyo. Being relatively new to the firm, he was told to gather information for his boss, Glenna. Glenna had been with D&R for ten years, but because of the cultural barriers, she was not enthusiastic about her Tokyo assignment. Glenna encouraged Sid to get to know the Japanese brokers, traders, and other key people in the business, and, thanks to his background, he found that he blended easily into the culture. In Japan, ceremony and giving favors is a way of life. Sid learned that, by observing Japanese customs and perfecting his Japanese, he not only became an information resource on the Japanese stock market and its players for his company but also a resource for the Japanese who wanted to invest in the U.S. market. He found that the locals would talk to him about important investments rather…

    • 10528 Words
    • 43 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    From the dawn of written history, people have been obsessed with wealth accumulation, greed, power and status, and for this, ethical principles have always been pushed aside. In modern time’s unethical behavior is most often driven by heavy pressures on company managers to meet or beat performance targets, the demands of highly competitive and saturated markets and a company culture that puts profitability and good business performance ahead of ethical behavior..…

    • 4455 Words
    • 18 Pages
    Powerful Essays