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Rising Concerns

Rising Concerns. Business Ethics. Public’s interest in business ethics increased during the last three decades Public’s interest in business ethics has been spurred by the media The Enron incident has come to define modern ethics scandals. More Cause for Concern.

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Rising Concerns

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  1. Rising Concerns Business Ethics • Public’s interest in business ethics increased during the last three decades • Public’s interest in business ethics has been spurred by the media • The Enron incident has come to define modern ethics scandals

  2. More Cause for Concern 2000 National Business Ethics Survey Findings • One in eight employees feel pressure to compromise their organization’s ethics standards • Two-thirds attribute this pressure to internal sources • One in three employees observes misconduct at work • Misconduct observed most include lying, withholding information, abusive behavior toward employees, misreporting time worked, and discrimination • One in three employees fears retaliation • Employees say that their organizations’ concern for ethics is a reason they continue to work there

  3. Society’s Expectations of Business Ethics Expected and Actual Levels of Business Ethics Ethical Problem Actual Business Ethics Ethical Problem 1960s Time Early 2000s Business Ethics: Today vs. Earlier Periods

  4. involves a discipline that examines good or bad practices within the context of moral duty and obligation relates to principles of right and wrong in behavior concerned with good and bad or right and wrong behavior and practices that take place in business Ethics Moral conduct Business Ethics Business Ethics: What Does It Really Mean?

  5. involves describing, characterizing and studying morality • focuses on “What is” • involves supplying and justifying moral systems • focuses on “What should be” DescriptiveEthics NormativeEthics Business Ethics: What Does It Really Mean?

  6. Decision or Practice Prevailing Normsof Acceptability Conventional Approach to Business Ethics The conventional approach to business ethics involves a comparison of a decision or practice to prevailing societal norms

  7. Fellow Workers LocalCommunity Regions of Country Family Profession The Individual Conscience Friends Employer The Law Religious Beliefs Society at Large Sources of Ethical Norms

  8. Specific “Norms” that Shape Business Ethics • Respect for the authority structure • Loyalty to bosses and the organization • Conformity to principles and practices • Performance • Results

  9. 1. To avoid some punishment 3. To be responsive to family, friends, or superiors Most of Us 2. To receive some reward 4. To be a good citizen Many of Us Very Few Of Us 5. To do what is right, pursue some ideal Why Managers Behave Ethically

  10. Ethics and the Law • Law USUALLY represents an ethical minimum • Law reflects society’s codified ethics • Ethics SOMETIMES represents a standard that exceeds the legal minimum • What

  11. Ethics and the Law Ethical Unethical Most Business Actions Source: Dalton and Cosier (1982)

  12. Behavior or act that has been committed Prevailing norms of acceptability compared with Value judgments and perceptions of the observer Making Ethical Judgments

  13. Ethics, Economics, and Law

  14. Four Important Ethical Questions • What is? • What ought to be? • How to we get from what is to what ought to be? • What is our motivation for acting ethically?

  15. Amoral Management Moral Management Immoral Management Three Models of Management Ethics

  16. A style devoid of ethical principles and active opposition to what is ethical Conforms to high standards of ethical behavior • Intentional: does not consider ethical factors • Unintentional: casual or careless about ethical factors ImmoralManagement MoralManagement AmoralManagement Three Models of Management Ethics

  17. Characteristics of Immoral Managers • Intentionally do wrong • Self-centered and self-absorbed • Care only about self or organization’s profits • Actively oppose what is right, fair, or just • Exhibit no concern for stakeholders • Are the “bad guys” • An ethics course probably would not help them

  18. Characteristics of Moral Managers • Conform to high level of ethical or right behavior • Conform to high level of personal and professionals standards • Ethical leadership is commonplace • Goal is to succeed within confines of sound ethical precepts • High integrity is displayed • Embrace letter and spirit of the law • Possess an acute moral sense and moral maturity • Are the “good guys”

  19. Characteristics of Amoral Managers Intentionally Amoral Managers: • Don’t think ethics and business should “mix” • Business and ethics are existing in separate spheres • A vanishing breed Unintentionally Amoral Managers: • Don’t consider the ethical dimension of decision making • Don’t “think ethically” • Have no ethics “taste-buds” • Well-intentioned, but morally casual or unconscious • Ethical gears are in neutral

  20. Making Moral Management Actionable • Senior management leads the transition from amoral to moral management • Business ethics training • Codes of conduct • Mission/Vision statements • Ethics officers • Tighter financial controls • Ethically sensitive decision-making processes • Leadership by example • Recognize that amoral management exists

  21. Developing Moral Judgment Kohlberg’s Levels of Moral Development Level 1 Preconventional Level Level 2 Conventional Level Level 3 Postconventional Level

  22. Developing Moral Judgment

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