Personal and Organizational Ethics

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Personal and Organizational Ethics
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Chapter Seven Objectives

• To understand the different levels at which
  business ethics may be addressed
• To appreciate principles of personal ethical
  decision-making
• To identify factors affecting an organizations
  moral climate
• Describe actions or strategies to improve ethical
  climate

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Chapter Seven Outline

• Levels at which Ethical Issues May Be Addressed
• Personal and Managerial Ethics
• Managing Organizational Ethics
• From Moral Decisions to Moral Organizations
• Summary

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Introduction to Chapter Seven

• This chapter focuses on the day-to-day ethical
  issues that managers face

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Levels at Which Ethical Issues May Be Addressed

• Personal levelsituations faced in personal life
  (income tax, doing kids homework, etc.)
• Organizational levelworkplace situations faced
  as managers and employees (cutting corners, etc.)

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Levels at Which Ethical Issues May Be Addressed

• Industrial levelsituations confronted as
  professionals (the practices of stockbrokers,
  accountants, etc.)
• Societal and international levelslocal-to-global
  situations confronted indirectly as a management
  team

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Personal and Managerial Ethics

• Resolving Ethical Conflicts
• Three Approaches
• Conventional (covered in Chapter 6)
• Principles
• Ethical tests

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Personal and Managerial Ethics
Principles Approach
Anchors decision making on an ethical principle
such as

• Utilitarianism
• Rights
• Justice

• Caring
• Virtue ethics
• Servant leadership
• Golden Rule

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Personal and Managerial Ethics

• Principle of Utilitarianism focuses on an act
  that produces the greatest ratio of good to evil
  for everyone
• Consequentialist theory

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Personal and Managerial Ethics

• Principle of Rights focuses on examining and
  possibly protecting individual moral or legal
  rights

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Personal and Managerial Ethics
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Personal and Managerial Ethics

• Principle of justice involves considering what
  alternative promotes fair treatment of people
• Types of justice
• Distributive
• Compensatory
• Procedural
• Rawlsian

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Personal and Managerial Ethics

• Rawls Justice
• Each person has an equal right to the most basic
  liberties comparable with similar liberties for
  others
• Social and economic inequalities are arranged so
  that they are both
• reasonably expected to be to everyones advantage
  and
• attached to positions and offices open to all
  people

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Personal and Managerial Ethics

• Principle of caring focuses on a person as a
  relational (cooperative) and not as an individual
• Feminist theory
• Virtue ethics focuses on individuals becoming
  imbued with virtues
• Aristotle and Plato

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Personal and Managerial Ethics

• Servant leadership focuses on serving others
  first such as employees, customers, community and
  so on

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Personal and Managerial Ethics
Characteristics of Servant Leaders

• Foresight
• Conceptualization
• Commitment to the growth of people
• Stewardship
• Building community

• Listening
• Empathy
• Healing
• Persuasion
• Awareness

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Personal and Managerial Ethics

• Golden rule focuses on the premise that you
  should of unto others as you would have them do
  unto you

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Personal and Managerial Ethics

• Concerns to be Addressed in Ethical Conflicts
• Obligations
• Ideals
• Effects

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Personal and Managerial Ethics

• When Our Obligations, Ideals and Effects
  Conflicts
• When two or more moral obligations conflict, use
  the stronger one
• When two or more ideals conflict, or when ideals
  conflict with obligations, honor the more
  important one
• When effects are mixed, choose the action that
  produces the greatest good and the least harm

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Personal and Managerial Ethics

• Ethics Test Approach
• Test of common sense
• Test of ones best self
• Test of making something public
• Test of ventilation
• Gag test

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Managing Organizational Ethics

Factors Affecting the Morality of Managers
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Managing Organizational Ethics

• Factors Influencing Unethical Behavior
• Behavior of superiors
• Ethical practices of ones industry or profession
• Behavior of ones peers in the organization
• Formal organizational policy (or lack of one)
• Personal financial need

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Managing Organizational Ethics
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Managing Organizational Ethics
Questionable Behaviors of Superiors or Peers

• Amoral decision making
• Unethical acts, behaviors or practices
• Acceptance or legality as the standard behavior
• Absence of ethical leadership

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Managing Organizational Ethics
Questionable Behaviors of Superiors or Peers

• Objects and evaluation systems overemphasizing
  profits
• Insensitivity toward how subordinates perceive
  pressure to meet goals
• Inadequate formal ethics policies

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Improving Ethical Climate

Ethics Programs Officers
Ethics Audit
Effective Communication
Realistic Objectives
Top Management Leadership
Ethics Training
Ethical Decision-making Processes
Codes of Conduct
Whistle-blowing Mechanisms (Hotlines)
Discipline of Violators
Codes of Conduct
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Ethical Decision-Making

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Ethics Audits and Self-Assessment
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From Moral Decisions to Moral Organizations
Moral Decision(s) Moral Manager(s) Moral
Organization
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Selected Key Terms

• Codes of conduct
• Codes of ethics
• Compensatory justice
• Distributive justice
• Ethical tests
• Ethical audits
• Golden rule
• Legal rights
• Moral rights

• Principle of caring
• Principle of justice
• Principle of rights
• Principle of utilitarianism
• Procedural justice
• Rights
• Servant leadership
• Utilitarianism
• Virtue ethics