Ethical Responsibilities

The Ethical Responsibilities Required of You as a Manager

• ethical dilemma: situation in which you have to decide whether to pursue a course of action that may benefit you or your organization but that is unethical or even illegal

  • may also be a situation in which there’s a choice to be made between two options, neither of which resolves the situation in an ethically acceptable fashion
  • ex: taking credit for others work
  • offering a client a worse product for your own profit
  • 4 types:
  1. truth vs loyalty
  2. short vs long-term
  3. individual vs community
  4. justice vs mercy

Defining Ethics and Values

• ethics: standards of right and wrong that influence behavior
  • may vary among countries and cultures
• values: relatively permanent and deeply held underlying beliefs and attitudes that help determine a person’s behavior

Conflicting Values

• organizations may have 2 value systems that conflict

  1. value system stressing financial performance

     vs

  2. value system stressing cohesion and solidarity in employee relationships

Four Approaches to Deciding Ethical Dilemmas

• utilitarian approach:
  • guided by what will result in the “greatest good for the greatest number of people”
  • often associated with financial performance
  • based on philosophy of Classical Utilitarianism: Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill
• individual approach:
  • guided by what will result in individuals best long term interests, which ultimately is in everyone’s self-interest
  • assumes that people will act ethically in the short run to avoid harm in the long run
• moral rights approach:
  • guided by respect for the fundamental rights of human beings: the right to life, liberty, privacy, health, safety, and due process
• justice approach:
  • guided by respect to impartial standards of fairness
  • policies administered impartially and fairly regardless of gender, age, religious affiliation, sexual orientation