PART 1. BASIC PRINCIPLES
I. STUDY OF ETHICS
Ethics is derived from the Greek word ethos, which means “characteristic way of acting.” Its Latin equivalent is mos, mores, meaning “tradition or custom.” Ethos includes cultural mannerism, religion, politics, laws, and social aspirations of a group of people. Ethos refers to those characteristics belonging to man as a rational being, endowed with intellect and free will.
The ethos of man as man is revealed in the following:
1. He is able to distinguish between good and evil, right and wrong, moral and immoral.
2. He feels within himself an obligation to do what is good and to avoid what is evil.
3. He feels himself accountable for his actions, expecting reward or punishments for them.
Today we use the word ethos to refer to the distinguishing disposition, character, or attitude of a specific people, culture, or group (as in, for example “the Thai ethos” or “the business ethos”). The etymology of ethics suggests its basic concerns: (1) individual character, including what it means to be “a good person”, and (2) the social rules that govern and limit our conduct, especially the ultimate rules concerning right and wrong, which we call morality.
Some philosophers like to distinguish ethics from morality. But in everyday parlance we interchange “ethical” and “moral” to describe people we consider good and actions we consider right. And we interchange ”unethical” and immoral” to describe what we consider bad people and wrong actions. We will follow that common usage.
Ethics, its meaning
Ethics is defined as the science of the morality of human acts. And because actions reflect the motives of the doer, Ethics is said to be the study of human rational behavior. That aspect of the subject matter, which primarily interests Ethics, is morality.
Human Acts are those actions performed by man, knowingly and freely. They are also called deliberate or intentional actions, or, voluntary actions. As such, they are differentiated from the so-called acts of man, which are instinctive and voluntary.
Morality is the quality of human acts by which they are constituted as good, bad or indifferent. That which is good is describes as moral; that which is bad is immoral, and that which is indifferent is amoral.
Human acts reveal the thoughts and inclinations of the person doing them. They are then manifestations of one’s character or moral conduct. A person who has the habit or inclination to do good is said to be virtuous. On the contrary, one who has the habit of doing wrong is vicious.
Moral standards are the basis of ethical conduct and differ significantly from nonmoral standards. What falls outside the sphere of moral concern is termed nonmoral. Moral standards are different because they concern behavior that is of serious consequence to human welfare that can profoundly injure or benefit people.
Importance of Ethics
Ethics is an indispensable knowledge. Without moral perception, man is only an animal. Without morality, man as rational being is a failure because moral knowledge is too essential to be dismissed.
Moral integrity is the only true measure of what man ought to be. The most powerful king, or the most successful professional, is nothing unless he too is morally upright. Morality is the foundation of every society. Without civic morality, communities perish; without personal morality their survival has no value. Every culture admits the importance of morality as a standard of behavior.
Ethics as Value Education
Ethics takes the form of Value Education. A value is something a person prizes, cherishes and esteems as important to him. It includes ideas, things, or experiences. The aim of Value education is to guide the individual in choosing wisely his values and in acting upon them. Ethics is the rational foundation of any attempt at Value Education. Ethics explains human values in relation to the ultimate purpose of human existence.
Ethics and Law
Ethical norms cover thoughts and feelings. Laws do not judge man’s thoughts and desires. Morality therefore, has wider implication than law because laws can either be moral or immoral. Thus, what is legal is not necessarily moral; but what is moral is necessarily worth legalizing. Ethics is not simply a body of do’s and don’ts in the manner laws are. Ethics is a personal commitment to uphold what is true and good. Ethics aims to develop the “right disposition and inner spirit” for accepting what is lawful.
Professional Codes of Ethics
The practice of a profession cannot be regulated entirely by legislation. Each profession therefore subscribes to a set of moral code. These are the rules that are supposed to govern the conduct of members of a given profession. This Code of Ethics guides the actuation of a professional where the law is silent or inadequate. A Code of Ethics implies that, before anything else, a professional is a person who has the obligation to listen to the “dictates of reason”. The need for it is obviously to the advantage of the profession.
Some Schools of Ethical Thoughts
1. Empiricism. The empiricists hold to the belief that sensory experience, that is, what can be fathomed by the senses (hearing, seeing, feeling, etc.) provides the only solid foundation for philosophy and ethics.
2. Rationalism. The rationalists believe that the logical exercise of the human mind, independent of any sensory experience, is adequate for the purposes of determining what is good or evil.
3. Revelationism. Advocates believe that people do not inherently know what is right and what is wrong. Ethical principles are derived from God and are manifested in individuals.
4. Situation Ethics. It contends that a monolithic code is useless inasmuch as each situation is unique in itself.
EXERCISE
a. Why is man a moral animal?
b. What do you expect to learn from Ethics?
c. Is ethics the same as religion?
d. Importance of morality in government?
II. ETHICS AND BUSINESS
Business Ethics is a specialized study of moral right and wrong. It concentrates on moral standards as they apply particularly to business policies, institutions, and behavior. Thus, business ethics is the study of what constitutes right and wrong, or good and bad, human conduct in business context.
Business ethics is a study of moral standards and how they apply to the systems and organizations through which modern societies produce and distribute goods and services, and to the people who work within these organizations. Business ethics is a form of applied ethics. It includes not only the analysis of moral norms and moral values, but also attempts to apply the conclusions of the analysis to the assortment of institutions, technologies, transactions, activities and pursuits, like business.
There are three different kinds of issues that business ethics investigates: systemic, corporate and individual issues. Systemic issues in business ethics are ethical questions raised about economic, political, legal, and other social systems within which businesses operate. These include questions about the morality of capitalism or the laws, regulations, industrial structures, and social practices within which businesses operate.
Corporate issues in business ethics are ethical questions raised about a particular company. These include questions about the morality of the activities, policies, practices, or organizational structure of an individual company.
Finally, individual issues in business ethics are ethical questions raised about a particular individual or particular individuals within a company. These include questions about the morality of the decisions, actions, or character of an individual.
Corporate Organizations and the Individual
Organizations are composed of human individuals and they act only when these individuals choose to act. Corporate organizations and their acts depend on human individuals. Thus, corporate acts originate in the choices and actions of human individuals, it is these individuals who must be seen as the primary bearers of moral duties and moral responsibility. Human individuals are responsible for what the corporation does because corporate actions flow wholly out of their choices and behaviors. If a corporation acts wrongly, it is because of what some individual or individuals in that corporation chose to do; if a corporation acts morally, it is because some individual or individuals in that corporation chose to have the corporation act morally. Nonetheless, it makes perfectly good sense to say that a corporate organization has moral duties and that it is morally responsible for its acts.
Moral Standard to Multinational Corporation
Multinationals, because they operate in many different countries, are faced with a number of unique ethical dilemmas. As they operate in countries at different levels of development and with different standards and norms, they must determine which risks and which standards are ethically appropriate for a given country.
Because different societies have different ethical beliefs, ethical relativism is the theory that there is not rational way of determining whether an action is morally right or wrong other than by asking whether the people of this or that society believe it is morally right or wrong. Ethical relativism views that there are no ethical standards that are absolutely true and that applies or should be applied to the companies and people of all societies. Instead, relativism holds something is right for the people or companies in one particular society if it accords with their moral standards and wrong for them if it violates their moral standards.
The ethical relativist correctly reminds us that different societies have different moral beliefs, and that we should not simply dismiss the moral beliefs of other cultures when they do not match