THE FOUNDATIONS OF ETHICAL BEHAVIOR
Companies and those who work for them must act responsibly wherever they go. However, a look at ethical behavior tends to focus on individuals - those who finally make the decision of how to behave . Top management can determine the values a company espouses and to which employees must adhere. Such values are generally included in a Code of Conduct(discussed at the end of the chapter ) and in the behavior of other individuals in the organization, especially , peers and superiors . In order to ensure adherence to those values ,management will try to hire individuals , who are willing to work in the type of ethical environment it is trying tocreat. However , people still must make the decision about how they are going to act in any given situation.
The sections below will examine the cultural and legal dimensions of ethical behavior in a global context. First , though let 's briefly examine the broad foundations of ethical behavior.
There are three levels of moral development .
- Level1 . the preconventional level, where children learn what is right and wrong but wrong but don't necessarily understand why their behavior is right or wrong
- Level 2 the conventional level , where we learn role conformity , first from our peers (including parents ) , then from societal laws . One could argue that company codes of conduct are also part of the conventional level of behavior in the narrow context of a company rather than a society . However , it is likely that these codes also reflect the values of the company’s home country
- Level 3 the postconventional, autonomous , or principled level , where individuals internalize moral behavior , not because they are afraid of sanctions , but because they truly believe such behavior is right
It is possible that behaviors under Level 2 and Level 3 are the same as long as individuals accept the laws where they live , or the codes of conduct of the companies they work for, as consistent with what they believe is correct .
when individuals confronted with ethical decisions enter the realm of moral reasoning, they examine their moral values , especially as related to levels 2 and 3 above , and decide what to do . One method of doing so , the teleological approach , holds to the idea that decisions are based on the consequences of the action . Utilitarianism , a consequences based theory of moral reasoning , means that " an action is right if it produces , or if it tends to produce , the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people affected by action . Otherwise , the action is wrong . A second method , the deontological approach . asserts that we make moral judgments or engage in moral reasoning independent of sequences . It implies that actions are right or wrong per se . " In other words , ethics teaches that " people have a responsibility to do what is right and to avoid doing what is wrong. When individuals engage in moral reasoning , they use one the other of these methods, or possibly some mixture of the two
When an individual moves abroad, moral reasoning becomes very complicated. Consequences may vary due to legal differences, and what is right or wrong may depend to an extent on local values. People need to figure out how make moral decisions and so do the companies they work for. Two questions arise here: Why should companies and individu –als care about ethical behavior? And what are the cultural and legal foundations of ethical behavior when it comes to adapting to a foreign environment?