Business
Business is a part of human society. It plays
its role in the complex web of interactions
inside the society. Its functions and ways
must be governed with a high task of ethics
and morality. Business without ethics
threaten society’s stability, growth, and
progress.
Ethics
1. is the branch of study dealing with what
is the proper course of action for man;
2. answers the question, "What do I do?"
3. is the study of right and wrong in human
endeavors;
4. is the method by which we categorize our
values and pursue them;
5. is man’s means of deciding on the course
of action to take; Without Ethics, our
actions would be random and aimless. It is
the practical science of the MORALITY OF
HUMAN ACTS.
Human Acts
These are actions that proceed from the
deliberate free will of man. Therefore, these
actions are done with the knowledge and
consent, and is willfully carried out by the
person (Roa, 2011).
1. Free and Voluntary acts of man
2. Done with Knowledge and Consent
3. Proper to man being a Rational
being
4. Done consciously and entails
responsibility.
Act of Man
These are actions that naturally exhibited
by man and are morally indifferent (neutral)
because these actions cannot be judged to
be ethical or unethical (Roa, 2011).
1. Natural Involuntary Acts - these
are actions of man that are performed
involuntarily (e.g. metabolism, heart
beating, breathing)
2. Natural Voluntary Acts - these are
actions that are within the control of
man’s will for some time (e.g. sleeping,
walking, running)
Morality
The quality of goodness or badness of a
human act.
Morals
This refers to an individual’s own principles
regarding right and wrong. These are
Principles or habits with respect to right or
wrong conduct. These are also the
prescribed dos and don'ts, morality is
ultimately a personal compass of right and
wrong.
Human Acts in relation to Reason
Good Acts - actions done by man in
harmony with right reason.
Evil Acts - actions done by man in
contradiction to the dictates of right
reason.
Indifferent/Neutral Acts - acts that are
neither good nor evil.
Factors of Morality
1. Society
This is mainly concerned with how people
are within a community is brought up in
that community. Society differs not just by
demographics but also by the differences of
the families and people living in them. People
who live in urban places differ greatly to the
practices, values, and way of doing things to
people who are born and raised in rural
areas.
2. Culture
Cultural differences in the Philippines
contribute to how they perceive whether an
act is acceptable or not. What may be
acceptable to Caviteños may not be
acceptable to Lagunenses. This also creates
barriers in terms of communication and
ultimately understanding. Language plays a
key role in morality for they are also
covered on whether which words are
acceptable and which are not.
The Norms of Morality
Conscience
It is defined as the practical judgment of
reason deciding upon an individual act as
good and is to be followed or as evil and be
avoided. This is considered by traditional
ethics as the proximate norm of morality.
Types of Conscience
● Antecedent Conscience
This happens when a judgment is made
before an action is done.
● Consequent Conscience
This happens when a judgment is made
after an action has been made.
● True Conscience
Concerns mainly of the strict following of
rules. Actions are judged as they are
disregarding circumstances.
● Erroneous Conscience
Judges things in a distorted manner with the
considering of morally unacceptable acts as
good and vice versa.
There are two types of this:
(1) Inculpable/Invincible, this means
the agent (person rendering
judgment) is without knowledge of
fault;
(2) Culpable/Vincible, this means the
conscience is wrong through the
agent’s fault.
● Doubtful Conscience
This happens when a person is uncertain
about a moral judgment.
● Scrupulous Conscience
This type sees a wrong where there is none.
● Lax Conscience
This is the opposite of the scrupulous
conscience. It is the kind of conscience
which fails to see the wrong where there is
a wrong.
Moral Standards
These deal with general rules about what
kind of behavior is considered right or
wrong, good or bad. They point to human
qualities relating to how people live together
in harmony and outline values that will
provide benefit or harm to the larger group
rather than an individual. When moral values
derive from society and government they, of
necessity, may change as the laws and
morals of the society change.
Sources of Moral Standards:
o Religion
o Culture
o One’s Own Life / SELF
Non-Moral Standards
These govern individual life, aspirations
and desires and may decide a person's place
in his group. Some non-moral standards of
any society could be the table manners,
general etiquette, grammar and language,
expectations, socially accepted measures of
aesthetics, rules of games, clothing, etc.
Etiquette
This refers to conventional requirements as
to social behavior. Proprieties of Conduct as
established in any class or community or for
any occasion. This is also being referred to
as the code of ethical behavior regarding
professional practice or action among the
member of a profession in them dealings
with each other.
Factors that affect Etiquette:
1. Physical
a. External Appearance
b. Grace
2. Psychological
a. Socialization/Upbringing
b. Heredity
3. Other factors
a. Schooling
b. Peers
c. Social Life
d. Marital Life
Morality dictates Etiquette or is it the other
way around?
Morality is based on what a person/society
deems correct or morally acceptable for
that certain moment while etiquette
dictates certain rules for a person to act as
for certain events in society.
Moral Principles have more weight than
etiquette.
Both are rules. Moral Principles are rules
about right and wrong actions while
etiquette set of rules for how to behave
rightly or wrongly that are generally
understood to be less serious than moral
rules.
Law
This is referred to as “crystallized ethics”.
Compared to Morality and Ethics, Law
regulates man’s external behavior while
Ethics and Morality examines the internal
disposition of man with regards to his
decisions.
Professional Codes of Ethics
These are written rules that encompass
Personal, Organizational and Corporate
standards of behavior expected of
Professionals (Roa, 2011).
Professionals are individuals who are,
1. capable of making judgments
2. capable of applying their skills
3. capable of reaching INFORMED
decisions.
The Determinants of Morality
The determinants of morality serve as the
measure of the goodness and the evilness of
a human act. The three determinants are:
● The End of the Action (ACT). - this
refers to the act itself and its
purpose.
● The End of the Actor (MOTIVE). - this
refers to the intention or the motive
of the doer of the action. The motive
of the agent is different from the
purpose of the action and this varies
per individual.
● Circumstances of the Act. - this
refers to the conditions that affect
the human act by increasing or
decreasing the responsibility of the
actor.
These are not part of the action per se but
these affect the morality of the act on
whether it could be morally justifiable or
unjustifiable. The following are considered
circumstances:
a. When – circumstances of time.
b. Where – circumstances of location or
place
c. How – refers to the manner or mode by
which the act is performed.
d. To whom – who or what the act is
directed to.
Principles of the determinants of Morality
(Glenn, 1968)
1. An indifferent act can become good or evil
through its circumstances.
2. A good act can become evil through its
circumstances
3. A good act can become better or an evil
act could become worse through the
circumstances.
4. An evil act can never become good
through circumstances but it can be morally
justifiable
5. A good act done with evil means destroys
the entire objective goodness of the action.
Lesson 2 - CODES OF RIGHT CONDUCT
COMMON VS GREATEST GOOD
COMMON GOOD - is the principle that
whatever serves the most number of
members in a community is considered
good. It usually whatever rules or actions are
required to reduce the disharmony in the
community
GREATEST GOOD - the principle that there
is a standard that people must
cooperatively strive for to maximize the
harmony in a community.
CODE OF RIGHT CONDUCT - was also
known as privacy and code of conduct, is a
defined set of rules, principles, values,
employee expectations, behaviors, and
relationships that a business considers
important and believes necessary for its
success.
CODE - a code has value just like an
internal guidelines and an external
statement of corporate values and
commitments. A statement of shared values
that is prescribed for right actions.
Therefore it is necessary that a code must
share characteristics with moral theory. A
good code, like a good moral theory, should
encompass internal consistency.
(2) Two types of Moral Theory
1. CONSEQUENTIALIST - focuses on the
outcomes of actions, settling on weather or
not an action is good by knowing the results.
Utilitarianism is a common theory of this
kind.
“The greatest good for the greatest
number.”
is a familiar phrase that shows this attitude.
2. NON-CONSEQUENTIALIST - centers on
the principle that an action is good based on
the principle people follow and regardless
of the results of the action.
Deontological theory means for duty or
obligation from the greek word “DEONTOS.”
A phrase that shows the attitude using this
approach is “people have an obligation to
respect the rights of individual.”
UTILITARIANISM
● Utility is any net benefit produced by
an action. The principle of utility
affirms that actions or behaviors are
right if they encourage happiness or
pleasure, wrong if they generate
unhappiness or pain.
● It attempts to answer the question
about what a man ought to do. The
answer to this is that he ought to act
to create consequences. This
consequences includes all of the good
and bad produce by the act, whether
after act has been perform or during
its performance.
THREE THINGS NAMELY WHAT IS GOOD
WHAT IS GOOD?
Jeremy Betham - equated utilitarianism
to a view called “HEDONISM” that means
only things that is good in itself is pleasure
and happiness.
HEDONIST - regard food, friends, freedom,
and may other things as “instrumental.”
INTRINSIC GOODS - good in themselves
and not because they make some further
value thing.
WHOSE WELL-BEING - Utilitarian logic can
be used for both moral reasoning and
rational decision-making.
a. Individual self-interest – individuals
consider only their own utility when
deciding what to do.
b. Groups – People also need to judge
what is best for groups, like friends,
families, religious groups, one’s
country, and even the world.
 c. Everyone affected – ‘Peter Singer’
emphasized that utilitarian moral
theory requires moral judgments
which he framed as “equal
consideration of interest.”
ACTUAL CONSEQUENCES - Utilitarian's
opposed the idea that judgments of right and
wrong should be based on the actual
consequences of actions or their foreseeable
consequences.
Deontology - It is an approach that focuses
on the rightness or wrongness of actions
themselves.
Other Types of Deontology
1. Divine Command Theory - This is a
form of deontological theory which
means an action is right if God has
declared that is right , and that an act
is obligatory if and only if it is
commanded by God.
2. Natural Rights Theory - This theory
holds that humans have absolute
natural rights. A natural right is based
on a political theory that every person
has basic rights that the government
cannot deny.
3. Contractarian Ethics - It refers to
both the theory in political philosophy
on the legitimacy of political
authority, and the ethical theory
concerning the origin, or legitimate
content, of moral norms; social
contract - is the thought that the
people give up some rights to a
government and/or other authority in
order to receive, or jointly preserve,
social order.
4. Pluralistic Deontology - It is a
description of the deontological ethics
Advocated by W.D. Ross. He argues
that there are seven prime duties
which should be considered when
deciding which duty should be acted
upon:
a. Duty of beneficence – to help other
people to improved their conditions like
increase their pleasure, improve their
character, and so on.
b. Duty of nonmaleficence – to avoid
harming other people.
c. Duty of justice – to ensure people get
what they deserve
d. Duty of self-improvement – to improve
oneself
e. Duty of reparation – to recompense
someone if one has acted wrongly towards
them.
f. Duty of gratitude – to return favors that
others have done
g. Duty of fidelity- to keep promises both
explicit and implicit promises, including the
implicit promise to tell the truth.
LESSON 3 - CLASSICAL PHILOSOPHY
USED IN BUSINESS ETHICS
FOUNDATION OF THE PRINCIPLES OF
BUSINESS OF BUSINESS ETHICS
SOCRATES
“HAVE THE COURAGE TO DISAGREE.”
He is best known for the Socratic method of
question and answer. The Socratic method
is a way of thinking that allows individuals
to define their own purpose for learning. In
business, administrators ought not to
sleepwalk or basically oblige the group.
PLATO’s CLASSIC PHILOSOPHY
“THE POWER TO RULE”
His prime belief was that a person must
study themselves in order to find out their
level of character. He is acclaimed for his
choices regarding the matter of the real
world. In business, it is constantly vital to
know the qualities and shortcomings of
everybody.
 ARISTOTLE’S CLASSIC PHILOSOPHY
“LET PEOPLE SEEK FULFILLMENT.”
He was the most practical and business
oriented of all philosophers. In business, the
association must give and condition that is
conducive to human development and
satisfaction.
CONFUCIUS
The most famous for his golden rule: DO
NOT DO UNTO OTHERS WHAT YOU DO
NOT WANT OTHERS DO UNTO YOU, and
his famous classic philosophy is LIVE A
CONTENTED, MORAL AND HAPPY LIFE.
Confucian values can aid in the creation of
business leaders who are true leaders of the
society.
PLUTARCH
The ancient Greek historian and educator,
understood that humans are incredibly
social creatures, who constantly observe
the people around them and imitate them.
He is famous in his philosophy, “BE A GOOD
ROLE MODEL.” In organizational terms, it
means, what you say to your employees is
less important than what you do. They will
watch how you behave, how you treat
others, how you cope with pressure and
whether you follow through on your
promises, and they will imitate you, they will
follow your lead.
EPICTETUS
“BUILD A FLEXIBLE MINDSET.”
Epictetus coped with this insecurity by
constantly reminding himself what he
could control and what he couldn't. We can
control our thoughts, beliefs and attitudes,
but everything else is to some extent out of
our control – other people's perceptions and
behavior, the economy, the weather, the
future and the past. If you focus on what is
beyond your control, and obsess over it, you
will end up feeling helpless. Focus on what
you can control, and you will feel a measure
of autonomy even in chaotic situations.
RUFUS
“KEEP TRACK OF YOUR
ETHICAL PROGRESS.”
Musonius Rufus was known as the Socrates
of Rome. He was another Stoic, who taught
that philosophy cannot just be theoretical.
If you want to be an ethical individual or an
ethical company, you can't just study ethics,
you have to practice it, every day, to get into
good habits. The ancient Greek word for
ethics is actually the same word for habit.
You also need to keep track of your progress,
to see how you're doing. You can't just rely
on your intuitions, because they're often
wrong. So the ancient Greeks learned to
keep accounts of themselves. They would
track their daily behavior in journals, keeping
account of how many times they lost their
temper.
EPICURUS
“THE ART OF HAPPINESS”
Epicurus was a fourth century Greek
philosopher who taught, rather
scandalously, that the aim of life was simply
to be as happy as possible here on Earth. He
warned that humans are very bad at being
happy, and very good at inventing reasons
to be miserable. Today, some companies are
embracing Epicurus' philosophy, and trying
to teach their employees the art of
happiness.