• Ethical Decision Making Process

● What are relevant facts?

● What are ethical issues?
● Who are stakeholders?
● What are possible alternatives?
● What are ethics of alternatives?
● Ask questions based on Rights perspectives.
● Ask questions based on Justice perspectives.
● What are the practical constraints?
● What actions should be taken?
 Principles of personal Ethics

• Personal values are the conception of what an individual or a

group regards as desirable.
• Personal ethics might be called morality, since they reflect
general expectations of any person.
• The principles of personal ethics are:
1. Concern and respect for autonomy of others
2. Honesty and the willingness to comply with law of land.
3. Fairness and the ability not to take undue advantage of
others.
4. Benevolence and preventing harm to any creature.
•  People are motivated to be ethical for following reasons:
1. Most people want to maintain clear conscience and would like to act
ethically under normal circumstances.
2. It is natural for people to ensure that their actions do not cause any
injury, whether physical or mental, to others.
3. People are obliged to obey laws of land.
4. Social and material well-being depend on one’s ethical behavior in
society.
 Principles of Professional Ethics
● A profession is a vocation that involves specific branch of advanced learning
like doctor, advocate, professor, scientist, business manager etc.
● There are certain basic principles people are expected to follow in their
professional career. These are following:
● Impartiality
● Objectivity
● Openness
● Full disclosure
● Confidentiality
● Trust
● Due diligence/duty of care
● Fidelity to professional responsibilities
● Avoiding potential or apparent conflict of interest
 Code of conduct and Ethics for managers

● Integrity (Morally upright)

● Impartiality
● Responsiveness to the public interest
● Accountability
● Honesty (Fair, just and sincere)
● Transparency
 Evolution of ethics over the years
• Ethics has been part of theological discussions since 1960
• Ethical issues were mostly discussed as part of social science.
• By 1980s, Business Ethics was taught in several universities in US and
Europe.
• By the year 1990, business ethics as management discipline was well
established.
• Parallel to academic pursuits, around the time from 1960s to 1980s, the
Consumers’ Association in Britain multiplied its membership and
campaigned hard on issues such as consumer rights, quality, safety,
price, customer service and environmental concerns
• Early 1990s saw increased concern for the environment.
• Around the same time religion also lent its powerful voice about morality
in business.
Honesty, Integrity and Transparency are touchstone
of business Ethics
● Ethical corporate behavior is reiteration of wisdom “Honesty is the best policy”.
● Dramatic collapse of fortune 500 companies such as Enron and Worldcom or Anderson showed that
even successful companies could ultimately come to grief if their managers do not practice the
basic principles of integrity.
Distinction between value and ethics
• Values are personal in nature (Providing customer satisfaction and
paying good to employees) while ethics is a generalized value
system(Avoiding discrimination in recruitment and adopting fair
business practices).
• Business ethics can provide general guidelines within which
management can operate while values offer alternatives to chose
from. For ex. Philanthropy is a value
• Values vary among managers in an organization which can be
source of conflict at the time of business strategy formulation and
implementation.
• One group may be interested in standardization and mass
production while other group may stress marketing related
objectives quality, variety , small-log production etc.
 Roots of unethical behavior
● Lying, Bribery, Coercion, conflicting ● According to data given by ethics
interest etc. officers associations , 1997
● Pressure to balance work and family
certain practices contribute to
● Poor communications
unethical behavior in following
● Poor leadership
manner
● Long work hours
● Balancing work and family 52%
● Heavy workload
● Poor leadership 51%
● Lack of management support
● Poor internal communication 51%
● Pressure to meet sales or profit goals
● Little or no recognition of ● Lack of management support
achievements 48%
● Company politics ● Need to meet goals 46%
● Personal financial worries
● Insufficient resources