Chapter 4

Quality Management, Ethics, and

Corporate Social Responsibility
 Objectives
• After reading the chapter and reviewing the materials
presented the students will be able to:
• Define ethics
• Understand Integrity and Total Quality
• Know the Manger’s role in Ethics
• Perform ethics Training
• Handle Ethical Dilemmas
• Define Corporate Social Responsibility
 Definition and Overview of Ethics
• Ethics is about doing the right things within a
moral framework.
• Ethics is the practical application of morality.
• The ever present challenge is not just
determining what is right but doing what is
right.
 Guidelines for determining ethical
behavior
• Just because a choice made is legal does not mean it is
ethical.
• A person’s behavior can be well within the prescribed limits
of the law and still be unethical.
• Some tests for determining ethical behavior assume the
behavior in question is legal.
• By applying any one of the tests (morning after test, front
page test, mirror test, role reversal test, common sense test)
a person should be able to see through the gray area
surrounding an issue and determine the ethical route to take.
 Trust and Total Quality
• One of the best ways managers can build trust is to protect
the interests of those who are not present at the moment as
if they are.
• When a manager speaks up for someone who is not present
but is being questioned or attacked, employees get two
simultaneous messages:
• 1. Talking behind a colleague’s back is not acceptable
behavior.
• 2. If this manager does not let me talk about fellow
employees who are absent, he or she will not let others talk
about me when I am absent.
 Values and Total Quality
• Ethical behavior begins with values.
• Values that lead to ethical behavior include fairness,
dependability, integrity, honesty, and truthfulness.
• These values tend to encourage a work environment
that involves, empowers, values, and nurtures
people: one that not only holds people responsible,
but also gives them support, leeway and resources
needed to fulfill their responsibilities.
 Integrity & Total Quality
• It is important for managers in a total quality
setting to understand that although honesty is
fundamental to it, integrity is more than
honesty.
• People with integrity can be counted on to do
the right thing, do thing correctly, accomplish
tasks thoroughly and completely, finish work on
time, and keep promises.
• The same is true of organizations.
 Responsibility & Total Quality
• Part of ethical behavior is accepting
responsibility.
• Accepting responsibility is critical in the
modern workplace because employees are
drawn from a society that, as a rule shuns
responsibility – which is why ours has become
such a litigious society.
 Manager’s Role in Ethics
• Managers have three main responsibilities:
• 1. They are responsible for setting an example
of ethical behavior.
• 2. They are responsible for helping employees
make ethical choices.
• 3. They are responsible for helping employees
follow through and exhibit ethical behavior
after the appropriate choice has been made.
 Approaches to Ethics
• Three approaches managers can use in carrying out their responsibilities
related to ethics:
• 1. Best Ratio Approach: When hard decisions must be made, managers
should make the choice that will do the most good for the most people.
This approach is sometimes called situational ethics.
• 2. Black and White Approach: When difficult decisions must be made,
mangers should make fair and impartial choices regardless of the
outcome and do the right thing without concern for short term
circumstances.
• 3. Full Potential Approach: Decisions are made based on how they will
affect the ability of those involved to achieve their full potential. Choices
that can achieve this goal without infringing on the rights of others are
considered ethical.
 Organization’s Role in Ethics
• Managers cannot establish ethical standards
without support from all levels above them in
the organization. An organization’s task in ethics
can be summarized as:
• 1. Create an internal environment that
promotes, expects, and rewards ethical
behavior.
• 2. Setting an example of ethical behavior in all
external dealings.
 Setting an Example
• Organizations that take the “Do as I say, not as I do” approach
to ethics will not succeed.
• Employees must be able to trust their employer to conduct all
external and internal dealings in an ethical manner.
• Companies that do not pay their bills on time, companies that
pollute, companies that fail to live up to advertised quality
standards or stand behind their guarantees, and companies
that are not good neighbors in their communities fail to set a
good ethical example.
• Such companies can expect employees to mimic their
unethical behavior.
 Corporate Social Responsibility
• Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a
balanced approach for organizations to
address economic, social and environmental
issues in a way that aims to benefit people,
communities, and society.
 Summary
• Ethics is about doing the right things within a moral framework.
• Just because a choice made is legal does not mean it is ethical.
• One of the best ways managers can build trust is to protect the interests of those who are not present at
the moment as if they are.
• Values that lead to ethical behavior include fairness, dependability, integrity, honesty, and truthfulness.
• People with integrity can be counted on to do the right thing, do thing correctly, accomplish tasks
thoroughly and completely, finish work on time, and keep promises.
• Managers have three main responsibilities: 1. They are responsible for setting an example of ethical
behavior. 2. They are responsible for helping employees make ethical choices. 3. They are responsible for
helping employees follow through and exhibit ethical behavior after the appropriate choice has been
made.
• Three approaches managers can use in carrying out their responsibilities related to ethics: 1. Best Ratio
Approach 2. Black and White Approach 3. Full Potential Approach.
• Organizations that take the “Do as I say, not as I do” approach to ethics will not succeed.
• Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a balanced approach for organizations to address economic, social
and environmental issues in a way that aims to benefit people, communities, and society.