ETHICS as the

FOUNDATION of
GOOD
GOVERNANCE and
SOCIAL
RESPONSIBILITY
 DEFINITION OF ETHICS AND
MORALITY

ETHICS is the study of moral behavior or the

conduct of man. It derived from the Greek
word ethos which means character. It is a
branch of philosophy which deals with
morality of human act.
MORALITY aims to understand the nature of
human actions. It comes from the Latin word
moralio which means manner. It studies and
determines what are the considerations used in
identifying what is right and wrong and which
actions should be considered as good or evil.
 ETHICS MORALS
Meaning Describe what is right, Duties or rules that
what is fair, what is govern behavior of
proper person
What are they? Theorical Rules for everyday life
Consistency Uniform Differs from person to
person
Tells What is morally What we want to do or
correct or incorrect, in achieve
the given situation
Source Social system/ external Individual/ internal
Why we do it? Because society says it Because we believe in
is the right thing to do. something being right
or wrong
What it does? Controls Motivates
 Human Act and Act of Man

 Human Act
 Is the action that stems from the deliberate free will of
man.
 Deliberately and knowingly.

 Act of Man
 Without using the intellectual and free will
Attributes that can be qualified as human
act:

1. Conscious
2. Freedom
3. Decide willfully
 Elements Determining Morality

 Object or the action itself – in order to judge the morality

of human act, we must consider the act itself.
 Purpose or end – it is the reason for which an act is
performed, or the intention o the agent.
 Circumstances – are those factors, distinct from the act
itself and from the purpose, which may affect the morality
of the act.
Relating Ethics to Religion and Law

1. Religion
Religion is a system of beliefs and practices in the unknown and
superhuman. It is particularly associated with the belief of God or gods.

- Religion has largely shaped the human civilization.

- Religion and Ethics are not the same as many people usually
believe.
3 Advantages of divine command from God
by Lawrence Hinman
 1. Ultimate reckoning – believing that God will balance
the scales (the just and good will be rewarded while the
evil will be punished)
 2. Religion as motivation to be good – religion provides
practices and structures that support its values.
 3. Religion as liberating – it uses religious faith to gain
equality and freedom.
2. Law

Law is a system of rules that are created and enforced by

government or social institutions in order to regulate
conduct. Its purpose is to promote well-being and social
harmony, which also involves resolving conflicts of interest.
Rebellion and coup d’etat

EDSA Revolution

Oakwood Mutiny

Abortion
 Illegal by Law
Not allowed to feed the pigeons in St. Mark’s
Square in Venice, Italy

Wearing high heels is banned in Greece, especially

in historic sites.

Wearing high heels is banned in Greece, especially

in historic sites.Eating during Ramadan is
punishable by imprisonment in UAE.
 Illegal to leave your house without wearing
underwear and illegal o step on the money in
Thailand.

Illegal to chew bubble gum as it is considered as

rude manners in Singapore.

Main purpose of the law is the promotion of general welfare

and maintenance of social order.
 Sources of Moral Values
1 . External Sources:
 Religion – religion and faith is the basic source of morality
in most societies because it shapes the way people think
about and respond to the world, fosters habits such as
church attendance and prayer, and provides a web of social
connections.
 Philosophical Values provides principles or morals in the
same way it gives us the principles of mathematics
 Cultural Values
Culture is a broad synthesis of societal norms and values
emanating from everyday living.
Modern sources that has impact on manager’s and
employees’ thinking such as music, movies, television, video
games, social networking and the Internet.

 Legal Values – the law represents the codification of what

the society considers right and wrong or fair.
 Professional Values are values emanating from
professional organizations an societies that represent
various jobs and positions.

2 . Internal Sources:
Socialization process is to learn and adopt the predominant
values of that organization. Certain norms must be
internalized, honored and perpetuated in order to survive and
succeed.
Internal Norms

 Respect for the authority structure

 Loyalty to bosses and the organization
 Conformity to principles, practices, and traditions
 Performance counts above all else
 Results counts above all else
The Concept of Responsibility

 Harm Principle by John Stuart Mill explained that a

person’s actions should be controlled at some extent. This
means that a person can do anything EXCEPT for acts
that may cause damages to him and to the society.
 The Principle of Double Effect
 It justifies that certain actions that results in indirect
consequences are acceptable
Conditions to be met:
1. The action itself must not be morally evil.
2. The bad effect must not be used as a method to produce
good effects.
3. The evil effect is sincerely not intended, but merely
accepted.
4. There is an acceptable reason for performing the action.
 Proportionality of an Action

1. The type of goodness or evil involved – a necessary good will

outweigh a merely useful good.
2. The urgency of the situation – the necessity to take action can be
influences by the urgency of the situation.
3. The certainty or probability of the effects – this must be
considered since an absolute right can outweigh a serious harm that
is unlikely to happen.
4. The intensity of one’s influence on the effects
- there is an underlying cause of the evil side effect.
5. The availability of alternate means – if the good effects can be
obtained by a method where there are less or no harmful side
effects, then it is unreasonable to choose the greater evil. It should
be stressed that should the choices are only evil, then we should
choose the lesser one.
All these factors should be considered in making
judgment about the proportionality of the
morality of an action, While this method will not
result in an immediate decision, at least, it will
narrow the area of doubt.
Elements of Moral Judgment
1. Moral Imagination
 Refers to the ability to perceive that a web of competing
economic relationships is, at the same time, a web of moral or
ethical relationships.
 Able to see more clearly the presence of ethical issues and develop
creative ways for dealing them
 Developing perspective of searching out subtle areas where people
are likely to be harmfully affected by adverse decision making or
behaviors of people.
9.2 Moral Identification and Ordering
 Ability to discern the relevance or nonrelevance or moral
factors that are introduced into a decision-making situation.
 After the moral issues have been identified, they must be ranked
according to relevance and priority.
9.3 Moral Evaluation
 Is the practical, decision phase of moral judgment and entails
essential skills, such as coherence and consistency that have proved
to be effective principles in other contexts.
 To integrate the concern for others into organizational goals,
purposes, and legitimacy.
9.4 Tolerance of Moral Disagreement and Ambiguity
 An extension of a managerial aptitude that is present in practically
all decision-making situations managers face.
 Includes ability to hear, discuss and be respectful toward other
people’s lives.
9.5 Integration of Managerial and Moral Competence
 A manager who is capable of integrating morality with his role.
9.6 Sense of Moral Obligation
 It requires the intuitive or learned understanding that moral threads
– a concern for fairness, justice, and due process to people, groups
and communities- are woven into the fabric of managerial decision-
making and are the integral components that hold systems together.
 Members:
 Lloren, Sheila Grace P.
 Pontillo, Rodman
 Costino, Maribel
 Fructoso,, Scott James
 Balaydo, Marlyn
 Taer, Nesrille G.
 Sugano, Klirtjay B.
 Canal, Lucy
 Cuzares, Georgie
 Adajar, Shenna May
 Loor, Jessa