Transcript
Developing Ethical Behaviour in our leaders Chapter 8
Ethics – study of moral philosophy, helps us dealt with abstracts concepts such as: good, truth, justice, love, virtue, compassion, and ultimately what is right or wrong. Socrates felt that - We must be bound by morality – what is wrong or right and must not be influenced by our emotions or what might happen to us.
Morality is a social construct – existed before individual or organizations cam into existence. Ethically accepted practices vary across cultures.
Difference between ethical and legal behavior: ethics and law are both moral conventions. Ethics are not legislated and are not punishable as lawbreakers. We can not assume that law abiding is also being ethical. Many civil protests have been because laws were seen as unethical.
Most ethical dilemmas are because of two competing ethical concerns and the judgment required to sacrifice one for the greater good of the other. Jackson stated that there are 2 difficulties in ethical business behavior. 1. Difficulties in identification or what is your duty and 2. Difficulties in compliance – doing your duty once you know what it is. So even once we have undergone analysis to make ethical decision we still must face the challenge of putting that decision in practice.
Guidelines by nature are based on past experience and not particularly adaptable to new situations.
Code of ethics in business – some companies have created them but there is no evidence of that they actually practice it. Businesses are ethical only when the business leaders themselves act ethically.
Ethical behavior should be of concern only in as much as they affect profits. It can be argued that acting otherwise could be seen as neglecting the fiduciary responsibilities of management.
The Business ethics Gap (Table8.2 Ethical stance in business)
The ethical position of the business
Example
Negative ethical gap: The organization positions itself so that it’s ethical practices lag behind societal expectations and actively resists pressures, particularly as they effect profitability.
The Ford Pinto: Ford Motor Company chose to aggressively contest all lawsuits and legislation brought against it for culpability in the design and manufacture of gas tanks in its Pinto automobiles, which were prone to catch fire in rear-end collisions.
Ethical congruence: The organization
identifies changing societal expectations and
positions its products or service to meet those
Expectations.
The retail food industry: As concerns grew about our food supply (preferring organic, avoiding genetically modified, being unhealthy in other ways) food producers developed product lines in response to those concerns. Such products often command a premium price.
Positive ethical gap: The organization
positions itself so that its ethical practices
exceed societal expectations, actively setting a
standard and perhaps providing leadership in
The development of ethical practices.
Volvo and safe cars: Volvo adopted safety as its ethos, in its products as well as all of its processes. It began making its cars safer long before safety standards were legislated by governing bodies. For example, seat belts were introduced in 1959 but were not required in Sweden until 1975.
A road map to ethical decisions: Table 8.3 Three alternative roadmaps for ethical decisions
Type of unethical roadmap
Advantages
Disadvantages
Deontological/Contractarian: Ethical decisions are made against relatively unchanging principles that set out our rights, roles and duties. Contractarian theory would dismiss any consequential damage of our ethical choices as long as the choice was consistent with agreed principles. Unfortunately, such consequences may well be morally unacceptable. It is unrealistic to attempt to justify standing by our principles, regardless of the outcomes.
Such principles can be well understood and interpreted, and what is ‘right’ can be clearly defined.
Outcomes are not considered: adherence to principles could lead to a lesser good.
Utilitarian/outcome morality: Ethical decisions are made based on outcomes, the path which will likely lead to the greatest good.
Flexibility in ethical
Decision-making will lead to the best outcome.
The processes are not considered, so even unethical or unlawful means of achieving the best outcome can be employed.
Moral judgment: Ethical decisions are made based on internal moral virtues that support a life worth living. These two dimensions lead to the identification of character traits or virtues. The social dimension is based on the fact that we need to live in a community. the virtues of the
Social dimension promote peace in the community. By contrast, the aspirational virtues promote inner peace. They are what help differentiate humans from other community dwelling creatures, for they give us the sense that we have space to accomplish something, to find a purpose for our lives, to develop a sense of personal fulfillment. The virtues associated with the aspirational dimension include prudence or sensibility, ambition, enthusiasm, modesty and self knowledge.
Ethical decisions rest on internal strength of character traits and morality, and balance emotion and judgment
Methods to assess and develop internal virtues are not well established and decisions must still be made within an external context.
Leadership and ethical behavior:
It is very clear that the actions of organizational leaders impact on the resultant behaviors of their employees. It is the leaders who have the ability to establish and communicate organizational values and then ensure compliance through the imposition of rewards and sanctions. When a leader is perceived to have a high level of integrity, the ethical intentions of his or her subordinates, whether they have strong moral beliefs or not, will be higher. Advising and judging are an important part of morality and implicit in the role of organizational leadership. By its very nature, ethical behavior is difficult to define, as most dilemmas are the result of two competing ethical considerations: both outcomes are preferable but not possible. Nevertheless, leaders’ actions, or lack of action, will profoundly affect the ethical stance of their organizations. And the ethical stance chosen will certainly affect shareholders and stakeholders alike. There appears to be little doubt that good ethics is good business.
Learning Summary;
Ethics is a branch of moral philosophy that can assist us, as organizational leaders, in making decisions about what is right and what is wrong.
Behavior considered unethical, may not, however, necessarily be unlawful.
Ethical behavior has two components: finding what is right, and then doing what is right.
Mechanisms such as ethical codes of conduct and whistleblower policies do not appear to ensure ethical behavior; the actions of top executives, however, are effective.
There is some support for the view that good ethics is a good long-term business strategy.
Organizations may adopt an ethical stance that lags societal expectations, is congruent with expectations, or actually leads and perhaps influences expectations.
A company with a strong ethical culture will probably find it to be an asset in coping with crises.
Ethical decisions may be defined through three roadmaps: in congruence with established principles (deontological), in view of the outcome that is likely to be best (utilitarian) or through the character of the individual (moral judgment).
Advising and judging are ethical requirements of the leadership function.
Asking basic questions about whether an action harms people or the environment, affronts human dignity, provides personal gain or needs to be hidden will help us understand whether or not the action is ethical.
