Management Conflict and EthicsTitle: Management Conflict and EthicsNetpanna Yavirach, Asst,prof.,Department of management, Faculty of Business Administration, Rajamangala Institute of TechnologyIn what sense can it be said that an organization can, as a whole, be ethical of unethical? What characteristics (e.g. structures, policies, powers, responsibilities, codes, cultures, procedures) would mark out an ethical organization?
Business ethics is an applied ethics. It is the application of our understanding of what is good and right to do. A discussion of business ethics must begin by providing a framework of basic principles for understanding what is meant by the terms “good” and “right”. In popular usage the term “ethics” has a variety of different meanings. One of the meanings often given to it is: the principles of conduct governing an individual or a group. We use the term “personal ethics” to refer to the rules by which an individual lives his or her personal life, and use the term “accounting ethics” to refer to the code that guides the professional conduct of accountants (Velasquez (1988).,p.11). Ethics is concerned with the moral judgments involved in moral decisions. Ethics does not study all normative judgment, only those that are concerned with what is morally right and wrong, or morally good and bad. When something is judged to be morally right or wrong, or morally good or bad, the underlying standards on which the judgment is based are moral standards. Moral standards include both specific moral norms and more general moral principles. Moral norms are standards of behavior that require, prohibit, or allow certain specific kinds of behavior. Prohibitions against lying, stealing, injuring, and so on, are all moral norms. Moral principles are much more general standards that are used to evaluate the adequacy of our social policies and institutions as well as of individual behavior.
For profit organization, business ethics is a specialized study of moral right and wrong. It concentrates on how moral standards apply particularly to business policies, institutions, and behavior. Business enterprises are the primary economic institutions through which people in modern societies carry on the tasks of producing and distributing goods and services. They provide the fundamental structures within which the members of society combine there scarce resources, land, labor, capital and technology. They provide the channels through which these goods are distributed in the form of consumer products, employee salaries, investors return, and government taxes. Mining, manufacturing, retailing, banking, marketing, transporting, insuring, constructing, and advertising are all different
The ethics of business ethics are highly defined and can be found in the following sections.
The Ethics of Business Ethics in Everyday Life
There are various ways business may be ethical. The most ethical method of dealing with business matters involves the concept of business ethics.
A business has the ability to be ethical by virtue of their professional and technical practices. For example, if a corporation is forced into a profitable arrangement, the profits or losses will be taken out of the company. The company should avoid any of the ethical violations in order to achieve a profit. If the corporation makes some other bad behavior such as the failure to do business with a customer, the company’s legal obligation to pay will be met. If the same customer was brought in for some reason the company should take some care to ensure that the customer was not forced into the deal or forced to provide further services to the company in the same way as the customer. Any of these steps can be found in any number of traditional and financial ethical practices.
Businesses also have a variety of other ethical conduct that they can undertake—e.g., dealing with legal obligations and disputes in the law. In some instances, such as in a business setting, lawyers might come to the company and speak favorably to the business or provide valuable guidance to the management on how to proceed. In its own way, ethical conduct is based on ethics. Businesses may use ethical rules to manage conflicts. For instance, legal obligations may not always be enforced in the circumstances, but may be implemented through customary legal procedures. If that means business practices need to undergo changes, then ethical conduct might be a reasonable option. Many ethical practices are made for their own reasons. For example, a business may try to eliminate some human rights abuses, such as corruption, by trying to improve ethical policies and practices. It may attempt to improve the quality of the service performed by its members, and so adopt new ethical rules and practices. The business may also employ ethical managers, sometimes called “legal advisers,” who may be responsible for resolving cases among employees.
It should be noted that ethics are very different from political opinion, where people may be given political opinions, but do not receive the same level of public moral esteem and respect. Ethics are not a political view only. Some employees may decide to change their positions depending on how they feel about the particular policy changes they are being asked to recommend and how they feel about those changes. This kind of political action is known as ethical political action because it is based on a principle termed “politically incorrect thoughtfulness.” The ethical political action of the executive may be made by people in positions of power of the government. It involves public approval, approval, and disapproval. An ethical public service is a sort of political advocacy that encourages citizens to use their influence to improve the health and economic well-being of the country or in the interests of all the citizens. Examples of such political advocacy can be found in political debate, public discussion, or public education. As can be expected in today’s democratic society, many groups often do not know how they can make their voices heard in the debate on various issues, and that usually leads to conflicts. Thus, people often decide that they don’t need to vote when deciding on what moral