Question

The subject is principle of profissional ethics

Golden mean in professional ethics

1.Why do some businesspeopple make what appear to be the right ethical choices, Whilst some do things that are immoral or even illegal?

2..Are people how make these unethical decision naturally bad, or are there other reasons that can expain the numbers of ethics problems in business?

3.do people have different ethical belifes and values at work from those they have at home?

Answer 1

1. Why do some business people make what appears to be the right ethical choices, Whilst some do things that are immoral or even illegal?

While ethical behavior may seem as if it is the normal course of business, it’s unfortunate that some business people and some businesses do not operate ethically. Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, HealthSouth, and Lehman Brothers among other companies, have been highlighted in the news during the past several years due to unethical behavior that resulted in corporate scandals and, in some cases, the conviction of senior executives and collapse of some companies. While business has never been immune from unethical behavior, it was the fall of Enron in 2001 that brought unethical business behavior on the part of senior executives to the forefront. Enron began as a traditional energy company in 1985. But when energy markets were deregulated (prices were determined based on the competition rather than being set by the government) in 1996, Enron grew rapidly. The company began to expand to areas such as Internet services and borrowed money to fund the new businesses. The debt made the company look less profitable, so the senior management created partnerships in order to keep the debt off the books. In other words, they created “paper companies” that held the debt, and they showed a completely different set of financial statements to shareholders (owners of the company) and the government (U.S. Securities Exchange Commission [SEC]). This accounting made Enron look extremely profitable—it appeared to have tripled its profit in two years. As a result, more people bought stock in the company. This lack of disclosure is against the law, as publicly traded companies are required to disclose accurate financial statements to shareholders and the SEC. There began to be speculation about the accuracy of Enron’s accounting, and on October 16, 2001, the company announced a loss of $638 million. On October 22 of that year, the SEC announced that Enron was under investigation. The stock price continued to fall, and the company was unable to repay its commitments to its shareholders.

Not all behavior that is unethical is illegal. Companies frequently are faced with ethical dilemmas that are not necessarily illegal but are just as important to navigate. For example, if a travel company wants to attract a lot of new customers, it can honestly state the price of a trip to Disney World in its advertising and let customers decide if they want to purchase the trip. This would be ethical behavior. However, if the company advertises a free vacation in order to get customers to call, but the free vacation package includes a $500 booking fee, it is unethical. Or if an appliance store wants to get new customers by advertising a low-priced refrigerator, it is an ethical way to let customers know that the company has competitively priced appliances as well. However, if the store only has a higher-priced refrigerator in stock and tries to sell that one instead, it is unethical behavior.

Sometimes ethical behavior can be a matter of disclosure, as in the case of Enron, Bernie Madoff, or the examples above. Business ethics can also be challenged based on business practices. For example, in the 1990s Nike was accused of exploiting workers in third-world countries to manufacture their products. The low wages they were paying the workers made Nike’s profits higher. Aaron Bernstein, “Nike’s New Game Plan for Sweatshops,” BusinessWeek, September 20, 2004. While this is not illegal behavior—they were paying the workers—it was considered unethical because they were paying the workers less than what is reasonable. Another example of unethical behavior is not disclosing information. For example, if a car salesperson knows that a used car he is selling has been in an accident but says that it has not been involved in an accident, that is unethical. Bribing an executive, saying or promising things that are knowingly untrue, or treating employees unfairly are all examples of unethical behavior in business.

2. Are people how to make these unethical decision naturally bad, or are there other reasons that can expain the numbers of ethics problems in business?

In the complex global business environment of the 21st century, companies of every size face a multitude of ethical issues. Businesses have the responsibility to develop codes of conduct and ethics that every member of the organization must abide by and put into action. Fundamental ethical issues in business include promoting conduct based on integrity and that engenders trust, but more complex issues include accommodating diversity, empathetic decision-making, and compliance and governance consistent with a company's core values.

Fundamental Ethical Issues

The most fundamental or essential ethical issues that businesses must face are integrity and trust. A basic understanding of integrity includes the idea of conducting your business affairs with honesty and a commitment to treating every customer fairly. When customers think a company is exhibiting an unwavering commitment to ethical business practices, a high level of trust can develop between the business and the people it seeks to serve. A relationship of trust between you and your customers may be a key factor in your company's success.

Diversity and the Respectful Workplace

Your current and potential employees are a diverse pool of people who deserve to have their differences respected when they choose to work at your business. An ethical response to diversity begins with recruiting a diverse workforce, enforces equal opportunity in all training programs and is fulfilled when every employee is able to enjoy a respectful workplace environment that values their contributions. Maximizing the value of each employees' contribution is a key element in your business's success.

Decision-Making Issues

A useful method for exploring ethical dilemmas and identifying ethical courses of action includes collecting the facts, evaluating any alternative actions, making a decision, testing the decision for fairness and reflecting on the outcome. Ethical decision-making processes should center on protecting employee and customer rights, making sure all business operations are fair and just, protecting the common good, and making sure the individual values and beliefs of workers are protected.

Compliance and Governance Issues

Businesses are expected to fully comply with environmental laws, federal and state safety regulations, fiscal and monetary reporting statutes and all applicable civil rights laws. For example, the Aluminum Company of America's (ALCOA) approach to compliance ensures no one at the company may ask any employee to break the law or go against company values, policies and procedures. The company's commitment to compliance is shored up by its approach to corporate governance: the company expects all ALCOA directors, officers and executives to conduct business in accordance with its business conduct policies.

3.do people have different ethical beliefs and values at work from those they have at home?

As human beings, we all have our own values, beliefs, and attitudes that we have developed throughout the course of our lives. Our family, friends, community and the experiences we have had all contribute to our sense of who we are and how we view the world. As community service workers, we are often working with people who are vulnerable and/or who may live a lifestyle that mainstream society views as being different or unacceptable. If, as community services workers, we are to provide a service that meets the needs of our target groups and helps them to feel empowered, we need to be aware of our own personal values, beliefs and attitudes and be prepared to adopt the professional values of our industry—and not impose our own ideas on our clients.

One of the responsibilities of workers is that we do not impose our own values and beliefs on the people we work with. That is, that we don’t provide options and services based on what we feel is right, but that we work with people in relation to what is right for them. We should always remember that it is their life and only they should make decisions about how they should live their life.

If you try to impose your own moral values on clients, you are likely to make them feel judged and to damage their self-worth. Moreover, they are likely to reject you and to reject your values too. If you are able to accept your clients, with whatever values they have, you may well find that as time passes they move closer to you in their beliefs. This is inevitable because we are, whether we like it or not, models for our clients and we have a responsibility to be good models.

Regardless of who the client is, and regardless of his or her behavior, he or she deserves to be treated as a human being of worth. If you respect your clients, they will, through feeling valued, be given the optimum conditions in which to maximize their potential as individuals.

It is essential that you are aware of your own values and beliefs so that you do not impose them (deliberately or unintentionally) on the people you are working with.

In order to leave your personal values out of the client/worker relationship, you need to aware of the impact they may have when you come across clients that do not behave in ways that you agree with—that is, clients who have different values and beliefs to you. You may find that with such clients you become judgemental or notice that you are encouraging clients to make a decision that reflects what you think they should do (based on your values and beliefs) rather than working with the client to come up with their own ideas about how to resolve the issue.

That is why it is so important to have ethical standards, so that we are operating by a professional set of guidelines, not what we personally think is right or wrong.