Business Ethics

6 Pages 1486 Words

"What is ethics?" Simply put, ethics involves learning what is right or wrong, and then doing the right thing, but "the right thing" is not nearly as straightforward as it seems to be.

"Ethics is the careful study of standards of behavior that apply to real-world problems and decisions. It gives us insights into what we should do."
The minute we put the word ‘should’ in a sentence, we are probably talking about ethics. Colleges should (or should not) take race into account in admissions. Health care coverage should (or should not) be a substantial part of the state budget. Although ethics deals with right and wrong, it is not a discipline that always leads everyone to the same conclusions. It is not the captive of liberals or conservatives.
Of course, there are situations that are wrong by any standard. The recently reported advise given by former Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay to the investors to hold on their investments in the company while he himself kept selling the shares of the company is a case in point. But there are other issues where right and wrong is less clear. To guide our reflection on such difficult questions, philosophers, religious teachers and other thinkers have shaped various approaches to ethical decision-making.

Many philosophers consider ethics to be the "science of conduct." Ethics includes the fundamental ground rules by which we live our lives. Philosophers have been discussing ethics for at least 2500 years, since the time of Socrates and Plato. Many ethicists consider emerging ethical beliefs to be "state of the art" legal matters, i.e., what becomes an ethical guideline today is often translated to a law, regulation or rule tomorrow. Values, which guide how we ought to behave, are considered moral values, e.g., values such as respect, honesty, fairness, responsibility, etc. Statements around how these values are applied are sometimes called moral or ethical principles.

Most ethical dilemmas...