The Importance of Organizational Ethics Free Essays

In today’s world, it is all too prevalent to see more and more people hungry to gain success at an ever-increasing rate. Modern culture can and indeed is labelled ‘greedy’ and ‘thoughtless’. Through my relatively short time spent in business, I have encountered many of these types of people. We will write a custom essay sample on The Importance of Organizational Ethics or any similar topic only for you Order Now But who are they hungry for? Who benefits from their thoughtlessness, and why do they do what they do? More importantly, who is to blame when things don’t go according to plan? These are all questions asked constantly in the business domain, questions that often seem to include the word ‘ethics’ in their answer. Whether we look to consequentialism and always consider the outcome of a particular action, or conform to a more deontological form of ethical thinking and focus on always acting in a manner that seems ‘right’, I believe that a person cannot always be ‘ethical’, all of the time. If it were that easy, ethics would be a very small area of study. So what does the word ‘ethical’ mean? To me, it is to take into account every aspect involved in any given situation, peoples’ feelings, thoughts and well-being, both now and in the future, and act as best one can to achieve the most satisfactory outcome for all concerned. From my viewpoint, acting in an ethical manner comes from each and every individual, each having learned from the environment in which they have grown and developed. Should the judgement, therefore, always be left to the individual? This is certainly not the case, as more and more organisations in the business world develop codes of ethics that they expect each member to follow. This definition and management of ethics can be seen as a control-oriented position. This control paradigm for organisational ethics is largely concerned with extracting the best possible results for the organisation as a whole. When acting within a certain environment, be it local, national or global, the organisation must be seen to be ‘socially acceptable’. I believe this idea of control of the organisation’s self-interest together with maintaining a good standing in the public eye to be the main factor for preparing these ethical codes. Both of these can only be achieved through clearly defined codes of ethics from which individuals’ roles can conform through a manner of standardisation. However, through the enforcement of ethical codes, people revoke to a basic level of thinking, judgement and acting as identified in Lawrence Kohlberg’s pre-conventional level. When put simply, it allows little room for individual thought or expression, only rewarding good actions and punishing those that are bad. Can it be right to control tasks that involve ethical reasoning by individuals? This is certainly much different than, say, controlling how someone operates a particular machine. Conversely, the autonomy paradigm, present in some organisations’ ethical policies, is put in place to promote individual critique through their moral thought and judgement. It emphasises a feeling of a ‘moral community’, seen before in Kant’s work, and from which Kohlberg developed his post-conventional level, that allows people to apply their own reasoning to daily situations. As Durkheim suggests and with which I agree, individuals submit to the environment in which they work and how others have previously cast out norms and values. This applies to general situations and therefore the majority. At other times, in more complex situations, an individual would then be left to choose their own actions. McMahon identifies that the legitimacy of managerial authority lies within a contract or promise. An employee, therefore, willingly submits to the thoughts and ideals of the organisation when they sign the contract of employment. â€Å"That is, the exchange of labour for wages in which employment consists involves a promise on the part of employees to accept the directives of managers. To be sure, employees may be expected to use their own judgement in carrying out the tasks assigned to them. But if a managerial directive conflicts with an employee’s judgement, the directive must take precedence. Otherwise the employee is attempting to renege on a morally binding agreement† (McMahon, 1989). Whilst this in law is true, I feel that it should be left wholly to the individual’s own moral judgement. What is to say that those who have prepared the code of ethics for a particular organisation are better ‘ethically equipped’ to make the decisions for others? That is to say, why is a senior manager more ethically right than a lower employee? I don’t believe that as a rule he/she is, more they and others responsible for making the decisions would like to think they are. Yes they may have more experience in their particular industry or even technical and conceptual skills, but that does not make them better suited to exert their moral judgement over another individual’s. Once again, this control is clearly forcing employees back down to a Kohlbergian pre-conventional level. In such free-speaking times as we now live therefore, why do organisations attempt to dictate our thoughts and actions? As I earlier identified, the organisation does not want to be seen to be ‘socially unacceptable’ whilst simultaneously achieving the best possible results. Therefore, from where do the key decisions originate? Should it be left to the managers to ensure that employees follow an ethical code or should it be left to the individual’s judgement? In my view, autonomy is the generally the best approach as I am a firm believer in individual expression. We have moved from such times as to rule with an iron fist, we should go on from here and not regress. Do many organisations simply issue a code of ethics because it is the ‘done thing’, a reactive gesture rather than a proactive exercise? Is it the case that they are only acting merely not to appear unethical? This certainly is the case in many organisations in my opinion. What is left to examine is which organisation subscribes to which approach and for what reasons? I consider the major factor in this to be the issue of responsibility. The term responsible is â€Å"firstly, sometimes used to mean ‘trustworthy’ or ‘dependable’†¦ second, the term is used to mean ‘obligation’. Third, responsibility is sometimes used to indicate that an action or its consequences are attributable to a certain agent† (Velasquez, 1983). It is this third explanation that I shall focus on. Can corporations have moral responsibility? This is a question that certainly needs addressing here, and one that has been previously considered by Richard De George. He focused on collective responsibility as it related to organisations, and identified two views, the organisational view and the moralistic view. â€Å"The organisational view maintains that moral responsibility cannot properly be assigned either to a corporation, nor to the agents of a corporation when they act as corporate agents. As legal entities corporations can be legally restrained and can have legal responsibility. But they cannot logically be held morally responsible or have moral responsibility. For they are not moral agents or entities† (De George, 1981). His moralistic view, as he claims, is extremely outrageous. In essence, it states that organisations have moral immunity, whereby an individual could be morally condemned for their actions, they could not if they were pursuing the goals of their organisation. De George lists the example of morally condemning a murderer for their actions, but how â€Å"Murders Inc. cannot be faulted from a moral point of view for pursuing its goal, nor can its agents for doing what is necessary to achieve the organisation’s ends. Whilst this addresses the issue of whether organisations can be morally responsible, it does not answer the question. Therefore, we have to determine whether it is the organisation that acts, the management or the people. â€Å"Whenever organisations act, people act, and for every act of an organisation there are at least some acts of individuals such that if these individuals had not performed their acts, and no one else had, then the organisation would not have performed the act attributed to it† (Haworth, 1959). This quote, in my opinion begins to attribute responsibility wholly to individuals, and thus removes any need for a control-oriented approach. Since the organisation as an entity cannot be held responsible, why then should any body of people seek to control the moral judgement and actions of others? If I am likely to be held accountable for my actions, then I know I want to exert my own moral judgement before acting. Therefore, as it appears to me, it is the actions of the people (be it a manager or a cleaner) that are accountable, and consequently the people who are responsible! So why do some organisations take this control-oriented approach? I’m sure that with some it is simply to keep the power in their own hands; these people think they need to have power in order to be successful. However, I think a more pertinent reason as to why some organisations take this approach is to hide behind the organisation themselves. Many individuals within organisations are scared of the book stopping with them so they create a ‘code of ethics’ which, in terms of blame, is large enough to hide behind. Surely then, with the control-oriented approach the organisation should be responsible? On the contrary, with an organisation that employs the autonomous approach, each individual must be responsible for their own actions since they are solely attributable for every part of every move they make. In listing these two types of approaches and the degree of control that they attempt to possess, can it be said of any one organisation that it has successfully adopted a control-oriented or autonomous approach, and that there is no middle ground? I believe there to be a large scope for contention with any organisation that states outright it has employed one of the two approaches in its entirety. Perhaps the two approaches are simply styles of operating, maybe even ideal? Having looked into the two different styles, therefore, I think that to control someone’s moral and ethical thinking with the ultimate aim to enforce them to acting in a particular way is wrong. Each individual, unless impaired by disability, has the power to determine what is right for them in a certain situation and therefore should have the opportunity to act accordingly. A person should not be told what to think simply for the corporate ‘good’. â€Å"If we are to deter corporate wrongdoing and be assured that corporate members will comply with our moral and legal norms, our blame and punishment must travel beyond the corporate veil to lodge with those who knowingly bring about the corporation’s acts† (Velasquez, 1983). In conclusion, if we as individuals want the power to think and judge for ourselves then we must accept the consequences of our own actions. Organisations should give us this choice. How to cite The Importance of Organizational Ethics, Essay examples

Education and Life Expectancy Components Human Development Index

Question: Discuss about the Comparing HDI and ISEW. Answer: Human Development Index (HDI) Growing realization of the failings of the conventional GNP and income as the primary indicators of economic progress has led to the development of alternative yardsticks. After the failure of GNP on an international scale, two alternative yardsticks for assessing economic progress have emerged - The Human Development Index (HDI) sponsored by UNDP and the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW) developed jointly by economist Herman Daly and theologian John Cobb, (Takhar-Lail Ghorbani (ed), 2014). HDI measured on a 0 to 1 scale for an economy, is aggregated using three indicators, say (Arthur, Waring, Coe Hedges (ed), 2012): Longevity, Knowledge and availability of resources required for a progressive nation. Longevity is the life expectancy of a citizen. Knowledge is measured by adult literacy. GDP is used for the availability of resources per person after purchasing power is adjusted. Since all three are taken as National Averages of the nation, inequality of wealth among the population is not considered. Although availability of resources for longer periods does indicate higher levels of Literacy and Longevity, (Arthur, Waring, Coe Hedges (ed), 2012). Controversial and wide disparities among the nations is seen when nations are ranked using GDP as the basis for HDI, (Grbich, 2012). Costa Rica is ranked 40th in a HDI table, whereas South Africa, having GDP 27% higher than Costa Rica, is ranked 57th in the same table. Despite having a lower GDP, Costa Rica boasts of 92% adult literacy rate, compared to 85% in South Africa. Similarly, Life Longevity in Costa Rica is 13 years longer than in South African. Similar disparities, says (Grbich, 2012), can be found when comparing Argentina, Chile, Poland, and Yugoslavia. Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW) The Daly-Cobb Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW) is comparatively a comprehensive indicator of a nations well-being, as it takes into account the average consumption of the nation along with its distribution and environmental degradation. Although it has been implemented in the USA so far, as per (Takhar-Lail Ghorbani (ed), 2014), it is progressively introducing adjustments for consumption and an index for distributional inequality. The authors have also taken in several environmental factors, including depletion of non-renewable resources, loss of wetlands, loss of farmland and costs of air and water pollution. To take the effect of long-term environmental damages, it also includes factors effecting global warming and damage to the ozone layer, (Takhar-Lail Ghorbani (ed), 2014). Based on this methodology, welfare per person in the USA has been found to increase by 42% between 1950 and 1976. But the decade from 1977 to 1986 saw a decline in the ISEW and it fell by over 12 percent in this period, showing a decline in individual welfare in the USA. The main weakness of ISEW is the dependence of this methodology on information which is recorded only in few advanced nations. Data on air and water pollution and the availability of non-renewable resources is available in a few developing countries only, (Grbich, 2012). A similar drawback is applicable to HDI, which faces lack of reliable data on life expectancy, which astonishingly, is collected once in a decade in many of the Third World countries, (Arthur, Waring, Coe Hedges (ed), 2012). References Arthur, J., Waring, M., Coe, R. and Hedges, L.V. (ed). (2012). Research Methods and Methodologies in Education. London: SAGE. Grbich, C. (2012). Qualitative Data Analysis: An Introduction. 2nd ed. London: SAGE. Takhar-Lail, A. and Ghorbani, A. (ed). (2014). Market Research Methodologies: Multi-Method and Qualitative Approaches. Hershey, PA: IGI Global.

Terry Fox Essays - Terry Fox, Fiction, Sport In Canada, Batman

Terry Fox Terry Fox In Canadian history there are many famous people. In my mind one really stands out among the rest. His name is Terry Fox and he is one of the greatest athlete to run on the face of this planet. Terry discovered he had cancer and then decided to run across Canada. He was a brave man who would take what the world through at him. Running across Canada was his way to show the world that he was not going out with out a fight. Terry Fox was born in Winnipeg Manitoba on July 28 1958 Terry was raised in port Coquintlam, British Columbia. He was very athletic from a young age. When he was in grade eight Terry was rated nineteen out of nineteen on his basketball team. For that first season he was on the court for approximately one minute. This did not affect Terry and did not let it get to him, fore just two years later Terry was the starring player on his team. By the time he graduated he became one of two athletes to receive the schools highest athletic award. Terry knew that aches and pains are common in athlete's lives. At the end of his first year of university there was a new pain in his knee. One morning Terry woke up to see that he could no longer stand up. A week later Terry found out that it was not just an ache he had a malignant tumor; his leg would have to be cut off six inches above the knee. Terry's doctor told him that he had a chance of living but the odds were fifty to seventy percent. He also said that he should be glad it happened now fore just 2 years ago the chance of living was fifteen percent. The night before his operation a former coach brought Terry a magazine featuring a man who ran a marathon after a similar operation. Terry didn't want to do something small if he was going to do something he was going to do it big. "I am competitive" Terry said, "I'm a dreamer. I like challenges. I don't give up. When I decided to do it, I knew it was going to be all out. There was no in between Terry's sixteen month follow up he saw all the young people suffering and getting weak by the disease. He never forgot what he saw and felt burdened to thoughts that died to run this marathon. He was one of the lucky one in three people to survive in the cancer clinics. Terry wrote asking for sponsorship" I could not leave knowing that these faces and feelings would still be here even though I would be set free of mine, somewhere the hurting must stop... and I was determined to take myself to the limit for these causes." Terry got back into sports and joins a wheelchair basketball team. He took on his new challenge as he usually had. Terry made himself strong by pushing his wheel chair. He would push himself along the sea wall of Stanley Park in Vancouver or find a steep mountain of a log road and would go to his hands bled. Two years after Terry stated his training to run, so nobody could see him he ran his first half-mile in the dark. For fifteen months of training and after running 3159 miles his stump was raw and bleeding. Terry ran 101 days everyday he ran 23 miles a day and only stopped for Christmas because his mother asked him. Terry was always determined. One day when his artificial leg broke he hitchhiked home and fixed his leg and ran another 5 miles. He told his mother about his journey to run across Canada his mother told him he was crazy but when she told his father he simple asked "When?" Terry received his sponsorship and on April 12 1980 he dipped his artificial leg in the Atlantic ocean of the coast of St. Johns Newfoundland, there he began to run the greatest Adventure of his life, "I loved it," Terry said. " I enjoyed myself so much and that was what other people couldn't realize. They thought I was going through a nightmare running all day long. People thought I was going through hell. Maybe I was partly, but still I was doing what I wanted and a dream was coming true and that, above everything else, made it all worthwhile to me. Even thought it was so difficult, there was

The Word of the Year for 2012

The Word of the Year for 2012 The Word of the Year for 2012 The Word of the Year for 2012 By Mark Nichol Each year, the major dictionary companies trot out their choice for Word of the Year and its runner-ups, based partly on search frequency and partly on staff consensus. Note that these words are selected not for their staying power Words of the Year often fade into obscurity but for the significance of their usage in a given year. Merriam-Webster’s 2012 Word of the Year is a toss-up between capitalism and socialism, reflecting the controversy and debates about universal health care and discussion about the comparative government systems in the United States and in much of Europe. These words are straightforward except that they’re not: Capitalism is fraught with negative connotations (and not just by those who oppose the system), and many Americans, as an unfortunately lingering artifact of the Red Menace of the mid-twentieth century, confuse socialism (the concept, not the word) with communism and fear both even though the US government system, like many European ones, is irrevocably infused with socialistic components. Dictionary.com’s choice is bluster, which means â€Å"loud, swaggering, often empty boasts, threats, or other comments† an appropriate term, considering the unusually contentious political climate in the United States over the last year. The American arm of the Oxford Dictionaries chose GIF (pronounced â€Å"jif† and standing for â€Å"graphics interchange format†), thanks to the ubiquity of GIFs, simple animations consisting of a looped series of images, employed to humorous effect but also in scientific models and other contexts. They’re not new, but their place in popular culture has recently been elevated by the ease with which they are created. The selection by editors at Oxford University Press’s UK headquarters is omnishambles, which denotes a thoroughly mismanaged situation notable for a chain of errors. The sense is similar to the American English acronyms fubar and snafu, which originated among service personnel inspired with an ironic nod toward the military’s propensity for describing bureaucratic phenomena with abbreviations. (For the record, fubar stands for â€Å"fouled up beyond all recognition,† and snafu is an acronym for â€Å"situation normal all fouled up† except that I’ve substituted fouled for another word starting with f, as do many others who cater to their own or others’ delicate sensibilities when they spell these terms out.) Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the General category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Coordinating vs. Subordinating ConjunctionsAmong vs. AmongstMood vs. Tense

Pulp Fiction Movie Quotes

Pulp Fiction Movie Quotes The story of Pulp Fiction centers around two hit men: Jules Winnfield, played by Samual L. Jackson, and Vincent Vega, played by John Travolta. The movie is both funny and cruel, but  what stands out about the most in Pulp Fiction is its power-packed dialogues. One reason its such a classic is because of its superb acting combined with brilliant dialogue delivery, and when you read Pulp Fiction movie quotes, you can almost hear the voices of the actors inside your head. So sit back and let these Pulp Fiction movie quotes strike a nostalgic chord in you. Jules Winnfield Oh, Im sorry! Did I break your concentration? The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness. For he is truly his brothers keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you. If my answers frighten you, then you should cease asking scary questions. Whether or not what we experienced was an According to Hoyle miracle is irrelevant. What is relevant is that I felt the touch of God. God got involved. Hamburgers. The cornerstone of any nutritious breakfast. Hey, thats Kool and the Gang. Well, the way they make shows is, they make one show. That shows called a pilot. Then they show that show to the people who make shows, and on the strength of that one show they decide if theyre going to make more shows. Some pilots get picked and become television programs. Some dont, become nothing. She starred in one of the ones that became nothing. Vincent Vega It breaks down like this: Its legal to buy it, its legal to own it, and, if youre the proprietor of a hash bar, its legal to sell it. Its illegal to carry it, but that doesnt really matter cause- get a load of this- if you get stopped by the cops in Amsterdam, its illegal for them to search you. I mean, thats a right the cops in Amsterdam dont have. Why didnt you say something, Marvin? Slipped your mind? You forgot to mention someones in the bathroom with a goddamn handcannon? Its like a wax museum with a pulse. Play with matches, you get burned. I dont mean any disrespect; I just dont like people barking orders at me. Now, if youll excuse me, Im going to go home and have a heart attack. Well, you gotta have an opinion! I mean, do you think that God came down from heaven and stopped the...  [he accidentally shoots Marvin] Oh man, I just shot Marvin in the face.

Media Ethics - Lawyers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Media Ethics - Lawyers - Essay Example A novel tells of a kind and diligent lawyer, married with two children, who work tirelessly to put the evidence together to protect a house cleaner physically abused by his billionaire master. The lawyer shows so much kindness and cares to the client with an intention of helping her get justice. Due to the closeness, and the problem the lawyer is facing at home with the wife, the lawyer falls in love with the client and they engage in a sexual relationship. In the movie, Mr. Shawn exhibits a series of unethical activities through bribing the witness to lie to the court to set free individuals involved in crime. Most states have established clear rules that make bribing of witnesses or potential witnesses a crime against the state. For instance, in California, section 137(a) of the Penal Code emphasizes that an individual who offers, gives, or makes a promise of any form of bribe to a witness or another individual that is to be called upon to testify in relation to a given case, to convince them to a certain agreement or understanding commits a felony (National Council of State Legislators, 2015). Shawn bars the truth from the court from obtaining the truth and deceives the court to let an individual get away with a crime. Shawn’s actions go against the code of ethics that upholds honesty, as he tried to influence the decisions of the judge by attempting to bribe him. On the other hand, the lawyer in the novel also acted outside the code of ethics by engaging in a sexual relationship with the client.

Sensory Perceptions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 13

Sensory Perceptions - Essay Example A person’s knowledge will determine if he perceives information on people or things as accurate or inaccurate (Robinson, 1994). Perception refers to people’s sensory knowledge of the surrounding and entails both actions in reaction to stimuli or detection of environmental stimuli. Perceptual processes enable humans to acquire information about elements and properties of the surrounding, and also enable individuals to operate within their surroundings. The perceptual processes determine the accuracy or inaccuracy of a person’s sensory information. In addition, interpretation is created to divulge relationships, and meanings of people’s natural and cultural heritage, through involvement with landscapes and sites, artifacts, and objects. It also depicts how people perceive different circumstances through beliefs and thoughts. Interpretation helps people to believe whether sensory information is accurate or inaccurate (Robinson, 1994). The factors that may play a part in determining the accuracy of sensory information include reliability of observed facts, source of data and cognitive capacity, and the brain and interpretation of received data. The reliability of observed facts will play a role in determining if sensory information is accurate. Receiving sensory information through precise observations will give information and facts that are essential for accurate sensory perception or thinking connection. Also, source of data and cognitive capacity contributes to the accurateness of sensory information. The source of information or data should be got through the sense of touch, sight, smell, and hearing to acquire precise sensory information (Foster, 2000). An individual’s senses must be extremely sensitive to function like gauges, lenses, particle detectors, gauges, and amplifiers to nourish the brain to create accurate sensory perception of the received information. The brain and interpretation of received data also determines