paper on personal ethics development that examines your personal ethical system and ground rules, including its origins and development. o Incorporate the terms found in the University of Phoenix Material: Key Terms located on the student Web site. o Focus on the developmental aspect of your ethics rather than on a particular position on any issue. o Define your underlying ethical system, its primary principles, the sources that helped shape your ethics—such as people, institutions, events, and so forth—and the criteria and decision-making factors you used to revise them. o Discuss the potential effect of your ethics on your performance or use of them in your workplace using a specific personal example. o Explain why ethics are needed in an organization and how ethics are integrated into the organization to achieve its direction and goals. What effect does the application of these ethics have on individuals, organizations, and society? • Format your paper according to APA standards. • Submit your paper to the Plagiarism Checker. Submit it for review and provide a copy of the report to your facilitator with your assignment.
Personal Ethical Development
Given the almost collapse of the very foundation of the financial industry in the United States which then rapidly metastasized to a financial and economic crisis with global proportions, ethics and ethical behaviours in doing business and the lack of it was one of the major factors why the mortgage meltdown happened. Thus, it is even more necessary now that organizations focus on the personal ethical developments of all of its individual members. This paper aims to explore the developmental aspect of one's ethics including the importance of ethics and ethical systems.
It is interesting that the above observation was also made by Wong and Beckham (1992) almost two decades ago in doing a post mortem for the failure of several savings and loan financial institutions. Furthermore, Wong and Beckham (1992) identified two ethical theories that can guide the development of one's ethics: 1) utilitarianism and 2) Ross's prima facie dutie.
In the development of one's ethical persona, it is possible that ethical decisions will be based on whether the proposed action, which is morally right, leads to the greatest ratio of benefits compared to costs. In other words, the action should result to the highest utility to all people affected by the decision. On the other hand, personal ethics development primarily based on the utility model could result to ethical decisions that are moral, but didn't account for "justice and other principles that society embraces" (Wong & Beckham, 1992, p. 175). In other words, the ethical character of an individual is at best should be developed from both the utilitarian model and the principles that society follows.
According to Rae (2000), an ethical system can be classified as "either-oriented systems or virtue-based systems" (p. 17). Furthermore, these systems are further subdivided into the deontological, teleological and relativism systems.
In a deontological system, it is supposed that a person's ethics and decision making is affected mostly by virtue or moral absolutes and guiding principles. This is very pronounced in Christian ethics. Thus, decision making in governed by the deontological system is whether an action is inherently right or wrong (Rae, 2000, p. 17). Furthermore, deontological systems are then based on divine command theory, natural law and ethical rationalism.
On the other hand, teleological systems state that the "end result produced by an action" (Rae, 2000, p. 17) significantly affect the ethical decision making of a person. Relativism meanwhile the ethical development of an individual is directly related to what the culture of the society he belongs to believe as right or wrong, and the person's preferences. An individual's preferences are affected by six pillars of character as identified by the Josephson Institute (2010) which are claimed to be apolitical, not based on religion or culture.
These six pillars of character are trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship. Particularly, a person is said to be trustworthy when he or she has integrity, keeps promises and loyal. An ethical person knows how to respect other people and their ideas. Moreover, he or she also takes accountability of his own words, actions and attitudes (Josephson Institute, 2010). He is also fair in treating other people and the same time shows compassion. Of course, an ethical person knows no one is above the law and thus "[obey] laws in good faith" (Josephson Institute, 2010).
According to Trevi�o and Nelson (2007), ethics is comprised of "[the] principles, norms, and standards of conduct governing an individual or organization" (p. 13). Thus ethics in the workplace and business form the basis in determining the correct action, or moral behavior, in a particular situation. Specifically, Trevi�o and Nelson (2007) stated that in ethical decision making, the following steps can be followed:
1. Gather the facts
2. Define the ethical issues
3. Identify the affected parties
4. Identify the consequences
5. Identify the obligations
6. Consider your character and integrity
7. Think creatively about potential actions
8. Check your gut
Thus, one's ethics has significant impact on the performance of a person and how such ethical principles and beliefs are used in the workplace. For example, Fear and O'Brien (2009) explored the reaction of Australian on the way that credit is being pushed on vulnerable and ill-informed consumers. The researchers study was timely as "Australia's love affair with easy credit turned on itself" (Fear & O'Brien, 2009, p. 3) and went the way the United States pioneered in this newest financial crisis. Moreover, they have identified that the advertising and marketing practices of several financial institutions in Australia contributed significantly to the deterioration of financial decision making in the country (Free & O'Brien, 2009, p. 3). Thus it seems that there are instances an individual abandons ethical principles and beliefs in the workplace in the pursuit of corporate or personal goals such as higher profits and bonuses.
Nevertheless, there is a strong need for ethics in the organization and in achieving the firm's directions and goals. Foremost is that overriding priority such as the search of higher and higher profits to the exclusivity of ethical behaviours is a very short term focus. Business literature is littered with high fliers who eventually met their downfall once their unethical behaviours caught up with them. Let us take Enron for example. Before its collapse, Enron was the largest energy company not only in the United States, but in the world. When it became apparent that its tremendous growth was a result of accounting shenanigans perpetuated by top management, the company's downfall was irreversible.
Moreover, from the Enron debacle, we all learned that if businesses do not shape up, the government will eventually did through laws and legislation. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2001 serves as a guide for managers in implementing and maintaining internal controls over financial reporting. Otherwise, management can be held legally liable.
Furthermore, with the globalization of business, competition has become a lot more intense, thus a company needs all the competitive advantages it has. One of these advantages is the adoption of corporate social responsibility programs or CSRs. Peter Drucker as quoted by Tetrault Sirsly (2009) said that "the social impact of business decision, making a profit the first social responsibility and the ultimate responsibility: to make what is for the public good the enterprises' own self-interest" (p. 78). Thus, it is without doubt that ethics and ethical behaviour is an integral part of doing business.
References
Fear, J. & O'Brien, J. (2009). Where does the buck stop? Community attitudes to over-lending and over-spending. Australasian Accounting Business & Finance Journal, 3 (1), 3-12.
Josephson Institute (2010). The Six Pillars of Character. Retrieved February 11, 2010, from
Rae, S. (2000). Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics. Washington: Zondervan.
Tetrault Sirsly, C. (2009). 75 years of lessons learned: chief executive officer values and corporate social responsibility. Journal of Management History, 15 (1), p. 78.
Trevi�o, L. & Nelson, K. (2007). Managing Business Ethics: Straight Talk About How to Do It Right (4th ed). New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
Wong, Al. & Beckham, E. (1992). An Applied Ethical Analysis System in Business. Journal of Business Ethics, 11 (3), 173-178.