ethics in the workplace © 2012 cengage learning. all rights reserved. chapter 2 ethical principles
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ETHICS in the WORKPLACE© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Chapter 2
Ethical Principles
ETHICS in the WORKPLACE© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
CHAPTER 2
Ethical Principles How can we assess whether a decision is
right or wrong? Is a moral decision one that tends to lead
to favorable outcomes, or is it one that was made for good reasons in the first place?
Do we have a duty to “do good” and to respect the rights of others?
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ETHICS in the WORKPLACE© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
CHAPTER 2
Objectives Evaluate the role of consequences in
ethical decision making. Explain the concepts of human rights,
moral duties, and moral virtues.
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ETHICS in the WORKPLACE© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
CHAPTER 2
Key Terms and Concepts value system consequences egoism principle utility principle right principle of rights duty
principle of duties universality respect for persons virtue principle of virtues golden mean
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ETHICS in the WORKPLACE© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Basing Morality on Consequences Not all people look at ethical issues and
questions the same way. People living in the United States come from
many different backgrounds, and each can have its own unique value system, meaning its own way of viewing ethical right and wrong.
A person’s ethical beliefs are affected by life experiences, peer groups, and other factors, some of which are not yet understood.
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ETHICS in the WORKPLACE© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Basing Morality on Consequences There are some ethical answers, however,
on which most people agree because humans share many common ethical principles.
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ETHICS in the WORKPLACE© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Consequences Consequences are the effects or results
of what people do. A typical way of considering morality is to
think of actions as having good or bad consequences. A moral action is one that brings about good
consequences. An immoral action is one that causes bad
consequences.
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ETHICS in the WORKPLACE© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
FIGURE 2-1
Consequences
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ETHICS in the WORKPLACE© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
The Egoism Principle The egoism principle is the idea that the
right thing for a person to do in any situation is the action that best serves that person’s own long-term interests.
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ETHICS in the WORKPLACE© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
FIGURE 2-2
Egoism
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The egoism principle maintains your only moral obligations are to yourself.
ETHICS in the WORKPLACE© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
The Utility Principle The utility principle is the idea that the
morally right action is the action that produces the best consequences for everyone involved, not just for one individual.
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ETHICS in the WORKPLACE© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
FIGURE 2-3
Utility
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The utility principle maintains you have moral obligations to others.
ETHICS in the WORKPLACE© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Strengths of Consequential Ethics They are fairly easy to use, and they
seem very natural to people. It is wise to consider the consequences of
an action before deciding whether or not to take it.
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ETHICS in the WORKPLACE© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Weaknesses of Consequential Ethics Require you to accurately predict the
consequences of your actions. Do not consider any action to be always
right or always wrong. Allow people to exploit or harm individuals
for their own benefit or for the benefit of the larger group.
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ETHICS in the WORKPLACE© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Basing Morality on Rights, Duties, and Virtues Another way of thinking about ethics is in
terms of rights, duties, and virtues. These three principles very often lead to
the same conclusion, or “right answer” to an ethical dilemma.
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ETHICS in the WORKPLACE© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Rights A right refers to a way in which an
individual is entitled to be treated by others.
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ETHICS in the WORKPLACE© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
The Principle of Rights According to the principle of rights, an
action is considered moral when it respects the rights of others and immoral when it violates another’s rights.
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ETHICS in the WORKPLACE© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
FIGURE 2-4
Individual Rights
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The principle of rights maintains good or bad consequences are not what make an action right or wrong.
ETHICS in the WORKPLACE© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Strengths of the Principle of Rights Gives people a great deal of moral
freedom. People can do whatever they want as long
as they don’t violate the rights of others.
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ETHICS in the WORKPLACE© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Drawback of the Principle of Rights People do not always agree on what their
rights are.
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ETHICS in the WORKPLACE© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Duties A moral duty is an ethical obligation that
one individual has to others. Notice that this definition is the opposite of
the one given for a right.
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ETHICS in the WORKPLACE© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
The Principle of Duties The principle of duties maintains that
you should do what is ethically right purely because you have a moral obligation to do so.
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ETHICS in the WORKPLACE© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
FIGURE 2-5
Moral Duties
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The principle of dutiesmaintains that you should do what is ethically right purely because you have a moral obligation to do so.
ETHICS in the WORKPLACE© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Immanuel Kant A classic explanation of ethical duties
came from the German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724–1804).
Kant believed sound reasoning will lead all people to accept two main ethical principles: universality and respect for persons.
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ETHICS in the WORKPLACE© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Universality The concept of universality is the idea
that you should act as you would want others to act in the same situation.
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ETHICS in the WORKPLACE© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Respect for Persons According to the concept of respect for
persons, it is always wrong to use other people in ways that harm them for your own benefit.
In other words, it is wrong to take unfair advantage of others for personal gain.
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ETHICS in the WORKPLACE© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Strength of the Principle of Duties This principle motivates people to the
highest levels of ethical behavior.
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ETHICS in the WORKPLACE© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Weaknesses of the Principle of Duties Concepts like universality and respect for
persons are extremely challenging to live up to.
People do not seem to agree with one another about what their moral duties are.
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ETHICS in the WORKPLACE© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Virtues A virtue is an ideal character trait that
people should try to incorporate into their lives.
These traits are considered good in themselves, not good because of their consequences. An action that is consistent with virtues is
considered to be good, or moral. An action that conflicts with virtues is considered
bad, or immoral.
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ETHICS in the WORKPLACE© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Examples of Ethical Virtues Honesty Loyalty Respect Responsibility Self-discipline Compassion Courage
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ETHICS in the WORKPLACE© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
The Principle of Virtues The principle of virtues states that ethics
is based on being a good person, that is, on incorporating ideal character traits into your life. One’s moral duties and the rights of others are
not especially relevant. The principle of virtues would judge stealing to
be inherently bad because it is inconsistent with the kind of person you should want to be.
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ETHICS in the WORKPLACE© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Aristotle More than 2,000 years ago, the Greek
philosopher Aristotle wrote that the key is simply to make the virtues habits.
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ETHICS in the WORKPLACE© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Making a Virtue a Habit If you don’t think of yourself as an
especially kind person, make up your mind to do one act of kindness today.
Then do another kind act tomorrow, and so on.
Eventually kindness will become a habit to you; at that point, kindness will have become ingrained into your character.
You will be a kind person.
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ETHICS in the WORKPLACE© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Golden Mean Precisely what does it mean to be
courageous or generous? How do you know when you have
achieved kindness or truthfulness? Aristotle addressed such questions with a
unique concept called the golden mean, defining virtues as perfect balances between opposite and undesirable extremes.
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ETHICS in the WORKPLACE© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Strength of the Principle of Virtues Virtues encourage people to achieve high
levels of moral behavior.
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ETHICS in the WORKPLACE© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Weakness of the Principle of Virtues Some actions might promote one virtue
while violating another. When such a conflict exists, people do not
always agree on which virtues are most important.
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