
RSM100-CH3: Business Ethics
3.1.Ethics in the workplace
•Ethics:
individual standards/moral values regarding what is right and wrong or
good and bad
based on both individual (personal) beliefs and social concepts
important in workplace: different ambiguity in every situation--- social
may adopt formal laws that reflect prevailing ethical standards (social
norms)
*Law covers ethics but not all
• Behavior
Ethical: conforms to individual beliefs and social norms about what
is right and good
Unethical: individual beliefs and social norms define as wrong and
bad
It is determined half by the individual and half by the culture
•Business ethics: ethical or unethical behavior by a manager or employee of an
organization
•Managerial ethics: standards of behavior that guide individual managers in
their work
Behaviors:
1). To employees: hiring and firing, wages and working conditions
2). To organization (employer):
www.notesolution.com

-conflict of interest: occurs when an activity benefits and individual at the
expense of the employer (Ex. Accepting gifts from suppliers)
3). To other economic agents (between firms)
•Assessing ethical behavior (which is ethical and which or unethical)
Gathering information (utility, rights, justice, caring)
|
Analysis
|
Judgment
•Company Practices and business ethics
-Federal law-enforcement personnel routinely surf the web
-using email to test employee loyalty
-demonstrate top management commitment to high ethical standards
•Adopting written codes
-code of ethics: formal, written acknowledgment of a company’s intent to do
business in an ethical manner
3.2.Social responsibility
•Corporate social responsibility (CSR): refers to the way in which a business
tries to balance its commitments to organizational stakeholders.
-its customers, employees, investors, suppliers, local community
•Organizational stakeholders: that are directly affected by the practices of an
organization and that therefore have a stake in its performance
www.notesolution.com