Factors to Determine Ethical Behavior Essay

Scott I couldnt agree to a abundanter extent. And nowhere is this more unpatterned than in corporate America. We see morals at play e real the time, with Bernie Madoff and his Ponzi scheme, the Enron s rousedal, Exxon, BP, and many an(prenominal), many more illustrations. Ethical mien can make or break a company. Diane Sure, I remember mass passing up Exxon stations after the Valdez accident several years ago same with the BP oil spill. Boycotts against companies happen alone the time if they forget they build to be good corporate citizens, in addition to turning a profit.Scott I think the disclose here, in a discussion of ethics though, is what meets good and unethical behavior. Can we give people any kind of a framework that might help to easily determine what is seen as train behavior and what needs changing in a corporate displace? Diane Of course And while none of these ideas argon foolproof, in general, they cover the absolute majority of signs or problems t o confront out for and be aw ar of. You encounter to look at the individual employees stage of moral development, their individual char act uponeristics, the anatomical structure of the company, the company culture and then look at how big the issue itself re altogethery is.Scott Well, Im interested in a a couple of(prenominal) concepts that Ive never re wholey heard of before. Talk to us a little slightly the stages of moral development.Diane Gladly. There are three directs implicit in(p) in moral development. You contrive the pre-conventional level, which deals with consequences from the outside dictating moral behavior Scott So, an example might be my grandfather, whoalways talked just virtu ally the nuns who taught at his Catholic discip decipher breaking out the rulers. That would be pre-conventional, right field? Diane Exactly. Its all close to how outside punishment or reward affects the choices people make amid what is right and what is wrong.Scott So, if thats pre-conventional, Im betting that the second level is conventional, then. People just living up to the standards of society what other people believe for the most part is right and wrong. Diane That is it exactly, and that leads to the third level, which is the principled level. This is beyond responding to an outside stimulus or to our own notions of what others believe is right and wrong. At the principled level, people now look inside themselves and make a determination removed from all those other factor ins affecting what they believe is right or wrong behavior. Scott Well, that does make a lot of sense. So then, what are the individual characteristics that can have an influence on moral behavior?Diane Values and personality are the two functions that govern these individual characteristics. A persons individual values begin developing during childhood and continue to develop through experiences, discussions with other people and interactions with family, friends, teachers , religious figures, and others. A persons value system is very broad and includes many different areas. Personality deals more with two specific ideas, that of ego force play and locus of control.Scott Sure, ego strength influences a persons convictions. If you have a high degree of ego strength, then moral convictions result be easier to hold. Locus of control isnt a concept Im too familiar with though.Diane A persons locus of control has to do with fate. approximately people believe they have a lot of control in their lives, while others believe that things are leave to the wind. Those who have an internal locus of control believe they are in control, while those who have an external locus are more happy to believe that things allow happen to them because of fate or luck or mere happenstance. Scott So I know weve talked before about how a company is structured whether or not it is centralized or decentralized. That plays a significant role as well, correct? Diane It does, v ery much so. The more hands touch something, the less likely it is that any strict controls direct in place will stick. The less people you have managing a process, the more tightly the controls can be monitored. This of course would be incorrect if you had, say, one person managing everything who was inherently unethical. Then at that place would be nonentity to call them to account.The structure of a company is a significant factor in the ethical behavior put into practice. Scott The ethical behavior of individuals is entrancing and all, but what about the ethical behavior of organizational culture? Some companies encourage transparency and ethical behavior at all times. They have realized that openness and honesty are good for the bottom line in the long run and ensure a strong warmheartedness brand. Other companies may not overtly tell people to act unethically, but have individual bad actors inside the corporation who might encourage people to do things they shouldnt. Dia ne Exactly. And we all know examples of this. We hear about chemical companies dumping dangerous waste that contaminates ground water, about posterior companies lying about how dangerous and addictive their product is, or about banks and the robo-signing scandal during the last recession.All of these activities, while not necessarily con breaked by everyone across the enterprise, were OKd by certain people in spite of appearance the corporation and seriously damaged the brands involved. Scott And of course, this is where issue intensity is important, because while we dont like to admit it, some unethical behaviors are worse or more impactful than others. While all unethical behavior should be avoided, dumping toxic chemicals into water that could kill thousands of people could arguably be seen as worse than, say, an employee who is skimming a few dollars here and there from a company. Both are bad, wrong, and can cause harm, but the characteristicsthat determine issue intensity s how us that there are then levels of unethical behavior, and they can determine the likelihood of this kind of behavior occurring in the future.Diane And these characteristics greatness of harm, consensus of wrong, probability of harm, immediacy of consequences, proximity to the victim, and concentration of effect all play a role in determining when and why something unethical might occur. The less these factors play a role, the more likely for dissembler or other unethical behavior to occur. If the victim isnt seen, if the consequences are far in the future, or if the behavior only affects one person, the opening for unethical behavior is likely to see a jump.Scott And to talk more about this, wed like to welcome to the show Scott Hyder, attorney at law. Diane Hello Scott welcome to our show. Let me ask you, how does ethics play a part with respect to certain professions that require licensing to do business? Scott Hyder Well, its incredibly important particularly in very regu lated businesses such as businesses where you need a license. Im an attorney and so every attorney has to follow a certain set of ethics guidelines regardless of the state that youre in. Every state has passed very elaborate ethical rules that are approved by the states irresponsible Court and its not a matter of if, or a matter of choice, or just a matter of morals when hobby the ethical rules. Its a matter about whether your license will be revoked if you dont and many times youre violating ethical rules unintentionally its usually NOT an intentionalthing.It goes anywhere from disclosing customer confidences to wrongful accounting practices, even if they are innocent mistakes. So, we really have to be careful as lawyers because if we dont comply with these rules, all it takes is one clients bar complaint to open up the flood gates. A client could complain about poor usefulness from a lawyer, file a complaint with the state bar who regulates all lawyers but, by the end of the day, even if the clients complaint about the service of the lawyer is frivolous, the attorney could be sanctioned for other unrelated things that become apparent as a result of the investigation.Its very common, for example, for a complaint to be filed but ultimate charges are utilise that have to do with wrongful accounting practices, competence issues and if that kind of thing happens, your license can be suspended and if its very egregious, it can be revoked. Scott Very interesting discussion, Scott, thank you so much for all your time. Diane And thank you all of you listening. Weve appreciated your time and hope that youve gained a great deal from this content.Scott Until next time