Ethics can best be understood as an internal code that guides our behavior.

Ethics are influenced by concepts of morality and values.

What is the role or effect of morality on ethics?

Morality is the collection of values that guides our behavior.

It involves an understanding (of a societies view) of what is right and wrong and for justifying moral decisions.

Businesses promote shared moral values to support social cooperation and control – meaning it has lead us to accept and trust others.

Ethics is a systematic statement of right and wrong together with a philosophical system that both justifies and necessitates rules of conduct.

Ethics involves a rational method for examining our moral lives

Ethics helps us recognize what is right and wrong and to understand why we think something is right or wrong.

Good, or being good, is defined as those moral goals and objectives we choose to pursue. (It defines us.)

What are Individual Values?

Values refer to what is important to an individual.

Values are stable feelings of importance that arise pursuant to ones influences, such as life experiences, interactions, and relationships. They are shaped early in life and become increasingly stable or permanent throughout life.

Values are the guiding forces behind decision-making, perception, and behavior. Managers seek to understand their employees values.

This understanding allows the manager to structure the work responsibilities and goals to meet the individual employees values.

What is the Role of Ethics in the Law?

Both ethics and law deal with right and wrong and foster social cooperation.

Society’s ethical values become law through legislation and we often associate complying with the law as ethically correct.

That is, the state enforces law but that personal ethics are voluntarily observed.

Ethical systems are a broader based commitment to proper behavior than law.

The values found in ethics may be imposed on an individual, but motivation to observe moral rules comes from within.

That ethical values frequently become law and that legal regulation reflects ethical values.

• Ex. Civil Rights Act of 1964

Legal regulation is a significant source of values for business.

The motivation to observe the law come from outside oneself i.e., legal consequences.

Personal ethics is a much higher standard than legal compliance which is a bare minimum.

What is the role or effect of society on ethics?

Cultural pluralism and diversity hinder the development of a common system of personal ethics.

Sociological factors lead to ethical concerns for society.

Economic interdependence is a driving concern over business ethics.

• News coverage
• Note the Economic Recession of 2008