Refusal to recognize freedom of choice would mean the collapse of any ethical system, morality and law, and human dignity, and its guarantee is not only a moral thing but also an economic one. As the experience of modern management shows, a significant factor in increasing an employee’s interest in practical work is respect for his human dignity. Over the last several decades, there has been a considerable movement in what is deemed ethically acceptable behavior in the United States. This drastic shift in thinking has exacerbated societal divisiveness on critical moral issues and posed a problem for some corporate leaders.
Given the shifting moral environment, the challenge for business professionals is to traverse that complicated terrain constructively without infringing on someone’s civil rights but still adhering to the law and fulfilling their moral conscience. To begin with, the corporate environment appears to encourage moral compromise or, at the very least, moral indifference. There seems to be a predisposition for moral deterioration produced by externalities of the commercial setting that affect human judgments in market contexts. Some claim that market engagement fosters the acceptance of some degree of harm to third parties and, as a result, can lead to the erosion or decay of personal moral ideals (Smartt, 2018). Second, new interpretations of how civil rights are affected have emerged because of the moral changes, adding to the complexity for some company owners (Smartt, 2018). For instance, products and services can have ethical implications, having significant consequences for individuals and businesses.
The problem is to reconcile shifting moral ideals with their moral conscience for businesspeople. When religious and moral views clash with society standards or professional duties, people in business and government confront difficult ethical decisions. This is especially crucial when the moral framework of business clashes with personal beliefs and conventions.
Reference
Smartt, D. (2018). Conflicts of moral conscience in business. The Journal of Global Business Management, 14(2), 57-69.