Background
This paper aims at identifying the application of ethics in business. A business ethics program is expected to provide the business architects with the best approach that should guide them in the process of designing and implementing the business initiative with minimal conflict with the societal norms of the community it will be operating in. The ethics program that is adopted by the business should always be guided by the objectives of the enterprise such as improving performance of the business in terms of market share, profitability, product innovations among others.
A good study of ethics in business in this essay will be articulated on two chapters. It is evident from the chapters that the application of ethics in the business is a very crucial aspect in the initiation of any business in order to achieve unparalleled success in terms of meeting its objectives of maximum wealth creation for the stakeholders. The chapters commenced with the definition of the term ethics.
It is evident from chapter one that the study focused on examining the sensitive areas of ethics in which great consideration was projected to ethics in organizations. It has demystified moral values that are practiced in the organization to govern how these organizations are run in comparison to the non-moral standards of the employees as they continuously undertake their mandate to meet their obligations in the organization.
This chapter has dominantly attempted to explain the application of etiquette by the organization employees with regard to the professional codes that configure how employees are supposed to interact in the organization and undertake their duties in the organization without direct supervision from their superiors to meet the minimal threshold of overall turnover in their job descriptions and specifications. The chapters have explained that the validity of moral studies that are expected to take charge of the employees’ behavior and interaction in the organization depends on the groundbreaking arguments that were used in formulating the moral standards that are expected to guide the organization’s employees perennially.
The bases of ethical practices that guide operations in organization depend on a number of theoretical constructs that were formulated to establish moral standards and intuitions in the organizations. Among the most dominant theories that have sort to lay out the emergence and the application of ethics in the organizations include the utilitarian, the consequentialist, egotism among others that impact on the moral decision making process and other related obligations and effects that are effected in the organization.
Therefore, it is prudent to conclude that the practice of ethics in the organization is articulated based on a number of common grounds that have harmonized the viewpoints of all the participants who ensure that the organization operates effectively in meeting its obligation.
Application of the Ethical Grid
The content of this grid forms a number of the basic and paramount terms of philosophical ethics with disregard to what other disciplines partake of this hypersensitive issue of ethics in organizations. The grid has provided the reader with a thorough account of the most important terms that define the scope of ethical issues in the society in a nut shell. Therefore, the study aims at exhaustively laying out the terms to depict the different dimensions and phenomena that can be illustrated in philosophical ethics in organizations.
To begin with, the ethical grid has sort to define ethics as the moral philosophy that is expected to govern the specific conducts of a person. This definition is expected to guide how a person should grow up and the cost they incur in the pursuit of this desire to grow. Egotism is the view that the moral values that are practiced and guided a person or an organization should always be in alignment with the self-interest of an individual or the organization and thus should always serve to maximize the returns that are reaped in the organization.
Etiquette in ethics refers to the societal norms that are expected to guide how the society members are expected to conduct themselves in the society. It is evident that etiquette depicts that all the members in the society are expected to behave in a particular manner. For instance in an organization, the subordinates are expected to respect their seniors and heed to the instructions that are relayed to them from the top management. The term hedonism in ethics refers to the urge of pursuing things that yield pleasure.
Hedonism holds that pleasure that can be derived from doing anything is the cardinal rule that should govern actions that any human being undertakes because pleasure is the ultimate good that anyone is worth to pursue no matter the cost. This is because it is the only good thing in itself. Conscience refers to the internally held principles that guide the actions of any one. It is evident that the conscience of any human being emanates from the teaching that is instilled in them by various authority figures in their lives from a tender age and they play a crucial role in defining the behavior of an individual.
The other terms in the grid are an illustration of the views that are held by different individuals with reference to ethics at individual level and at the societal level. Among the ideas that have been featured in the ethics grid are the utilitarianism, category imperative, conformity, universal acceptability, moral standards, libertarianism, ethical relativism, veil ignorance, diffusion of responsibility and Nozick’s entitlement theory.
Solution
Concepts carried in the article “Everyone Is Doing It” has constantly been used by crude business people to indulge in business activities that are undesirable as a means of justifying their actions. It is evident that from this article that a number of ethical values will be violated in the occurrence of such acts. They include: conscience, etiquette, universal acceptability, moral standards among others.
The existence of this nature of violations means that the quality of business decisions that are made is equally jeopardized as decision makers get influenced by self-interest as opposed to quality of the decisions to be made. Therefore, unscrupulous traders may opt to take a decision that may harm future business operations due to the supernormal profits that a business may stand to make in the short run.
From the grid, it is evident that actions that are expected to harm others should not be undertaken because moral agents hold us all responsible for our actions in which they insist that everyone has an obligation to act in the best interest of others. Moral standards that are expected to guide the individual should emanate from a clear conscience that regards all subjects as ones acts with equality in which no one has higher regards than others.
It is crystal clear that the absolute implementation of ethics in the society by organizations will always lead to the achievement of the organization obligations and a harmonious and serene operating environment with minimal conflicts by organizations with regard to ethics.