Ethics and Social Responsibilities in Management :: Ethical Standards Management Essays

Ethics and Social Responsibilities in Management   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ethics can be defined as a process of evaluating actions according to moral principal of values(A.Alhemoud). Throughout the centuries people were trying to choose between profit and moral. Perhaps, some of them obtain both, but every time it could have roused ethical issues. Those issues concern fairness, justice, rightness or wrongness; as a result it can only be resolved according to ethical standards.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Setting the ethical standards for the way of doing business in corporation is primarily task of management. Corporations have to maintain the same standards as an individual person and, in addition, corporations, as organizational units, have their own social responsibilities toward customers, employees and society. However, any business should keep it's original purpose of functioning - making profit. Balancing the traditional standards of profitability and burden of social responsibilities is not an easy task. In recent years it has been a trend of setting standards of corporate ethics according to high degree of morale.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  To be able to keep the ethical standards management must follow the law. However, there are some complications in enforcing it. The law affects and is affected by social forces and prevailing ethical standards. "Although the law can codify societies ethical ____________________________________________________ ____________________ Alhemoud, Ali " Management Ethics is Smart Business." values, ethical decision making transcends the law in that 1) the law deals with actions not with thoughts, and therefore it does not (and cannot) codify all ethical requirements; and 2) an individual or a group may perceive a given law as immoral, not as a guide to ethical behavior." ( A. Alhemoud). How, then, a company can ensure that its code of ethics is both followed and enforced ? " . ..Defense firm such as General Dynamics and TRW, and an information company, Dun & Broadstreet, have appointed internal ethics officers or ombudsmen. Whether employees have faith in these safeguards against corporate retaliation is hard to tell, though it is one step forward (The Economist August 19 1995)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The ethical codes of corporations that that get so important nowadays also did not come into being at once. They emerged from individual ethical standards and corporate consciousness. Moreover, the public demand for prosecution of any violations of corporate, professional and business ethics has been increased. Finally, mass media made possible for society reveal secrets that were kept from public before. So, the business conduct regulations were created to "draft guidelines for ethical conduct, develop a process for monitoring business practices and recommend ways to correct questionable activities." (J.Byrne) All these measures were taken to balance various social responsibilities with the high degree of moral and sense of attainment.