Ethical Perspectives

Four perspectives from which decision makers examine ethical issues:

1. Relationships - From a relationships perspective, actions that nurture and support a web of relationships are right. Actions that harm or destroy relationships are wrong. When decision makers examine ethical issues from the perspective of relationships, they may overrule considerations of fairness.
2. Fairness - A fairness perspective assumes that people are naturally competitive and willing to fight to gain an advantage over one another. By agreeing to cooperate, societies avoid conflict and work toward shared interests. Competitive people cooperate with one another as long as everyone is treated equally. In a fairness perspective of right and wrong, actions that treat people equally are right. Actions that show preference or bias are wrong. A fairness perspective is generally useful only after the rights of all parties to a decision have been recognized.
3. Rights - A rights perspective applies an absolute standard to measure ethicality. Right actions are always right, regardless of whether they provide utility for the society. Absolute "rights" define what members of a society must always be permitted to do or always be prohibited from doing. Rights can be positive and grant access to certain privileges, such as the right to freedom of speech. They may also be negative and prohibit society from denying privileges, such as the right to be free from invasions of privacy. Decision makers generally examine decisions from a perspective of rights only after the utility of an action or decision has been established.
4. Utility - Actions that bring benefits or happiness to many people provide utility. Decisions or actions that provide benefits to many people are generally considered more ethical than those that benefit only a few people. The utility of an action or a decision is the most fundamental measure of its ethicality.

Four Common Ethical Problems

The phrase business ethics draws a predictable reaction from cynics. They insist that it's a contradiction in terms. However, that's simply not true. Senior managers in a vast majority of businesses believe it's important for employees to act and think ethically. These businesses set standards of conduct to help employees recognize ethical problems and respond appropriately.
Companies that set ethical standards often formalize the standards in a code of ethics. A company's code of ethics addresses the ethical dilemmas its employees face most often. Codes created by different companies may describe vastly different ethical dilemmas.
However, a wide variety of dilemmas spring from the following four common ethical problems:

1. Absence of transparency—Everyone affected by a decision should have all relevant information about the decision maker's possible gain, obligations, and relationships. When relevant facts are hidden from one or more parties, the decision is made in an absence of transparency.
2. Unwarranted gain—Important business decisions are usually intended to cause a gain for the decision maker's company and possibly for other companies. When decision makers seek an improper or unearned benefit for themselves or others, that's an unwarranted gain.
3. Lack of impartiality—In an ideal world, decision makers use rational criteria to make decisions; they don't favor one party over others for personal reasons. However, decision makers may let family relationships, friendships, or other biases influence them. When they do, the decision makers lack impartiality.
4. Nonperformance of obligation—Employees have an obligation to perform the required duties of their jobs. They also have an obligation to act according to the company's principles of conduct. When employees fail to meet their obligations or when they cause others to fail, that's nonperformance of obligation.

Employees in organizations—like other groups of people—behave according to the values shared by members of the business. Common ethical problems create unethical behaviors that threaten those shared values.