Ethics & Social Responsibility Flashcards
What is Ethics?
The set of moral principles or values that defines right and wrong for a person or group
What is workplace deviance?
Unethical behaviour that violates organisational norms about right and wrong
What is hurting the quality and quantity of work produced called?
Production deviance
What is property deviance?
Aimed at the organisations property or products
What is the theft of company merchandise called?
Employee shrinkage
What is sing one’s influence to harm others in the company called?
Political deviance
What is the role of ethical regulatory agencies?
Not only to punish but to encourage
What is ethical intensity?
The degree of concern people have about an ethical issue
What is ethical intensity dependant on?
Magnitude of consequences Social consensus Probability of effect Temporal immediacy Proximity of effect Concentration of effect
What is meant by Magnitude of consequences?
The total harm or benefit derived from an ethical decision
What is meant by Social consensus?
Agreement on whether behaviour is good or bad
What is meant by Probability of effect?
The chance that something will happen and then harm others
What is meant by Temporal immediacy?
The time between an act and the consequences is produces
What is meant by Proximity of effect?
The social, psychological, cultural or physical distance of a decision maker from those affect by their decision
What is meant by Concentration of effect?
The total harm or benefit that an act produces on the average person
What are the three levels of moral development?
Preconventional level of moral development
Conventional level of moral development
Postconventional level of moral development
What level of moral development are most people in?
Conventional level of moral development
What do people in the preconventional level of moral development do?
People make decisions based on selfish reasons
- Punishment & Obedience (avoid trouble)
- Instrumental Change (own wants & needs)
What do people in the conventional level of moral development do?
People make decisions that conform to societal expectations
- Good Boy, Nice Girl
- Law & Order
What do people in the postconventional level of moral development do?
People make decisions based on internalised principles
- Social Contract (Make society better off, don’t infringe on rights)
- Universal Principles (Even if principles conflict with others views/law)
What are the principles of moral decision making?
- Principle of long term self-interest
- Principle of personal virtue
- Principle of religious injunctions
- Principle of government requirements
- Principle of utilitarian benefits
- Principle of individual rights
- Principle of distributive justic
What is the Principle of long term self-interest?
You should never take any action that is not in your or your organisation’s long-term self interest
What is the Principle of personal virtue?
You should never do anything that is not honest, open and truthful and that you would not be glad to see reported to the public
What is the Principle of religious injunctions?
You should never take any action that is not kind and does not build a sense of community
What is the Principle of government requirements?
You should never take any action that violates the law i.e. minimum moral standard
What is the Principle of utilitarian benefits?
You should never take any action that does not result in greater good for society
What is the Principle of individual rights?
You should never take any action that infringes on others agreed-upon rights
What is the Principle of distributive justice?
You should never take any action that harms the least fortunate in society
What techniques can be used to implement organisational ethics through employee selection?
- Overt integrity test
* Personality-based integrity test
What is an overt integrity test?
A test that estimates job applicants honesty by directly asking them what they think about punishment of unethical behaviour
What is a personality-based integrity test?
A test that indirectly estimates job applicants honesty by measuring psychological traits such as dependability and conscientiousness
What factors are key to maintaining a code of ethics?
- A company must communicate its code inside and outside the company
- Manager must develop practical ethical standards and procedures specific to the company’s line of business
What are the steps to ethics training?
- Develop employees awareness of ethics
- Achieve credibility with employees
- Teach employees a practical model of ethical decision making
What is the most important ethical influence on employees?
Managers
What is social responsibility?
A business’s obligation to pursue policies, make decisions and take actions that benefit society
What is the shareholder model and what is its justification?
- An organisations overriding goal should be profit maximisation for the benefit of the shareholders
- Organisations cannot act effectively as moral agents for all company shareholders
- Money and attention diverted to social causes undermine market efficiency
What is the stakeholder model?
An organisations most important responsibility, long term survival, is achieved by satisfying the interests of multiple corporate stakeholders
What are primary stakeholders? Examples:
Groups which the organisation depends on for its long term survival
Shareholders, employees, customers, suppliers, governments and local communities
What are secondary stakeholders? Examples:
Groups that can influence or be influenced by a company and can affect public perceptions about its socially responsible behaviour
Media, special interest groups, trade associations
What are the corporate social responsibilities?
- Economic responsibility
- Legal responsibility
- Ethical responsibility
- Discretionary responsibility (The expectation that a company will voluntarily serve a social role beyond its economic, legal and ethical responsibilities )
What are the strategies for social responsiveness?
- Reactive strategy
- Defensive strategy
- Accommodative strategy
- Proactive strategy
What is the reactive social responsiveness strategy?
Company does less than society expects, deny responsibility or fight suggestions that company should fix it
What is the defensive social responsiveness strategy?
Company admits to a problem but does the least required to meet societal expectations
What is the accommodative social responsiveness strategy?
Company accepts responsibility for a problem and does all that society expects to solve that problem
What is the proactive social responsiveness strategy?
Company anticipates responsibility for a problem before it occurs and does more that society expects to address the problem
What do ethical answers depend on?
Ethical intensity of decision
Moral development of decision maker
Ethical principle used
What are the steps in the model of ethical decision making?
- Identify the problem.
- Iden’fy the constituents.
- Diagnose the situation.
- Analyse your options.
- Make your choice.
- Act.
How can managers encourage more ethical decision making in their organisations?
- Select and hire ethical employees.
- Establish a code of ethics.
- Train employees to make ethical decisions.
- Create an ethical climate.
How can managers create an ethical climate?
- Managers act ethically
- Top management support
- Reporting system
- Fairly & consistently punish
