Professionalism And Ethics Flashcards
What are the ethical theories?
- Principle based theory
- Consequence based theory
- Utilitarian theory
Discuss the Principle based theory.
- The person’s principles, values, morals or imagined set of rules about what is right or wrong determine if the person sees the action as ethical or not.
- If they have done something wrong they should accept the consequences.
- There are no exceptions to this rule.
- Have very strong personal and moral booundaries.
Discuss the Consequence based theory.
- Outcome or consequence of the action will determine if the action is ethical or not
- Positive outcome = there cannot be anything wrong with this action
Discuss the Utilitarian based theory.
- The decision of unethical/ethical action is based on what is best for the greatest number of people.
- e.g. using a textile that will provide more jobs but environmentally unfriendly/more expensive.
How can entrepreneurs help employees understand the company’s rules/code of ethics (CoE)/boundaries?
Brainstorming a Code of Ethics with your employees can be helpful:
* Gives employees buy-in
* Helps employees understand CoE better, as well as the consequences of their actions
Name any 8 unethical behaviours in practise.
Any 8 of the following:
- conflict of interest
- bribes and corruption
- unauthorised use of funds
- innapropriate gifts
- sexual harassment
- unfair advertising
- employment/labour issues
- pricing of goods
- insider trading
- piracy
-counterfeiting/bootlegging
- taxation
Discuss conflict of interest as unethical behaviour
- Describes when a person awarding the tender knows the applicant
- That person should not award the tender, and should disclose when it is a family member/friend.
- The person awarding the tender should withdraw from the application process.
- E.g: Someone on the Board of Directors is approached by a supplier to be on the supplier’s Board of Directors
Moral conflict: a person having to do something that goes against their beliefs - Avoid employing close friends/family. Even if there is no bias, employees will think family member ‘gets away with murder’ because they are family of the boss.
What is corruption? What may it include?
When someone in a position of power, abuses this power for personal gain.
- Receiving a bribe
- Giving a kickback (indirect bribe) to a supplier
- Misappropriating funds
- Abusing an official position for personal gain
What is a bribe? What may it be in the form of?
Someone is offered a reward to give a third party a unfair advantage to which he/she/business is not entitled. E.g, Bribing a Health and Safety officer.
Can also be in the form of:
- A gift
- An offer of employment
- A promotion
- A favour
Discuss the unauthorised use of funds as unethical behaviour
- Using business funds that are not authorised is the same as theft.
- Known as white collar crime (e.g, fraud in corporates)
- More opportunities for people working in offices to get involved in those working in manufacturing.
E.g, Manager with an expense account takes his wife out for dinner
Discuss inappropriate gifts as unethical behaviour
- Most businesses expect employees to declare all gifts that they have received (avoiding probability of bribery).
- It may stipulate that no employee may receive a gift greater than R__ .
- Gifts may be inappropriately given to decision makers with the intention of swinging their decisions (e.g kickbacks - receiving/offering compensation for contracts).
- May be seen as inappropriate as they could be linked to sexual harassment (e.g, senior employee giving a married woman jewellery).
Discuss sexual harassment as unethical behaviour
- Code of good practise on Handling Sexual Harassment Cases, issued in support of Section 2 of the Labour Relations Act, which stipulates that sexual harassment is a criminal offence.
- E.g: unwelcome physical contact, verbal conduct such as sexual advances/sex-related jokes, non verbal conduct such as sexual gestures or indecent exposure (should be covered in CoC)
- Employees may not engage in any of the above with customers, suppliers or anyone they do business with.
Discuss unfair advertising as unethical behaviour
- AKA false/deceptive advertising (can be avoided by reading your T&C’s!)
- Divided into 2 categories:
1. Pricing-based methods: These involve hidden fees and surcharges, misuse of the word ‘free’ and ‘going out of business’ sales.
2. Other deceptive methods: manipulation of units of measurement and standards, oversized packaging, manipulation of terms, inconsistent comparison, misleading illustrations, false colouring, guarantee without a remedy specified.
Discuss employment/labour issues as unethical behaviour
- Employees abusing sick leave
- Abuse of the internet - doing anything not related to their work online during work hours (e.g, visiting porn sites or making confidential info available to those who shouldn’t have access (Protecting trade secrets))
- Taking business stationary home for personal use
- Verbal abuse of staff by a manager
- Verbal abuse of a colleague/manager by an employee
Discuss the pricing of goods as unethical behaviour
- Price fixing: occurs when competitors agree to charge the buyers a predetermined rate (unethical and illegal)
-> Competition Board will pose hefty fines
-> Directors may be held liable and face jail time - Consumer protection act (CPA):
-> states that its illegal to charge more in rural areas than urban
-> unethical to charge higher price because there aren’t competitors (e.g. eskom)
