Institution Institute of Public Administration and Management

Department Business and Entrepreneurship

Module title Ethics and Responsibility
Module Code CMA 635
Module Lecturer Dr. Sheriff Kamara
Contacts 076237679, mechanicalchair@yahoo.com

Lecture 2
Reinforcing Ethical Behaviour

The institution should critically assess all its departments and agencies, and then clearly and
objectively identify those departments and/or agencies where exposure to ethical challenges is
very strong. These areas should then be labelled as “sensitive”. Any working area so labelled
would then require a more effective ethical monitoring machinery to be put in place there.The
next step is to ensure that persons to be selected to work in these “sensitive” areas are provided
with some ethical orientation. They should be taken through a psychometric test that should be
so designed as to unearth behaviours /attitudes that could be potentially problematic, in relation
to the schedules they would be required to handle.

The post selection process should include exposure to the ethical requirements of the schedules,
as well as exposure to all vulnerabilities inherent in them.

 Reengineering the processes of procedures to bring about dramatic improvements in

performance.

 Minimising client/staff interface/creating a one stop shop.

 Performance Management Systems

 Staff motivation

Code of Ethics for Ethical Leaders

 Pursuit of excellence in service delivery

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  Loyalty- allegiance, devotion

 Diligence- meticulousness, carefulness

 Impartiality- objectivity, fairness

 Integrity- honesty, uprightness

 Accountability- responsibility, liability

 Reliability- trustworthiness, dependability

 Commitment- loyalty, dedication

 Respect for others

 Proper use of official information. 

Ethics and the Law and their Relations to Business Practices

In examining ethics relations to business, it is fitting that we discuss the nine ethical principles
upon which individuals and corporate bodies guide or defend the actions they take or fail to take
in their every operations. Ethics- put simply it is decision to do right or wrong, good or evil
based on societal standards. Hence an individual or business organisation maybe unethical when
the choice made is considered by society as amoral or immoral and ethical enough when viewed
by society to meet moral standards. Therefore, an ethical Behaviour is a behaviour that is
morally accepted as good or right as opposed to bad or wrong.

Please note that these principles are not prescription but real world this is how corporate bodies
or individuals based their decisions.

Principles:

1. Consequentialism

The morality of an action depends on the ratio of good to evil that action produces. For example,
if an innocent person is killed in a bid to save thousands that might have perished say in a car
accident, then the good done (saving thousands of people) is preferred to one individual dying. If

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in testing a drug kill one or two people but at the end the drug was reformed to combat an
epidemic that saved millions of souls, then the end which is more people been saved, justify the
action as moral.

2. Ulitilitarianism

Moral standards are those that promote the best long term interest of everyone concerned. Hence,
in life individuals and corporations should strive to give the majority pleasure, happiness, beauty,
knowledge, power as these are good for the majority in the long term. The utility approach to
ethical dilemmas concentrates on the overall amount of good that can be produced by an action
or a decision. The objective is to provide the greatest good for the greatest number of people.

3. Legalistic Moralism

There are absolutes all over the world which never conflict with one another example good, evil,
truth, etc. A robber killing an innocent man for his money- irrespective of where you are, it will
always be regarded as evil. It is this belief that encourages businesses to extend their CSR to
their communities. This principle believes that you should do what is legally right – such as do
not lie with the conviction that by being truthful, grace will arrive.

4. Situation Ethics

The end justifies the means. If two frustrated single couples fall in love and find solace better

than their original partners, then situational ethics tells you that it is right for them to go ahead.
Here love is the end result and it justifies their action.

5. Ethical realism

When moral dilemmas occurs, the solution which produces lesser of the two evils should be

selected. Ethical Dilemma is a situation in which a person must decide whether or not to do

something that, although beneficial to oneself or the organisation may be considered unethical

or even illegal. A police officer faced with the option of arresting his wife or resigning from his

job. Both are not good either but weighing the consequences you will be able to know which one

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is More evil. Take the lesser evil.

6. Ethical Hierarchy

Believes that there are many universal norms but all are not equal, hence when we are in
conflicts with these norms, always obey the higher- eg. Persons are always valuable than things.
Suppose a man steals to help saves the life of his dying child- is his action morally justifiable?

7. Cognitive moral development

Ethical thinking and development is possible just like human beings develop in mental, physical

and emotionally. When people develop their ethical thinking, then they are better placed to solve

ethical dilemmas.

8. Principle Ethics

States that ethical principles themselves are just value states or guidelines to an action- they are

not rules or laws- therefore when there is a conflict of these principles – it is actually not a

conflict of norms or values but rather an exercise in our reasoning and logical ability.

9. Value Clarification-

That in reality our behaviours are guided by not ‘what ought to be’ but I want to’. Therefore
before decisions are taken, it is always necessary to go back and re-think before taking that
decision so that whatever decisions you take can be the basis of your own values, beliefs and
choices made. Businesses as well as individuals are guided by these principles(not law) in their
everyday decisions- questions like can we be truthful about our operations, can we stand by our
mission statement, can we take this action even though few people are going to suffer, can we go
for the water pollution option rather than the air….., all these and several questions are answered
by the ethical principle one believes in.

The Utility, Human rights and Justice Approaches to Ethical Dilemmas: The Principle
Approach

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Individual Approach

The individualism approach contends that acts are moral when they promote the individual's best
long-term interests. Individual self direction is paramount, and external forces that restrict self-
direction should be severely limited. Individuals calculate the best long-term advantage to
themselves as a measure of a decision's goodness. The action that is intended to produce a
greater ratio of good to bad for the individual compared with other alternatives is the right one to
perform. In theory, with everyone pursuing self-direction, the greater good is ultimately served
because people learn to accommodate each other in their own long-term interest. Individualism is
believed to lead to honesty and integrity because that works best in the long run. Lying and
cheating for immediate self-interest just causes business associates to lie and cheat in return.
Thus, individualism ultimately leads to behaviour toward others that fits standards of behaviour
people want toward themselves. The human rights approach states that decisions should be
consistent with basic rights and privileges of human beings. Human beings have certain moral
entitlements such as life, freedom, privacy, etc. Ethical Dilemma is a situation in which a person
must decide whether or not to do something that, although beneficial to oneself or the
organisation may be considered unethical and perhaps illegal (see figure 1 below).

Utilitarian Approach

The utilitarian approach holds that moral behaviour produces the greatest good for the greatest
number. Under this approach, a decision maker is expected to consider the effect of each
decision alternative on all parties and select the one that optimizes the satisfaction for the
greatest number of people.

The utilitarian ethic was the basis for the state of Oregon's decision to extend Medicaid to
400,000 previously ineligible recipients by refusing to pay for high-cost, high-risk procedures
such as liver transplants and bone marrow transplants.

Although a few people needing these procedures have died because the state would not pay,
many people have benefited from medical services they would otherwise have had to go without.
Critics of the utilitarian ethic question whether the common good is squeezing the life out of the
individual. Critics also claim that the Oregon decision does not fully take into account the
concept of justice toward the unfortunate victims of life-threatening diseases.

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The utility approach to ethical dilemmas concentrates on the overall amount of good that can
be produced by an action or a decision. The objective is to provide the greatest good for the
greatest number of people.

Figure 1: Principle Approach: An Analytical Approach to Ethical Problems

Step 1 Ask

Utility: Do Rights: Are

Justice: Are
benefits exceed human rights
benefits and
costs? respected?
costs fairly
distributed?

Yes No Yes No Yes No

Step 2 Compare Results

If yes is the answer to all 3 If no is the answer to all 3

questions, it is probably ethical questions, it is probably unethical

Step 3 If yeses and noes are mixed, it

could be either ethical or unethical

Assign Priorities to

Utility Rights Justice

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Moral-Rights Approach

The moral-rights approach asserts that human beings have fundamental rights and liberties that
cannot be taken away by an individual's decision. Thus all ethically correct decision is one that
best maintains the rights of those people affected by it. Moral rights that could be considered
during decision making are:

Moral agent

The individual who must make an ethical choice in an organization is the moral agent. Consider
the dilemmas facing moral agents in the following situation:

A top employee at your Office tells you he needs you to provide him with health insurance and
some time off because he has a killer disease. Granting his request will open the floodgate to
many other employees with similar problem. You know the employee needs the job as well as the
health insurance benefits. Providing health insurance has already stretched the Office finances,
and paying this premium will cripple the office financially. Should you accept the request?

What will you do?

The right of free consent: Individuals are to be treated only as they knowingly and freely
consent to be treated.

The right to privacy: Individuals can choose to do as they please away from work and have
control of information about their private life.

The right to freedom of conscience: Individuals may refrain from carrying out any order that
violates their moral or religious.

The right to free speech: Individuals may criticize truthfully the ethics or legality of actions of
others.

The right to due process: Individuals have a right to an impartial hearing and treatment.

The right to life and safety: Individuals have a right to live without endangerment violation of
their health and safety. To make ethical decisions: managers need avoid interfering with
fundamental rights of others. Thus, a decision to eavesdrop on employees violates their right to

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privacy. Sexual harassment is unethical because it violates the right to freedom of conscience.
The right to free speech would support whistleblowers who call attention to illegal or
inappropriate-actions within a company.

Justice Approach

The justice approach holds that moral decisions must be based on standards of equity, fairness,
and impartiality. Three types of justice should be of concern to managers. These include;
Distributive justice, Procedural justice & Compensatory justice

Distributive justice: Requires that different treatment of people should not be based on arbitrary
characteristics. Individuals who are similar in respects relevant to a decision should be treated
similarly. Thus men and women should not receive different salaries if they are performing the
same Job. However, people who differ in a substantive way, such as job skills or job
responsibility, can be treated differently in proportion to the differences in skills or responsibility
among them. This difference should have a clear relationship to organizational goals and tasks.

Procedural justice requires that rules be a administrated fairly. Rules should be clearly stated
and be consistently and impartially enforced.

Compensatory justice argues that individuals should be compensated for the cost of their
injuries by the party responsible. Moreover, individuals should not be held responsible for
matters over which they have no control. The justice approach to ethical dilemmas judges
decisions on whether they represent an equitable, fair, and impartial distribution of rewards and
costs. All of these approaches relate to the fair treatment of individuals, even though the
treatment may be achieved differently with different approaches.