LESSON 3 activities that slow down our internet

connection (e.g. uploading photos) if

Codes of Right Conduct
“code of right conduct”. A code has value just
like an internal guideline and an external
statement of corporate values and
commitments. A well-written code of conduct
spells out an organization’s mission, values
and principles, connecting them with
standards of professional conduct. The code
expresses the values the organization desires to
promote in leaders and employees.
PROVISIONS OF THE CODE: Code
provisions are the exact standards of behavior
and performance expectations that an
organization selects to emphasize and tackle in
the code.
you’re asked to.
2. Conflict of Interest When you are
experiencing a conflict of interest,
your personal goals are no longer
aligned with your responsibilities
towards us. For example, owning
stocks of one of our competitors is a
conflict of interest. In other cases, you
may be faced with an ethical issue. For
example, accepting a bribe may
benefit you financially, but it is illegal
and against our business code of
ethics. If we become aware of such
behavior, you will lose your job and
may face legal trouble.

Compliance, Accuracy of corporate

Integrity and Anti- finances and financial
corruption reporting Employee
records and expense
reports Bribes
Political
contributions.
Conflicts of Interest Gifts and gratitude COMMON PRACTICES IN BUSINESS
Political activity ORGANIZATIONS
Family members.
Employee, Client Maintaining records CONDITIONS There are a
and Vendor of and information INCLUDED IN number of
Information Privacy and POLICIES different
confidentiality conditions of
Disclosure of employment that
information. may not be
Employment Equal opportunity prescribed by
Practices Diversity Incentives law, but which is
and recognition. agreed to by the
Internet, Social Internet and social employer and the
Networking and network use at work employee at the
Social Media Prohibited sites and commencement
content Policies of the
regarding posts about employment
company, work contract. Some
products or companies issue
coworkers. policies on such
matters so that
employees are
EMPLOYEE CODE OF CONDUCT clear on what
their rights and
1. Internet Usage Our corporate internet
responsibilities
connection is primarily for business.
are. Conditions
But you can occasionally use our
which may fall
connection for personal purposes as
into this category
long as they don’t interfere with your
include:
job responsibilities. Also, we expect
absenteeism,
you to temporarily halt personal
training,
 promotion, into this category
probation, include: company
performance car, mobile phone
review, (including private
abandonment of use), employee
employment, exit assistance
interviews, programs, salary
termination of packaging, career
employment. breaks, and study
EMPLOYEE There are benefit assistance.
ENTITLEMENTS entitlements BREACH OF A breach occurs
which employees ORGANIZATION’S when one party
accumulate as a POLICY in a binding
result of the agreement fails to
rendering of their deliver according
services to an to the terms of
employer up to the agreement.
the reporting date For example,
and include, but failure to comply
are not limited to, with the
wages and employers’
salaries policies can be a
(including non- valid reason for
monetary termination of
benefits). These employment.
entitlements also DECORUM In ordinary
include: English, this
redundancy pay, word is used to
annual leave, mean the
long service appropriate
leave, parental conventions of
leave, dress and
personal/career’s conduct required
leave, special in specific
leave, vacation situations. The
leave, jury service word “office
and overtime decorum” might
pay. sound heavy and
EMPLOYEE An employer loaded with
may provide a many
number of complexities but
different in reality it is a set
BENEFITS benefits as part of of simple rules
their contract of which you need
employment. to observe while
Sometimes working together
incentives aimed in an
at increasing organization. An
productivity and employee needs
with the intention to observe certain
of attracting and guidelines for the
retaining betterment and
competent and progression of the
qualified office/employees.
employees. REPORTORIAL Most jobs require
Employee REQUIREMENT writing – e-mails,
benefits that fall AND letters, memos,
DOCUMENTATIO reports, analyses,
N project
summaries,
product
descriptions, and
the list goes on.
The ability to
write well is
essential in
obtaining a job, in
performing the
job, and in being
promoted.
Business reports
can save time and
money, and play
a dramatic role in
the future of your
company
LESSON 4
CLASSICAL PHILOSOPHIES USED IN
BUSINESS
A. CONFUCIUS’ PHILOSOPHY:
LIVE A CONTENTED, MORAL AND
HAPPY LIFE.
Virtue and morality are Confucius’ primary
focus. He is concerned with teaching people
about benevolence, generosity, love,
compassion, and sincerity in a
straightforward manner. He concentrated on
developing morality and a sense of shame so
people will conduct themselves in
harmonious ways. He also emphasized that
in order to govern, one must govern
themselves.
B. SOCRATES’ PHILOSOPHY: HAVE
THE COURAGE TO DISAGREE.
Socrates equated knowledge with virtue,
which eventually leads to ethical conduct.
He believed that the only life worth living
was one that was carefully examined. He
looked for principles and actions that were
worth living by, creating an ethical base
upon which decisions should be made.
Socrates definitely believed that knowledge
and understanding of virtue, or “the good,”
was enough for someone to be happy. To
him, knowledge of the good was almost
similar to an enlightened state. He believed
that no person could willingly decide to do
something damaging or harmful if they were
completely aware of the value of life.
C. . PLATO’S PHILOSOPHY: THE
POWER TO RULE
Plato was famous for his discussions on the
subject of reality. He believed that
everything was founded in perception and
the physical world is the lesser world in
every way. He believed that most of the
greater world was not clear. He hated people
who place all their faith in physical senses
and not in their intellectual senses for the
intention of collecting insight. “More will be
accomplished, and better, and with more
ease, if every man does what he is best fitted
to do, and nothing else.” According to Plato,
each social class must happily perform the
function for which it is 27 suited like the
philosopher rules, the warrior fights and the
worker enjoys the fruits of his labor.
D. ARISTOTLE’S PHILOSOPHY: LET
PEOPLE SEEK FULFILLMENT
Aristotle remains relevant because he is
chiefly interested in ethical principles of
leadership. Contained in his Nicomachean
Ethics, Aristotle established that the role of
the leader is someone who must construct an
environment in which all members of an
organization have the chance to recognize
their own potential. He says that the ethical
role of the leader is the establishment of the
conditions under which followers can attain
their full potential and to enhance his own
power. Aristotle was a great biologist as well
as a great philosopher. He based his ethics
on a psychological theory of human nature,
claiming that people are by nature virtuous,
rational, social and happiness-seeking.
E. . EPICURUS’ PHILOSOPHY: THE
ART OF HAPPINESS
Epicurus makes a significant distinction
between necessary and unnecessary desires.
Necessary desires are those which are
essential to generate happiness, like desiring
to get rid of bodily pain, or desiring a state of
inner peace. Only when people are in pain
do they sense the necessity to look for
pleasure, a need which certainly only
produces greater pain. Getting rid of this
pain-pleasure-pain cycle, people need to
cultivate a mindset in which there is no pain.
Therefore, the intention of is not the positive
quest of pleasure. The aim is rather the
reaching of an impartial condition which is
best described as “peace of mind”. The
Greek word which Epicurus uses for this
state is “ataraxia”, which plainly means
“freedom from worry”.
F. PLUTARCH’S PHILOSOPHY: BE A
GOOD ROLE MODEL
Plutarch understood that humans are
exceptionally social creatures, who always
watch the people around them and emulate
them. According to him, people
unfortunately, were often influenced by bad
role models surrounded to them. However,
people can be guided by providing them
with better patterns to imitate. The aim of his
book entitled Parallel Lives was mainly
ethical. He strongly believed that if young
people learn the lives of great heroes, and are
trained to reflect on their virtues and flaws,
they will obviously try to be like them and
use them as role models. Plutarch suggests
that people can consciously choose their role
models, in order to cultivate the best sides of
their character, rather than the worst.
G. EPICTETUS’ PHILOSOPHY: BUILD
A FLEXIBLE MINDSET
Epictetus insisted that, though life may be
subject to constant change, human beings are
in the end in charge for how they understand
and react to those changes. He made
emphasis on the superiority of the individual
over circumstance. According to Epictetus, in
order to cope with insecurity, a person must
constantly remind himself what he could
control and what he couldn’t. People can
control their thoughts, beliefs and attitudes,
but everything else is 30to some extent out of
one’s control like other people’s perceptions
and behavior, the economy, the weather, the
future and the past.
H. MUSONIUS’ PHILOSOPHY: KEEP
TRACK OF ONE’S ETHICAL
PROGRESS

Gaius Musonius’ Rufus held that since a

human being is made of body and soul,
people should train both, but the latter
demands greater attention. He believed that
the soul is similarly strengthened by
developing courage through enduring
hardships, and by making it self-controlled
through abstaining from pleasures. He also
argued that since people acquire all good
things by pain, the person who refuses to
endure pain is someone who condemns
himself to not being worthy of anything
good. Lastly, he believed that if people want
to be an ethical individual or an ethical
company, they cannot just study ethics; they
have to practice it, every day, to get into
good habits.