Importance of

Ethics
Importance of Ethics
• We have been created as intelligent
and free persons; due to this way of
being, we are capable of and are
meant to construct, develop, our
own lives in a free responsible way.
• Man has in his own hands, the
possibility of being happy.
• When we ask “why Ethics?” – the
answer is immediate and self
evident; so that man can live
according to what he is, a person.
Importance of Ethics
• Ethics is the reference point that should guide
human activity. It offers the principles by which
we can judge the goodness or the badness of
our acts; as a result, we can say that there is
some ethical stance (moral evaluation on the
goodness and the badness involved) in all our
free actions.
• There is a real relationship between our acts and
our ethical value as persons.
Importance of Ethics
• The anthropological basis for Ethics is
human freedom
• Freedom is closely related to Ethics, to the
extent that if we do not act freely, we may
no longer be morally responsible for our
acts.
• But the person who does not act in a truly
free way, does not act according to what is
he is, a human person.
Importance of Ethics
• Everyone seeks some goal through
his or her free actions, thus, behind
each free human decision,
ultimately, there is the desire for
happiness.
• Happiness is thus closely related to
moral life (to the understanding of
what is right and what is wrong); this
happiness is sought through our
free acts, which determines the
moral value (goodness or badness)
Importance of Ethics
• How do I know an action is good or bad?
Right or wrong? Will it really bring me
happiness or will it reduce my happiness?
We need to know the contents of real and
true happiness in order to e able to take the
free decisions that lead us to authentic
happiness.
• Ethics aims at guiding us towards the
answers to these questions. To do this, it
tries to go to the roots of the moral value
(goodness or badness)of our actions in
order to be able to choose wisely, that
which will bring us towards real happiness.
Importance of Ethics
• Ethics can give an answer about which acts
are good and which acts are evil in
themselves by considering the act in relation
to a clear reference point; the natural law and
the moral law.
• In actual fact, each human being can
discover whether an act is god or bad by
listening to his Conscience where the moral
law, (the natural guidelines given at our
creation) makes itself present.
• Conscience has to be formed though, through
a proper education of what is true.
Importance of Ethics
• Ethics deals with the issue of
humanizing the person
(making ourselves aware of
our dignity as persons);
improving man’s quality,
value, as a human person and
as a good professional,
personal improvement, the
effects of the human person’s
behavior in other people’s
lives and our personal
responsibility for those effects.
Living Ethics
• Doing good is not because of
feelings or sentiments but because
it is good.

• Ethics needs the data supplied by

anthropology; we need to know
what man is before we can know
what is expected of him.
Acting Ethically means
a) Acting intelligently setting your own goals to
carry out(as opposed to being carried away
by one’s emotions)

b) Taking the interests of other people into

account as opposed to being self centered.

A human being is a rational being with intellect

and will that guide him to make his choices
and achieve his goals.
Reasons for acting
intelligently
Acting intelligently means allowing
our intelligence to direct our role in
choosing our objectives. This
means:
a) To find the best way to reach our
personal and other people’s
fulfillment.
b) Put order in our emotions and
feelings i.e. subject our feelings to
reason.
Considering the interests of others.
In real life people interact with a
large number of others and
eventually associate with those that
are closest to them, or those they like
best.
This association gives rise to rights
and duties that determine the best
way of acting in any given situation.
These rights and duties are
explained by Ethics.
IMPORTANCE OF ETHICS
• To enable individuals and societies to
form the right basis for action
• To engage in critical discourse about
the interplay of nature and nurture in
the formation of laws
• To create the basis of the nature of
social order
• Enables one to understand the meaning
and important of happiness and the
best way to achieve it
IMPORTANCE OF
ETHICS… in organizations
Satisfies ones basic functions –
being honest, fair, just
Creates credibility
Unites people in an organization
Improves decision making
Ensures long term gains
Plays a role in laying basis for a
just society
IMPORTANCE OF
ETHICS… in organizations
There are ways of approaching
ethics in organizations:

Leadership Ethics
Employee Ethics
Ethical organizational culture