Chapter 1

Key concepts and distinctions in

ethics
 Business
Business ethics is the study of both business as
organisations as well as business as an activity.
There are three dimensions of business ethics:
1. Economic ethics
2. Corporate responsibility
3. Organisational ethics
 Ethics
Ethics is about with what is good or right in human
interaction. It revolves around three central
concepts:
1. Self
2. Good
3. Other
 Business ethics
• When ethics is applied to business we consider
the impact that business organisations and
business activity have on the interests of all who
are affected by it.
• Business ethics is about identifying and
implementing standards of conduct in and for
business that will ensure that the interests of its
stakeholders are respected.
 Right, wrong and dilemmas
• There are certain behaviours that are considered
ethically right, such as respect for the dignity of
employees and for company property.
• On the other hand, discrimination against
employees and theft of company property is
considered wrong.
• The nature of moral dilemmas is that they force
one to choose between two or more options that
are all to some extent wrong.
 Ethics and the law
• Both ethics and the law strive towards determining
what is acceptable and responsible in human
interaction and society.
• The law does so through a public and political process
and employs the power of the state to ensure that all
abide by the stipulations of the law.
• Ethics emanates from personal or societal values; the
sense of ethical obligation to do what is right is based
on internal convictions rather than on external
coercion as in the case of the law.
Although ethical and legal behaviour often
coincide, they also sometimes differ.
 Ethics and values
• Values can be defined as relatively stable
convictions about what is desirable.
• Three different kinds of values can be distinguished
within business organisations:
1. Strategic values
2. Work values
3. Ethical values
 Integrity
• A person is regarded as having integrity when he
or she consistently adheres to a set of ethical
standards. For this reason, integrity is often
associated with concepts like fairness, consistency,
uprightness and wholeness.
• Organisations with ethical integrity have a
reputation for adhering to a set of ethical values
and this inspires trust and confidence amongst
stakeholders.
 Personal and
organisational ethics
• Individuals can affect the ethical culture of the
organisation they work for. But the opposite can
also happen. The organisation can have either a
constructive or a corruptive influence on the
moral character of the people that work there.
 Personal and
organisational ethics
• Organisations are not isolated from the broader
society and social norms within which they
operate. Society can corrupt or conserve
business organisations, but business can also
contribute towards corrupting or improving the
moral fibre of society.