Ethics Issues
University of Phoenix
MGMT 216

Abstract

Personal and relative ethics is defined as a set of moral principles of values. However, business ethics definition focuses on conduct (DeGeorge, 2005). Three ethical issues within today’s environment include work stress, “do the right thing”, and discrimination.

Ethics Issues
What is business ethics? Business ethics is defined as written and unwritten codes of principles and values that govern decisions and actions within a company. In the business world, the organization’s culture sets standards for determining the difference between good and bad decision-making and behavior (Love to Know Business, 2010). Not everyone has the same beliefs when it constitutes ethical behavior. Moral rights and wrong are not always distinguish so clearly and in many situations can lead to ethical dilemma. When facing ethical dilemma it is important to consider the outcomes of the decision-making process. When faced with ethical dilemma, there are a few tests that can personally evaluate the decisions made: First is a four way test: Test involves asking four questions, example: Is my decision a truthful one? Is the decision beneficial to all parties who have a vested interest in the outcome? When these questions can be answered truthfully with a “yes”, it is likely that the decision is an ethical one. Second test would be a Publicity test. If one feels uncomfortable about the actions being published in a newspaper or all over the Internet, then maybe they needs to rethink if the decision was an ethical one (Love to Know Business, 2010).
Three ethical issues within today’s business environment
According to Buzzle.com (2009-2010), “Ethical issues like interaction between colleagues, information that may or may not be disclosed between departments, lunch time rules and regulations and reporting time due to certain predetermined reasons usher in scope for job stress and pressure”(para.2). Another ethical question in today’s environment falls along the lines of “Doing the right thing”. Coworkers can not easy to sit by and watch a coworker slack off and yet still request help from other coworkers because she felt she was falling behind. The ethical issue would be sitting back and doing nothing, and allowing the coworker to mis-use the companies time. Finally, discrimination is a common ethical issue workers face at least once in their lives. Human resources issues are about fairness, and discrimination is felt in many organizations. Recently a supervisor quit her