Topic 2: Managing Ethics

2.2.1 Definition of Ethics

The ethic is the inner guiding moral principles values, and belief that people use to
analyse or interpret a situation and then decide what is the right or appropriate way to behave.
It is also a collection of principles and values that specify the goodness or badness of
behaviour of individual, group or an organization. The ethic is principles and methods that
specify the standards of goodness or badness a method of encounter to bad or good matters
with observance of spiritual duties and responsibilities.

2.2.2 Importance of Managing Ethics

Ethics in business is essentially the study of what constitutes the right and wrong or
the good or bad behaviour in the workplace environment. A business is an organization
whose objective is to provide goods or services for profit. The organization has a group of
people that work together to achieve a common purpose. Ethics play such an important in
organizations.

Ethics help maintain a moral course in turbulent times. Attention to business ethics is
critical during times of fundamental change in times much like those faced now by
businesses, both non-profit or for-profit. During times of change, there is often no clear moral
compass to guide leaders through complex conflicts about what is right or wrong. Continuing
attention to ethics in the workplace sensitizes leaders and staff to how they want to act
consistently. Moreover, there is an increasing number of lawsuits regarding personnel matters
and to effects of an organization’s services or products on stakeholders. As mentioned earlier,
ethical principles are often state of the art legal matters. These principles are often applied to
current, major ethical issues to become legislation. Attention to ethics ensures highly ethical
policies and procedures in the workplace. It’s far better to incur the cost of mechanisms to
ensure ethical practices now than to incur costs of litigation later. A major intent of well-
designed personnel policies is to ensure ethical treatment of employees. For an example,
Selangor Turf Club noted that an employer can be subject to suit for breach of contract for
failure to comply with any promise it made, so the gap between stated corporate culture and
actual practice has significant legal, as well as ethical implications.

Managing ethics align employee behaviours with those top priority ethical values
preferred by leaders of the organization. Usually, an organization finds surprising disparity
between its preferred values and the values reflected by behaviours in the workplace.
Ongoing attention and dialogue regarding values in the workplace builds openness, integrity
and community critical ingredients of strong teams in the workplace. Employees feel strong
alignment between their values and those of the organization. They react with strong
motivation and performance. For instance, most employees in Selangor Turf Club are of the
elderly employees having 20-30 years of working experience in this industry. Therefore,
there tends to be some claims of respect from the elderly employees even in the order of jobs.
As a measure taken, teamwork has always been cultivated in the working environment
regardless of racial and age background.

Many organizational have a formal code of ethics derived primarily from social
ethics, professional ethics, and the individual ethics of the organization’s top managers.
Managers can apply ethical standards to help themselves decide on the proper way to behave
toward organizational. Managing ethics in organizations help the Selangor Turf Club and its
employees behave in socially responsible manner.

2.2.3 Model of Managing ethics

Managerial ethics are standards of conduct or moral judgement used by managers of

organizations in caring out their business. There are three major levels of moral or ethical,
judgement characterize managers: immoral management, amoral management, and moral
management.

Immoral management not only lacks ethical principles but also is actively opposed to
ethical behaviour. This perspective is characterized by principal or exclusive concern for
company gains, emphasis on profits and company success at virtually any price, lack of
concern about the desires of others to be treated fairly, views of laws as obstacles to be
overcome, and a willingness to "cut corners". In contrast to immoral management, moral
management strives to follow ethical principles and precepts. While moral managers also
desire to succeed, they seek to do so only within the parameters of ethical standards and the
ideals of fairness, justice, and due process. As a result, moral managers pursue business
objectives that involve simultaneously making a profit and engaging in legal and ethical
behaviours.

The amoral management approach is neither immoral nor moral but, rather, ignores or
is oblivious to ethical considerations. There are two types of amoral management such as
intentional and unintentional. Amoral managers do not include ethical concerns in their
decision -making, or behaviour, because they basically think that general ethical standards are
more appropriate to other areas of life than to business in intention management. Amoral
managers also do not think about ethical issues in their business dealings, but the reason is
different. These managers are basically inattentive or incentive to the moral implications of
their decision-making, actions, and behaviour. Overall amoral managers pursue profitability
as a goal and may be generally well meaning, but intentionally or unintentionally they pay
little attention to the impacts of their behaviours on others.

2.2.4 Importance of Managing Ethics for Students

The role managing ethics is vital for students expose them to ethical dilemmas that will allow
them to develop their own ethical decision-making process. This exposure arms students with
the skills and knowledge needed for them to make ethical decisions in their own careers.

Ethics can introduce students to faulty rationalization. Unethical decisions often result
from faulty rationalization and external pressures. For an example, an order from a manager
can cause individuals, who are normally ethically outstanding, to engage in unethical
behaviours and characterize. Ethical discussions allow students to understand the dangers of
faulty rationalization and better prepare them to handle external pressures in their own
careers. Furthermore, managing ethics can expose students to opposing viewpoints. Ethical
values are influenced by the culture and upbringing of everyone. For many students, college
is the first opportunity to venture from home and experience opposing views. Ethical
discussions not only expose students to contrasting ethical opinions, they also provide an
opportunity to understand the reasons behind the differences. As a result, students can expand
their understanding of ethics, sometimes even altering their own values and ethical decision-
making process.

Managing ethics can allow students to develop critical thinking skills. Ethical
scenarios introduce students to both correct and incorrect ethical decisions and allow them to
learn first-hand the complexity of ethics. Such instructional methods can exemplify for
students what first-rate reasoning about ethics looks like. In other words, good articles on
ethics are effectively special-topic exemplars of advanced critical thinking skills. Students
who study such first-rate reasoning in the classroom stand a better chance of being able to
engage in solid ethical reasoning in the workplace. Besides, it also prepares students for
success post-graduation. Skills related to ethical decision-making, such as critical thinking
and leadership, are regarded as top attributes in business school graduates. However, surveys
of hiring organizations show these skills are also considered rare among graduates. The
development of ethical decision-making skills gives students an opportunity to leverage a
competitive advantage into a great job and prepares them to become future business leaders.