Ilagan, Joshua Eduard B.

AOM4

Ethics
Also called moral philosophy, the discipline concerned with what is morally good

and bad and morally right and wrong. The term is also applied to any system or

theory of moral values or principles.

How should we live? Shall we aim at happiness or at knowledge, virtue, or the

creation of beautiful objects? If we choose happiness, will it be our own or the

happiness of all? And what of the more particular questions that face us: is it right

to be dishonest in a good cause? Can we justify living in opulence while

elsewhere in the world people are starving? Is going to war justified in cases

where it is likely that innocent people will be killed? Is it wrong to clone a human

being or to destroy human embryos in medical research? What are our

obligations, if any, to the generations of humans who will come after us and to

the nonhuman animals with whom we share the planet?

Ethics deals with such questions at all levels. Its subject consists of the

fundamental issues of practical decision making, and its major concerns include

the nature of ultimate value and the standards by which human actions can be

judged right or wrong.

Ethics Vs. Morals

Ethics is the moral principles that govern a person's behavior or the conducting of

an activity. Morals are concerned with the principles of right and wrong behavior
and the goodness or badness of human character. Law is the system of rules

that a particular country or community recognizes as regulating the actions of its

members and may enforce by the imposition of penalties.

If you are ethical you can abide the law. If you are Moral you can be ethical. Also,

if you are moral you can abide the law. But you can never be all of three

together.

Morality governs private, personal interactions. Ethics governs professional

interactions. Law governs society as a whole, often dealing with interactions

between total strangers.

Some people talk about their personal ethics, others talk about a set

of morals and everyone in a society is governed by the same set of laws. If

the law conflicts with our personal values or a moral system, we have to act – but

to do so we need to be able to tell the difference between them.

Business Ethics

Business ethics is the study of appropriate business policies and practices

regarding potentially controversial subjects including corporate

governance, insider trading, bribery, discrimination, corporate social

responsibility, and fiduciary responsibilities. The law often guides business

ethics, but at other times business ethics provide a basic guideline that

businesses can choose to follow to gain public approval.

Business ethics ensure that a certain basic level of trust exists between

consumers and various forms of market participants with businesses. For

example, a portfolio manager must give the same consideration to the portfolios

of family members and small individual investors. These kinds of practices

ensure the public receives fair treatment.

The concept of business ethics began in the 1960s as corporations became

more aware of a rising consumer-based society that showed concerns regarding

the environment, social causes, and corporate responsibility. The increased

focus on so-called social issues was a hallmark of the decade.

Since that time period, the concept of business ethics has evolved. Business

ethics goes beyond just a moral code of right and wrong; it attempts to reconcile

what companies must do legally versus maintaining a competitive advantage

over other businesses. Firms display business ethics in several ways.