Ethical and legal behavior can often be confused—partially because they can often overlap. However, legal behavior and ethical behavior are different. For instance, it is not a legal issue to debate if you should buy a boat or donate to a charity, but it could be an ethical issue. Both legal and ethical have significant consequences for business: legal misconduct can result in fines and (depending on the severity of the misconduct) incarceration of perpetrators, and ethical misconduct can Read More
Integrating Ethics in Managerial Decision Making
Importance of Ethics in Management Ethical behavior among managers is even more important in organizations because leaders set the moral tone of the organization and serve as role models. Ethical leaders build trust in organizations. If employees see leaders behaving unethically, chances are the employees may be less inclined to behave ethically themselves. Companies may have printed codes of ethics, but the key standard is whether leaders uphold those values and standards. We tend to watch Read More
Business Ethics
It’s late at night and the office is quiet—except that you’ve got a nagging voice in your head. Your product is already two weeks behind schedule. You’ve got to get it out this week or lose the deal. But you’ve discovered a problem. To correct the problem would mean another three-week delay—and you know the client won’t go for that. It’s a small error—it’ll probably never become an issue. What do you do? Managers face these kinds of issues all the time. Ethical dilemmas can arise from a Read More