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Ethics in Organization and Society

In: Business and Management

Submitted By helmet993
Words 973
Pages 4
BUS 543 - ETHICS IN ORGANIZATIONS & SOCIETY
Week 2 Interaction Paper
Chapter 1 is an introduction to Business Ethics. The major message this chapter conveys is the various ethical viewpoints that can be applied by a corporation, an employee, and a culture. This chapter breaks these ethical issues down as Corporate, Individual, and Societal. The many theories and studies contained in this chapter are encompassed in how decisions are made and what logic is used to apply them. The process of identifying an ethical situation, identifying what course of action to take, deciding to do something about it, and finally, following through on the decision are all dependent on the morals of the individual. Those morals, and view of self, will ultimately determine the identification and the outcome.

Several key words are used to support what has been identified as the major message detailed in the opening paragraph. Ethical Relativism (page 33) and Integrative Social Contracts Theory (page 36) both deal with differences on a societal scale. The book judges Ethical relativism as flawed, leading to the Integrative Social Contracts Theory as being a breakdown of hypernorms and microsocial norms. As a westerner the ISCT is easier to accept and supports the major message that society, self, and cultural influences affect identification of ethical issues. Moral reasoning (page 45) further refines an ethically aware individual’s process used to identify whether a situation is ethically correct and what judgment is made. Moral reasoning has a significant impact on the major message as it is situational based on the moral beliefs the individual accepts and applies to the decision making process.

On page 46, Velasquez states “One reason we do not make our moral standards explicit in our moral reasoning is that we generally assume these moral standards are obvious.”

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