Premium Essay

Rules of Thumb, Ethics

In: Business and Management

Submitted By msmccull
Words 815
Pages 4
Rules of Thumb
Misha McCulloch
March 10, 2013
Rules of Thumb
Misha McCulloch
March 10, 2013

Every day ethical situations arise. How people solve these ethical dilemmas vary based on each individuals’ ethical thinking, or, Rules of Thumb. My personal tools for ethical decision making are the Golden Rule and going with my gut instinct. The Golden Rule states “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” The Golden Rule has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. It was one of my parent’s favorite teachings. As the bossy, older sister, I found it my prerogative to be a diva. Sharing and playing nice weren’t exactly my strong suits. But like most parents, mine would always say, “Would you like it if your sister didn’t share with you?” Luckily for my parents I possess empathy; and therefore this teaching worked rather well on me. I suppose sharing isn’t the worst ethical dilemma, but as time passes you realize how vital implementations of these rules become. For instance, I’ve never cheated on a test. Why? Because if I had spent hours studying for an exam and someone cheated off of my exam I would be down-right livid. I don’t work my butt off just so someone else could skirt by. I would never cheat off of someone else because chances are that that person would have the same reaction as I would. In a more extreme case, murder, theft, and abuse are just a few other things that I would never do. I wouldn’t like any of those things to happen to me or anyone I knew. Therefore I would certainly never wish that upon anyone else. Not only does society tell us that those crimes are wrong, but my own emotions tell me that it is wrong. The second tool I use for ethical situations relates to my aforementioned emotions. Most of the time, my ethical decisions come from gut-instinct. In lecture, ethics were described as “so

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Ethics in Engineer

...Response Journal 2 - Ethics Ethics is one of the most common concept that every engineers must know before starting their career life. The code of ethics for engineer was created so that engineers can follow these codes and do not attempt to make any error intentionally. It is a set of rules and obligations that set a standard for an engineer’s decision. In other word, the code of ethics required every engineers to be honest, fairness, equity, and must be dedicated to the protection of public health, safety, and welfare. (Engineers, 2007) The short story “The adventure of the Engineer’s thumb” written by Arthur Conan Doyle is a good example regarding engineering’s code of ethics. The story was told to Sherlock Holmes, began in London 1889 about a young hydraulic engineer, Mr. Hatherley. Hatherley was offered to fix a hydraulic machine with a salary of 50 guineas by a person who identified himself as Colonel Lysander Stark. However, the job has to be perform around mid-night although rather to be just around an hour, out of town in Berkshire. Hatherley could not resist to accept a good offer because his gross taking was only 27 pounds 10s every day. Stark wanted the job to be performed at midnight because he did not want his neighbors to acknowledge the valuable of the land around them. There were large deposit of fuller’s earth under the land. Later on, after arriving to Stark’s place and took an inspection of the press machine, Hatherley discovered the floor consist of...

Words: 688 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Ethics

...Email: College and Semester: TESC, February 2014 Course Code: PHI-384-GS004 Course Name: Ethics & Business Professional Assignment 1 Questions for Thought Answer each of the following items thoroughly. Each numbered item should require no more than one page (250 words) as a response. 1. What does the term ethics mean to you? Do you see a difference between ethics and morality? Explain your answer. The term ethics to me can be very in-depth but very simply, elaborates on what is right and what is wrong. I consider myself as having ethics because I know right from wrong and because it was instilled upon me at a young age. Very simply, my values guide me along the right paths, eliminating possible gray areas. Both ethics and morality are about doing the right thing in everyday life to better the world but there are some differences even though they very much coincide. Ethics displays rules and guidelines over all, in hopes that these guidelines will become the social norm. Ethics permeates every facet of our life, whether it be at our home or workplace. It sets many different ways to look at situations and helps justify what is good and what is bad. Morality is more of a focus on what we do as individuals, in hopes of promoting the greater good. Ethics tells us that if someone needs help we should help them. Morality is shown when a person decides to hone in on the ethics that they know and step up to the plate and help that person. Morality is also deciding to help...

Words: 677 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

The Horrible Speller

...the title. Mor Barak, M. E. (2014). Chapter 1: Introduction and conceptual framework [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from California State University BeachBoard Website: https://bbcsulb.desire2learn.com/d2l/lms/content/manage/topicsmodules_li st.d2l?ou=239789 Morrison, E. E., & Furlong, F. (2013). Chapter 1: Theory of health care ethics. [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from California State University BeachBoard Website: https://bbcsulb.desire2learn.com/d2l/lms/content/manage/topicsmodules_li st.d2l?ou=230333 Here is an example of Lecture notes: Martinez, L. K. (2014). Chapter 1: Key concepts. Retrieved from https://bbcsulb.desire2learn.com/d2l/lms/content/preview.d2l?tId=2088458 &ou=230335 Citing your text book: Mor Barak, M. E. (2014). Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. O’Lawrence, H. (2013). The historical critique of career & technical education in California from 1900 – 2000 and the status of California community colleges. Santa Rosa, CA: Informing Science Press. Morrison, E. E., & Furlong, B. (2013). Health care ethics: Critical issues for the 21st century. (3rd ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning. Citing a word from a dictionary: Feminism. (n.d.). In Encyclopædia Britannica online. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/724633/feminism Common mistakes: ► Do not cap all words in a title, but do cap proper...

Words: 1351 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Situation Ethics

...Situation Ethics * Situation ethics was most famously championed by Joseph Fletcher (1905-1991). * He believed that we should follow the rules until we need to break them for reasons of love. * It is based on agape love (Christian unconditional love), and says that we should always do the most loving thing in any situation. * Fletcher rejected following rules regardless (legalism) and also the idea that we should not have any rules (antinomianism) and said that we need to find a balance between the two. Four working principles When establishing his version of Situation Ethics, Fletcher used four key principles which he aimed to fulfil in writing his theory: 1. Pragmatism (it has to work in daily life - it must be practical) 2. Relativism (there should be no fixed rules) 3. Positivism (it must put faith before reasoning – "I am a Christian, so what should I do?") 4. Personalism (people should be at the centre of the theory) Six Fundamental Principles There are six fundamental things that underlie Fletcher's Situation Ethics: 1. Love is the only absolute (it is intrinsically good) 2. Christian decision making is based on love 3. Justice is love distributed 4. Love wants the good for anyone, whoever they are 5. Only the end justifies the means 6. Love is acted out situationally not prescriptivally Advantages of Situation Ethics The key advantage is that it uses rules to provide a framework but allows people to break rules to reflect life's complexities...

Words: 1040 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Bus400

...and all the answers before choosing an answer. 1. The guarantee of informed consent can be traced to the first ten points in the A. Kyoto Treaty. B. Consumer Bill of Rights. C. Constitution. D. Nuremberg Code. 2. Which form of budgeting involves taking a fixed percentage of some criterion, such as sales, as the basis for the research budget? A. Departmental budgeting B. Rule-of-thumb budgeting C. Percentage-of-sales budgeting D. Functional-area budgeting 3. Pilot tests typically use a sample size of _______ participants. A. less than 100 B. 100–500 C. more than 1000 D. 501–1000 4. _______ variables are included to prevent, reduce, or control for bias in results. A. Moderating B. Intervening C. Interaction D. Control 5. Visionary decision makers tend to base business decisions on A. secondary data. B. past experience. C. proprietary business research. D. instinct. 6. Which of the following forms of budgeting allocates a portion of total expenditures in the unit to research activities? A. Percentage-of-sales budgeting B. Departmental budgeting C. Task budgeting D. Rule-of-thumb budgeting 7. How does debriefing interact with the effects of deception? A. Debriefing is associated with dissatisfaction among those who have been deceived. B. Debriefing is associated with more positive feelings about the value of research. C. Debriefing is associated with resentment among those who have been...

Words: 851 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Knowing Your Audience

...Ethics in Accounting and Financial Decision Making Laseda Dickson Fin/324 June 1, 2009 Ric Franchetti America is aware of the familiar financial collapse of Adelphia Communications Corp., Tyco International Ltd., Global Crossing, and of course the Enron Corp are just a few of the failed amidst allegations of financial mismanagement, poor decisions, and a lack of oversight. The reality is that the aspects of financial collapse begin with a severe erosion and eventual ruination of corporate and personal ethics. In short the companies collapsed ethically long before suffering financial ruins. In response to the magnitude of the collapse, as well as the sheer number of companies affected, the U.S. Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, these reforms represent the third great U.S. financial regulatory, once the profit for reform in the last twenty-five years. The first came back in the S&Ls’ financial reports, including the values at which they were carrying assets. Following the S&Ls’ came the insider trading and junk bonds-collapse era of Dow-Jones Index Now, here we are again. How can it be prevented to stop corporations and their management from going down these temporarily lucrative paths of fraud? What types of checks and balances could be used to ensure that someone within the corporation raises a red flag before it faces bankruptcy? There were several systemic failures with all of these companies failing. The question to be asked in all of...

Words: 788 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Ethics Final

...discussion of media ethics? Please use at least one example to illustrate the importance of the public’s right to know and one to illustrate the conflict this can sometimes set up for a journalist seeking to report the facts accurately. If we are to live in a society shaped and molded by virtue ethics, then the public has the right to know about what happens within our society, in order to make an informed consent. On the other hand, there are times that reporting information can cause more harm than good. The key concept to virtue ethics is balance; within ourselves personally and the society we live in. This balance cannot be achieved if we are prisoners in Plato’s cave of shadows. We would therefore be blind, basing our reasoning on false reality of the shadows we take as truths, which ultimately lead to flawed character development. We must maintain the ability to reason upon facts, being that what could potentially be kept from us might be detrimental in the development of our character and what we value as acceptable and not acceptable on a personal and social level. Sometimes there is a greater responsibility held by journalists than just informing the public, such as wartime situations where societies best interests and safety are involved. As it relates to media ethics, journalists hold the responsibility to uphold a virtuously high ethic of conduct when reporting information to society. Aristotle’s Golden Mean is a good tool to solve any media ethics problem because...

Words: 913 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

The Determinants of Gold Prices in Malaysia

...Journal of Advanced Management Science Vol. 2, No. 1, March 2014 The Determinants of Gold Prices in Malaysia Siti Nurulhuda Ibrahim, Nurul Izzat Kamaruddin, and Rahayu Hasan Universiti Teknologi MARA, Bandaraya Melaka, Malaysia Email: {Sitinur304, nrl_izzat, rahayuhasan} @bdrmelaka.uitm.edu.my Abstract—This paper analysed factors that affecting the prices of gold in Malaysia. The study used Multiple Linear Regression Model to determined significant relationship between dependent and independent variables, covering data for 10 years period which are from 2003 until 2012. The researcher used three independent variables that affect the prices of gold which are crude oil prices, inflation rates and exchange rates. The empirical results have found there is negatively significant relationship between inflation rates and exchange rates on gold prices, while a crude oil price is positively significant. The results of the study are valuable for both academic and investor. Index Terms—determinant, gold prices, crude oil prices, inflation rates, exchange rates price and sell it at high price later on. Thus, this is why the factors that affect the gold price must be determined so that people may estimate the timing to buy, hold or sell the gold. This study is made to seek the proofs for the possible factors that affect the gold price in Malaysia. From this research, the most important or most influence factor can also be determined. Simply put, the findings for this research will bring...

Words: 3136 - Pages: 13

Free Essay

Duty of Care

...Employer's Duty of Care and Issues of Compensation August 9, 2010 Law, Ethics, and Corporate Governance LEG-500 Abstract For the purposes of this assignment we independently viewed a video entitled “Employer's Duty of Care and Issues of Compensation.” In the video, the car dealership is running a special promotion offering free oil changes in order to get existing customers back into the showroom. An employee notices a backlog of customers waiting in line for their oil changes and notifies the owner of the dealership, Herman. Herman calls his newly promoted service manage, Jake, to explain the backlog. Jake emerges from the service bay holding his bloody thumb in a rag. He explains as certified auto mechanic, he is doing a thorough job on each car en though he is working overtime without overtime pay. The manager tells him to do a quick, “lousy” job of the oil changes just to get them done. He doesn't care about Jake's mechanics standards. Jake retaliates by complaining he's hurt his thumb due to his long hours and threatens a worker’s compensation claim if he isn't compensated fairly for his work. The video give rise to a number of ethical questions. The purpose of this paper is to address these questions as detailed in the assignment using readings on employee and consumer privacy law, as well as business ethics and corporate policy. Answers to Assignment #3 Questions The questions (in bold type face) follow as detailed in our assignment. 1. Explain...

Words: 3068 - Pages: 13

Premium Essay

Business Ethics

...safeguarded the secret of the organization for decades, it has served to be restrictive since other areas, with their own bottling plants cannot perform the same duties. This essentially slows down the production of the drinks over the world. In other areas, however, Coca-Cola has been very straightforward in pointing out the areas of concern where it could be most effective and others that could be detrimental to its success. However, this business model allows there to be instances that allow unethical practices in the staff of the organization. Business Ethics Guideline and Culture for International Companies Business ethics does not only cover the organizations that do business in one country, those that have branches in other countries and regions also need to exercise business ethics in the respective regions they work in. For instance, a multinational organization, such as Barclays will need to perform a high level of ethics in all the countries in which they have branches. As such, the organizations will research and bond with the residents of these countries and attempt to discover any differences between the ethical challenges in their home...

Words: 1606 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Business Ethics Notes

...Chapter 1: Perspective on Business Ethics and Values * Identify the good, tragic, comic, satirical and farcical elements in the way in which people and organization deal with matters of ethics and morality * Stakeholder theory * Business case for business ethics * Arguments about the moral status of business and organization Moral conflict between self-interest and public duty, between social and environment duty what takes precedence? Should a business case be proven before an organization commit to appeal fund or should behave in a socially responsible way, beyond the requirement of law because it is the right thing to do? It would seem logical that a company would benefit from socially responsible conduct such as renewable resources, promoting fair trade, empowering gender fairness in employment and support the community in which they operate. However, the translation of benefits into economic profits is not guaranteed. For some consumers the buying decision is influenced by the social image of the company but by the value they get from the trade. Various factors can be employed to measure the corporate social responsibility performance are Dow Jones Sustainability Index, SERM rating and EIRIS. Stakeholder Theory: What responsibilities or obligation does an organization owes to its stakeholders? How should an organization cater to the competing need of different stakeholders? What legitimate interests justify a group of people being regarded as stakeholders...

Words: 1365 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

The Please the World Club

...The PTL Club Case Study Prepared by Felix Rivero For Professor Suiero in partial fulfillment of the requirements for ACC 502- Advanced Auditing School of Business/ Graduate Studies FIU Miami Gardens, FL Spring 2014 May 15, 2014 Table of Contents Issues……………………………………………………………….Page 3 Facts………………………………………………………………..Page 4-5 Analysis/ Authority………………………………………………...Page 5-9 Conclusions/ Recommendation…………………………………….Page 9 References………………………………………………………….Page 10 Issues PTL case Issue #1 Some of the ethical questions raised by the maintenance of PTL’s secret payroll account by the Laventhol partner are? Since the PTL was a private organization not registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission should this affect the propriety of the partner’s actions? PTL case Issue #2 PTL was a high risk client to Laventhol, what procedures should Laventhol done before accepting PTL as an audit client? PTL case Issue #3 What is the definition of the deep pocket theory? What step can large public accounting firms use to protect themselves against large class action lawsuits with predicated upon false or largely unfounded allegation? PTL case Issue #4 A. How does GAAS for PTL now differ from GAAS for a U.S.-based public company listed on a U.S. securities exchange? Explanation should include citations and examples. B. How does GAAP for PTL differ from GAAP applicable to U.S.-based public companies? Explanation should include citations and examples. PTL...

Words: 2126 - Pages: 9

Premium Essay

Case

...for critical analysis Introduction   Working with people may be one of the easiest things and or the hardest undertaking in any company or organization. Properly understanding people provides a humble base or foundation in managing them and well managed people are easier to understand. With this as a rule of thumbs, the goals, plans and aspirations may be achieved. This paper will analyze H.I.D. as a company that has a potential of expansion or else stagnate. Critical Analysis   The confusion that confronts Keith Houck as the hired consultant is mainly from and by the mission statement and the attitude of H.I.D. managers. There seems to be progress spearheaded by the H.I.D. President but managers seem and indeed they are so pessimistic apart from the Human Resource Director Karen Setz. The President is very positive and has achieved a lot by meeting the goals of expansion during the five years that he ahs been in the company. The development during Bill’s time and his immense driving force are good indicators that H.I.D. is far able to formulate its strategic plans and goals. If I were Keith Houck the Consultant, I could have asked very many questions ranging from work ethics to what every individual department has achieved and further question what are the goals of each department. For H.I.D. to formulate its plans and goals it needs an overhaul of its managers except the Human Resource Director Karen Setz who has a vision with a positive mind of expansion. But before the...

Words: 651 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Week 3: Sucessoftrianing Programs

...Success of Training Programs Evaluating any training programs is done in five steps. The first step is to set the criteria for the evaluation. Training-level criteria and performance level criteria are both important in evaluating training methods. The next step in evaluating a training program is to choose a design. A common design used is the pretest-posttest design. Trainees are evaluated before training and again after training. This design is a way to measure how much was gained from the training. The next step in successfully evaluating a training program is to choose the measures of the criteria. The particular criteria would determine appropriate measures. The final steps of successfully evaluating a training program are to collect the necessary data and analyze and interpret the data. If the first four steps are done correct and thoroughly one will be able to reach a conclusion about the effectiveness of the training program (Spector, 2008). The selection and training of employees is an important aspect for organizations. For example: if a relative had to have surgery and the doctor conducting the surgery was not properly trained, that relative and his or her family would want a trained surgeon to do the surgery. As a consumer the most qualified person for a position would be the right way to go, but there are also other aspects like personality, sociability, and skill levels. The health of an organization, their employees, and consumers in the area are also...

Words: 670 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Conducting Personal Business on Company

...Conducting Personal Business on Company Time Because employees tend to spend so much of their weekday hours on the job, they often are tempted to conduct personal business on company time. This can include setting up doctor's appointments on company phone lines, making vacation reservations using their employer's computers and Internet connections or even making phone calls for a freelance side business while on company time. At first glance, this ethical dilemma is fairly clear: It is an abuse of your employer to conduct personal business on company time. But there are shades of gray here. What if your spouse calls to tell you that your children are ill? Is it OK for you to schedule a doctor's appointment? A good rule of thumb is for an employee to check with his manager or human resources supervisors to clarify what counts as an actionable offense in the company. Taking Credit for Others' Work Employees often work in teams to create marketing campaigns, develop new products or fine-tune services, yet rarely does everyone in a group contribute equally to the final product. If three members of a five-person team did all the work, do those three members demand to receive proper credit while pointing out that two members of the team did not pull their weight? This is a thorny question. If employees single out their co-workers in a negative light, it could foment resentment. The same thing could happen, however, if all employees accept equal praise even though only a select few...

Words: 411 - Pages: 2