DEVELOPMENT OF ETHICS

ANJANA SINGH
PhD Scholar
USMS, GGSIPU
ETHICS

• The code of moral principles and values that

govern the behaviors of a person or group with
respect to what is right or wrong.

• ETHICS are the system of rules that governs the

ordering of values.
 3

Three Domains of Human Action

Domain of Certified Law Domain of Ethics Domain of Free Choice

(Legal Standard) (Social Standard) (Personal Standard)

Amount of

Explicit Control
High Low
MORALITY VS. ETHICS
• MORALITY is concerned with norms, values,
and beliefs embedded in social processes which
define right and wrong for an individual or a
community

• ETHICS is the study of ‘morality’ and the

application of reason to elucidate specific rules
and principles that determine right and wrong
for a given situation
ETHICS
• They indicate when behavior is acceptable and
when it is unacceptable.

• They are derived from Moral principles.

Ethical Perspectives for Evaluating
Behavior

Societal

Organizational
Legal

Individual
SOCIETAL PERSPECTIVE
• Societal Ethics – standards that govern how
members of a society are to deal with each
other on issues of fairness, justice, inequality,
and individual rights.
• The idea of what is ethical behavior is largely
influenced by the society in which the
behavior occurs.
• Various public opinion surveys suggest a
growing disenchantment with the lack of
ethical behavior.
LEGAL PERSPECTIVE
• Laws: society’s values and standards that are
enforceable in the courts.

• Ethics are not laws by any means, simply values

and beliefs applied to determine what is right or
wrong.
• Legality of actions and decisions doesn’t make
them ethical.
• Laws should move with the current culture and
moral principles.
•- Lag behind because they are written and set
•- Do not ensure or even promote ethical
behavior
• Often laws and ethics are in conflict . Example?
 .

Examples of Law/Ethical Difference

• Students borrowing and investing money
• Caveat emptor-buyer beware
Organizational Perspective
• To provide guidance for employees, an
organization can define ethical and unethical
behaviors.

• Organizations can also guide employee actions

both formally and informally.
Individual Perspective
• Despite prevalent societal, legal, and
organizational interpretations of what is ethical,
individuals have their own values and a sense of
what is right or wrong.
• Lawrence Kohlberg, 1963, 1981
•- Suggested people develop morally, much as
they do physically, from early childhood to
adulthood.
• As they develop, their patterns of moral reasoning,
which are the basis of ethical behavior, go through
stages of moral development.
• Each stage is more adequate at responding to
moral dilemmas than its predecessor.
 Individual Perspective

• Stages of moral development: according to

Kohlberg, people develop morally by going
through six stages of moral development:
▫ obedience and punishment
▫ instrumental
▫ interpersonal
▫ law and order
▫ social contract
▫ universal principles.
Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral
Development, 1963, 1981

Universal Principles
Social Contract
Law & Order
Interpersonal
Instrumental
Obedience & Punishment
Childhood--------------Through----------------Adulthood
Kohlberg’s Stages
1. Obedience and punishment: person does the right thing
mainly to avoid punishment or to obtain approval.
2. Instrumental: person becomes aware that others also
have needs and begins to defer to them to get what the
individual wants. Behavior is driven by self-interest and
rewards
3. Interpersonal: person considers appropriate behavior as
what pleases, helps, or is approved by friends or family.
 Kohlberg’s Stages
4. Law & Order: person recognizes that ethical
behavior is not determined only by reference to
friends, family, co-workers, or others whose
opinions the individual might value.
5. Social Contract: person is aware that people hold a
variety of conflicting personal views that go beyond
the letter of the law.
6. Universal Principles: person views appropriate
conduct as determined by a person’s conscience,
based on universal ethical principles. Self-chosen ethics
–system of values and principles— has respect for the worth of
individuals. Respect for worth and dignity of each individual.
KOHLBERG’S LEVELS OF MORAL
DEVELOPMENT
Kohlberg’s Levels
Morality of abstract
Postconventional principles: to affirm
level agreed-upon rights and
personal ethical principles

Morality of law and

Conventional social rules: to gain
level approval or avoid
disapproval

Preconventional Morality of self-interest:

level to avoid punishment
or gain concrete rewards
Evaluating Kohlberg’s Theory
• Cross-cultural validity
▫ Non-western cultures rarely above stage 4
▫ Socialist people and the Heinz dilemma
▫ Buddhist monks
• Family influences
▫ Family plays an important role (ignored in
Kohlberg’s model)
▫ Study of parents talking to children about dilemmas
Gender and Kohlberg’s scale
• When Kohlberg’s instrument was administered
on a large scale, it was discovered that females
often scored a full stage below their male
counterparts.

• The moral reasoning of women and girls was

more likely to value looking for a solution that
preserved connections.
Criticisms of Kohlberg’s theory
• Carol Gilligan criticizes Kohlberg for only studying
males moral development , yet it became the basis
for a theory applied to both males and females.
• Criticism was made that his dilemmas were used to
identify individual protagonists, with whom subjects
could identify and younger interviewees may not be
able to break out of this character to discuss wider
issues.
• Although Kohlberg worked with Gilligan eventually
and began expanding his studies to females he kept
most of his dilemmas very similar to the originals.
Criticisms of Kohlberg’s theory
• Research has not supported Kohlberg’s belief that
the development of abstract thinking in adolescence
invariably leads people to the formation of idealistic
moral principles
• Theory emphasizes justice and individual rights to
the exclusion of other moral values, such as caring.

• Some cross-cultural psychologists argue that

Kohlberg’s stories and scoring system reflect a
Western emphasis on individual rights, harm, and
justice that is not shared in many cultures.
Gilligan, 1977, 1982
Differences between Masculine and
Feminine Moral Voices (Gilligan)
Masculine Feminine
• Justice • Care
• Rights • Responsibility
• Treating everyone fairly • Caring about everyone’s
and the same suffering
• Apply rules impartially to • Preserve emotional
everyone connectedness
• Responsibility toward • Responsibility toward real
abstract codes of conduct individuals
Differences between Men’s and
Women’s View of the Self
Men Women
• Relatedness
• Autonomy
• Interdependence
• Freedom
• Independence • Emotional connectedness
• Responsiveness to needs of
• Separateness
others
• Hierarchy
• Web of relationships
• Rules guide interactions
• Empathy & connectedness
• Roles establish places
guide interactions
in the hierarchy
• Roles are secondary to
connections
Gilligan’s contribution
• Androgyny, or integrating the masculine and the
feminine, is the best way to realize one's
potential as a human.

• Gilligan's stages of female moral development

has been shown in business settings as an
explanation to the different ways men and
women handle ethical issues in the workplace as
well.
Social Learning Theory Perspective
• Bandura & Walters 1963, 1977
Modeling
• When Learning involves observation, extraction of
information from those observations, and making
decisions about the performance of the behavior
• Model characteristics that promote imitation
▫ warmth and responsiveness
▫ competence and power
▫ consistency between assertions and behavior
Positive Discipline
• Reinforcement (positive discipline):
▫ Our parents teach us that it is good to be helpful-- we
are rewarded for helping and punished for not helping
• Positive discipline helps children acquire positive behavior
Punishment
• Promotes only momentary compliance
• Undesirable side effects:
▫ Adult models of aggression
▫ Learn to avoid the punishing adult
▫ Offers immediate relief to parents (reinforced for
using coercive discipline), so that parent is more
likely to punish with greater frequency over time
(can spiral into serious abuse)
ORGANIZATIONAL ETHICS

Organizational ethics is the application of

morality related choices as influenced and
guided by values, standards, rules, principles,
and strategies associated with organizational
activities and business situations.
Why ethics for organizations?
• A basis for values and visions

• To motivate employees

• Perhaps demanded by customers

• For good relationships with stakeholders

• An overall check on plans

• To avoid various exposures and risks

• Part of governance (and corporate governance)

• Sustainability and?
Why ethics?
• The finance crisis 1998

• A number of crimes, near-crimes and transgressions

• Managerialism (Robert Locke)

• Management not contributing to organizational growth/health

• Not contributing to society
• Money only management
• «Greed is good»
• Short term and limited plans
Greed is good. Embrace it. Love it. Live it.
In fact, greed may be the one thing that can
save us. Don’t believe me? Greed was the
foundation for this country. The brave souls
who risked their life to settle in a new country
did so out of self interest. Our forefathers
recognized the importance of self-interest in
the Declaration of Independence where
they emphasized our unalienable right to
pursue happiness.
Robert Pagliarini blog, Moneywatch 2010
Why Ethics?
• SELF-INTEREST is a pervasive economic idea

• Not supported by research, as overriding paradigm

• Country differences, in Japan a negative personality trait

• Other personal goals, sometimes more important:

▫ Family and friends

▫ Personal development (e.g. Maslow)

▫ Aesthetics, earth a nice place to live

▫ Contribution to society
How do we describe an ethical organization?

Responsibility is individual
They are at ease
rather than collective, with
interacting with diverse
individuals assuming
internal and external
personal responsibility for
stakeholder groups.
actions of the organization.

They are obsessed with They see their activities in

fairness. terms of purpose.
 Six Pillars of Character

Trustworthiness Respect Responsibility

Fairness and Caring Citizenship

Justice
 ETHICAL Ground Rules

Foster a culture of honesty.

Remind group members that they don't have to

like people to work with them.

Affirm collective responsibility.

 ETHICAL Ground Rules

Highlight the importance of developing and

practicing listening skills.

Spotlight the need for full participation.

Everyone needs to take a fair share of the group

work.
Benefits of Managing Ethics in the Workplace

Attention to ethics has substantially improved

society.

Ethics programs cultivate strong teamwork and

productivity.

Ethics programs support employee growth and

meaning.

Ethics programs help ensure that policies are

legal.
Benefits of Managing Ethics in the Workplace

Ethics programs help avoid criminal acts “of omission”

and can avoid punishments.

Ethics programs promote a strong public image.

Managing ethical values in the workplace legitimizes

managerial actions, strengthens the alignment of the
organization’s culture, and improves trust in relationships
between individuals and groups.
Who is responsible for creating Ethics in an
Organization?

The creation of an ethical organization resides with

leaders and followers;
leadership by nature demands that leaders be the front runners
in establishing an ethical organization.
A company’s managers play an important role in establishing its
ethical tone. A company’s leaders are responsible for setting
standards for what is and is not acceptable employee behavior. It’s
vital for managers to play an active role in creating a working
environment where employees are encouraged and rewarded for
acting in an ethical manner.
 Other Factors Impacting Organizational
Ethics
 Corporate culture
 Existence and application of a written code of ethics
 Formal and informal policies and rules
 Norms for acceptable behavior
 Financial reward system
 System for recognizing accomplishment
 Company attitude toward employees
 How employees are selected for promotions
 Hiring practices
 Applications of legal behavior
 Degree to which professionalism is emphasized
 The company’s decision making processes
 Behaviors and attitudes of the organization’s leaders
 Ethics starts at the top!
Thus, two things become apparent:
1. Organizational/business ethics are the
responsibility of organizational leadership; and

2. The challenge of leaders to create an ethical

organization is….difficult!

“Leaders play THE key role in developing the ethical organization as

they confront balancing operational and profit goals with corporate
moral obligations to internal and external stakeholders”.
 Ethics starts at the top!
Key Questions for Leaders as they build the ethical organization:
 What are my core values and beliefs?
 What are the core values and beliefs of the organization?
 Whose values, beliefs and interests are affected by my actions and
decisions?
 Who will be harmed or helped by my actions and decisions and
those of my organization?
 How will my core values and those of my organization be affected
or changed by my actions or decisions?
 How will I and my organization be affected by my actions and
decisions?
 Do my actions and decisions represent a consistent set of values?
 Develop ethical
behavioural
influences

Build an integrity The Provide sound

based organization Role of ethics training
Leaders

Implement plans Instil strong

and strategies to organizational
achieve ethical values
excellence

“The ethics of the organization reflect the ethics and skills of leaders.”
Lee Hartman, Ph.D.
The ethics of the organization
“
reflect the ethics and skills of
leaders.”

Lee Hartman, Ph.D.