Business Ethics
Recent decades have witness intensive debate and researches on the significant of business ethics in modern workplaces. Although researches on business ethics are still at infant stage, researchers have universally agreed on some basic significant of business ethics to both individual’s development and organisation productivity. Business ethics regards to values that focus on moral features in commercial activities. Ethics are also professional and applied virtues that explore ethical problems, morals, and ethical principles that emerge in the business environment. Ethics addresses individual’s conducts in a business while revolving other critical business conducts. Business ethics mainly comprises of both descriptive and normative dimensions (Hume 39). Elements of ethics also involve recommending, defending, and systematising of the concepts of wrong and right behaviours in the society. However, trainings on business ethics among employees have turned out to be a challenging and complicated process. Scholars have devised numerous ways of ensuring that all employees understand the importance of business ethics in their activities and operations. Utilization of educative films has proved critical in training employees on some of the basic ethical principles and guidelines. The paper explores Becket (1964) film to identify critical elements of the movie that can be utilized to train employees on ethics in the workplace.
Becket (1964) movie is a play that was performed in the late 12th century. The movie explores the manner in which modern leadership styles has been replacing native ruling class and workplace guidelines. The movie has largely presented the importance of business ethics in modern organisations. In order to understand the manner in which movies can be used to train employees on ethic in the workplace, the subsequent essay will examine how Becket (1964) movie can be used to train business ethics among employees. After watching the movie, trainees will understand the two key ethical theories of ethics, applied ethics and normative ethics.
Normative ethics are guidelines that regulate the wrong and right conduct in the contemporary workplace. Becket (1964) movie presents the appointment of Thomas Becket as the Archbishop of Canterbury by King Henry against the existing normative ethics. The appointment aimed at meeting the King’s personal interest. After watching the movie, trainees will be able to understand the manner in which leaders misuse their position to meet their personal interest. In most cases, normative ethics are the ideal and substantial litmus paper that measures individual behaviours and business conducts.
The movie has emphasised on the importance and relevant of developing good habits. To be effective in the workplace, an employee should understand the importance of wisdom, justice, temperance, and courage. Other essential values that determine individual productivity in an organisation entails sincerity, self-respect, generosity, temper, and fortitude. Contrary to Henry the act of appointing Becket to meet his personal interests, modern ethical standards emphasises on the significance of maintaining good working habits. According to virtue theory, all employees should avoid bad characters and vices such as vanity, injustice, insensibility, and cowardice. Adopting good virtues is also essential in regulating individuals’ emotions and perceptions towards ones responsibility.
In referring to the movie Becket (1964), it is clear that individuals have specific obligations and responsibility in ensuring the success of an organisation. Henry violated his responsibility and appointed an incompetent person to an influential leadership position. On the other hand, in demonstrating his knowledge on the guiding ethical principle, Becket maintained the existing guidelines and responsibility descriptions. Becket acted in accordance to the descriptions that define his responsibility instead of supporting Henry’s unethical ideologies and philosophies. This means that employees ought to be trained and informed on the importance of avoiding any form of blackmail and act that are contrary to the regulations that guide their responsibility.
The knowledge on the right theory is also essential in empowering employees. Employees should be responsible and accountable of their own behaviours in the workplace. By appointing unqualified employee to meet his own interests, Henry encountered endless resistance from other employees and leaders. Instead of doing according to Henry guidelines, Becket supported ideas of other leaders thus placing Henry in a very complicated leadership position. According to recent research findings, duties and rights are largely interlinked. Rights of one person in workplace determine and influence the responsibility and duties of another employee. Subsequently, employees should be knowledgeable on the importance of teamwork and cooperation among themselves.
Teamwork does not only influence the success of an organisation but also determines the efficiency in an organisation (Hume 41). Employees have moral duties and responsibility of increasing productivity to both the organisation and other employees in any workplace setting. Training is therefore essential in enhancing the understanding of the role of all employees in facilitating the understanding of one personal development. There is also specific fundamental principle that defines one’s duties and obligations in the workplace. For instance, in the movie under study, there are specific regulations that define the manner in which a leader should recruit and enumerate in an employee in the institution. However, despite understanding these guidelines Henry violated these guidelines and recruited a close friend in high leadership position (Kottak 47). Although Henry was influential in the recruitment of leaders in the institution, the appointment of Becket created confusion and disharmony in the institution. Based on the outcome of recruitment in the movie under study, employees should understand the importance of abiding by the existing rules and regulations in the entire recruitment process.
Hypothetical imperatives should on the other hand not serve as the main pillar for executing duties in an organisation. However, readers and employees should embark on categorical imperatives. Contrary to the case under study, personal interests should not guide the recruitment of employees and leaders in an organisation. As opposed to hypothetical imperative, categorical imperative suggests that one should pursue his responsibilities in an organisation with an aim of meeting the organisation goals as opposed to fulfilling one personal desires and inspirations (Ronald 93). This means in the training, employees ought to understand the fact that people should be treated as an end as opposed to the means to an end. Leader should treat employees with dignity and respect. The understanding of the categorical imperative will also help employees in managing and in regulating morality of actions that interfere with individual productivity in an organisation.
Employees should also understand the meaning of being honest in fulfilling their promises. For instance, in the movie, Becket failed to be honest on his promises to Henry. In the appointment, Becket had promised to be loyal to Henry. However, after the appointment, Becket collaborated with other employees and frustrated Henry’s effort of being influential in the institution decision making. Although it was within the job description for Becket to collaborate with other leaders in the institution, Becket did not understand the importance of being honest to one promise. In training employees on the ethical guidelines in workplaces, trainers should inform employees on their duty and responsibility of keeping their promises. Moreover, employees should understand the importance of compensating the harms that are committed to others in the workplace. Other factors that are essential to employees while executing their duties include fidelity to one promise, reparation, justice, beneficence and self-improvement.
The knowledge on the applied ethics is also essential for a competent and successful employee. Applied theory of ethics discusses the importance of individual’s rights in the workplace. The theory also expounds on the importance of respecting the rights and responsibilities of other people in the society. In the movie, Becket (1964), Henry does not understand the importance of respecting the rights of other employees in the institution. In its place, he is more interested in meeting his own interest in expenses of other people’s rights. As a result, Henry encountered consistent resistance from other employees in the organisation including his own aides. Understanding the individual’s fundamental rights is essential in avoiding confusion and conflicts between leaders and managers. Furthermore, activities and new regulations in the workplace should also consider employees interest and rights (Fieser 7).
Besides meeting social benefits, employees have the responsibility of ensuring that, their actions have a positive impact on their personal and professional development. The knowledge that describes the extent to which actions and activities produce benefits to individual and society is therefore essential for a successful employee. Training employees on the principles that guides applied ethical behaviours is very practice in any training session. Based on the recent research findings, some of the main principles that guides applied ethical behaviours include principle of personal benefits, principle of social benefit, principle of benevolence, justice principle, autonomy principle, lawfulness principle, honesty principle, and principle of harm. Modern employers and employees also need to be trained on the significant and relevance of business ethics in business development (Kurt 71).
Business ethics explores moral confusions that are linked to social responsibility in capitalist business practice. Training on business ethic will also examine other business principles such as whistle blowing, drug testing among employees, affirmative action in the recruitment of employees, job satisfaction, and discrimination, basic employees’ rights and obligations, insider trade, deceptive advertisement and corporate entities. Even though they overlap with medical issues and business ethical principles, understanding of environmental ethics is essential for new recruits. Environmental ethics entails the obligation of protecting the natural environment, the immorality on animal experimentation, management of natural resources, pollution control and consideration of needs and demands of future generation.
It is apparent that the knowledge and understanding of ethical guidelines among employees is vital in the corporate world. Besides improving employees’ productivity, ethical guideline helps in the maintenance of unity and harmony in the workplace. Based on the significant of ethical guideline in workplace, intensive training on the same is essential and inevitable. It is therefore, the responsibility of modern leaders to come up with training programs to educate employees on the importance of respecting ethical guidelines and principles.
Work cited
Becket (1964).retrieved on 20th July 2013. Website: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057877/
Fieser James. Ethics. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (2009). Retrieved on 20th July 2013. Web: http://www.iep.utm.edu/ethics/
Hume, David. Treatise of Human Nature (1739-1740), eds. David Fate Norton, Mary J. Norton. Oxford; New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2000. Print
Kottak, Conrad. Mirror for Humanity, New York, NY: McGraw Hill.2006. Print
Kurt Baier. Difficulties in the Emotive-Imperative Theory" in Paul W Taylor (editor): The Moral Judgement: Readings in Contemporary Meta-Ethics. Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice-Hall. 1963. Print
Ronald F. Duska. What's the Point of a Business Ethics Course. Business Ethics Quarterly 335-352 (1991), 79-93
