Ethics is defined as the principle that governs a person’s behavior or the conducting of an activity. However, the definition of the word ethics do vary in respect to different disciplines involving the core values encompassed in a wide range of careers, for example, engineering, medicine, teaching, and law.
Not so long ago business enterprises existed simply to generate profits. In fact, the Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism advanced by the famous sociologist (Garsten, 2008) publication explains the rise of western capitalism as being based on the notion that earning more money was legitimately seen as an end in itself. In short, there was no any moral considerations that were structured other than to earn money, It is until recently that it has been seldom been asked if operations of larger Organizations were harmful in any way or if they existed to serve the need of dubious political plots.
Within an organization, the ethical dilemmas can be specific to their company and industry. Other types of ethical issues have many similarities and are common to most of companies (Garsten, 2008). Handling ethical concerns with wisdom is very important especially for small businesses. Below are examples of the types of dilemma that can be experienced in the management of an Organization.
Health and safety is an area where ethical considerations must be taken to balance expense control with the health and safety interests of employee’s. Due to the workforce being exposed to hazardous working equipments and physically demanding job, therefore, strong healthy standards should be put in place to meet the required standards. Unfortunately, some organizations opt to cut out on safety controls to save extra money and, therefore, going contrary to the ethical values contained in management.
Transparency cannot be ignored. Accounting scandals and dubious business deals have made it imperative that companies transact their deals in utmost openness with full disclosure as an ethical concern. In public institutions, this totals to honesty, accuracy, and a comprehensive reporting on mandated financial details.
The two examples discussed above do offer an expedite account on how ethical dilemmas can impede the well-being of the stakeholders involved in curtain raising the core values that exist in our organizations. In many occasion, the newspapers have always uncovered many cases of nepotism when it comes to Government appointments, many have been bestowed with the responsibility of serving the government having not merited the qualification required to get the various jobs (Morais&IGI, 2011). These cases can be categorized among the ethical dilemmas that do exist in management in government departments with the appointing authorities’ dilemma in choosing the right qualified personnel to fill vacant posts or to employ their favored ones to fill the vacancies.
References
Garsten, C. (2008). Organizing transnational accountability. Cheltenham: Elgar.
Morais, . C. G. J., & IGI Global. (2011). Ethical issues and social dilemmas in knowledge management: Organizational innovation. Hershey, PA: Information Science References.
