Strategic Evaluation of the Concept of Ethics among Human Beings - Essay Example

Business Ethics Name: Course: Tutor: Institution: Date: Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 1.0 Introduction 3 A: Bounded Ethics 3 B: Ethical Fading 5 C: Behavioural Ethics 6 Conclusion 8 References 9 1.0 Introduction This report offers a strategic evaluation of the concept of ethics among human beings. In this regard, the key focus of the report was based on evaluating the role and impact of external forces and individual interests in the formulation of ethical decisions. In this regard, the report evaluates three key issues, namely the bounded ethics, ethical fading and behavioural ethics. Finally, the report offers a conclusion offering the established relationships on the three discussed topics. A: Bounded Ethics I do not think acting ethically is just a matter of wanting to badly enough. On the contrary, I believe acting ethically is more about respecting personal values and observing personal ethical boundaries (Bazerman and Tenbrunsel, 2011, p.22). As such, individual human beings seek to develop and make ethical decisions in order to uphold and retain their own individual and collective values and principles. Therefore, this desire to act ethically is driven by the need to do well and please those who believe in acting ethically. Thus, Koslowski (2000, p.103) stated that the need to act ethically, is not only individually driven, but also serves as a tool to make individual part of a society and groups that believes in the application of such principles. Nevertheless, although individual would be willing to act ethically at all times, situational challenges might at times lead to their acting unethically either knowingly or even unknowingly. One of the situational factors I would link to the risk of unethical behaviours would be at times when one’s reputation is on the line such as when a house mortgage loan, is due and one is forced to fake unemployment of sickness to derail the financing bank auctioning process. As such, although the pretence of illness is unethical, it enables insulate the individuals from the humiliation of a house auction for failure to meet their financial obligations. Personally, I was faced with a similar challenging situation in which the l circumstances led to my being unethical. I clearly remember a time when we were sitting for a mathematical paper and I had not prepared well. Therefore, I sat closer to my friend and I always kept on confirming the answers from him. This is because I did not trust myself in this course. As such, although the approach I used could be deemed unethical, it enabled me acquire better grades on the test of which I could have otherwise failed. Similarly, on a recent account, one of my friends was over-speeding when he was stopped by a police officer. However, he advised his sister to pretend that she was terminally ill and she was being rushed to the hospital. Their unethical behaviour made them not to land in jail. Hence illustrating that indeed, ethicality among human beings is bounded depending on the prevailing circumstances and potential consequences facing an individual. Therefore, based on the above example, accounts for myself and a close friend of mine whom I consider among the best and good intentioned people, and basing my analysis on the argument by Haidt (2013, p.47), I do not think it’s possible to be completely rational when making ethical decisions. This is because some decisions depend on the consent of the third parties who at times force even good people to make unethical decisions. In such cases, one is always influenced to put aside personal ethical guidelines and follow the decision of the majority in order to ensure they blend in and retain their status as members of a family or fraternity. Therefore, I conclude that it is hard for a person to be completely rational when making ethical decisions. B: Ethical Fading Levin, Mather and Mather (2012, p.51) discussed ethical fading is a morality concept that explains the concept through which ethical individual considered generally ethical would be influenced to develop and undertake unethical decisions while dismissing the moral and ethical implications of such a decision. In this regard, the concept of ethical fading is argued as a brain and emotional process through which an individual mind seeks to rationalize intuitively developed decisions against the existing ethical standards. However, as time progresses, the ethical consciousness and guilt cause a reflection that leads to the unethical dimensions realization. In this regard, the ethical fading challenge faces all the society members equally regardless of their moral and ethical perceptions and values (Fox, Martyn and Pollis, 2009, p.75). For example, I am a victim of ethical fading myself. This happened on an incidence when I was in my attachment this year, when I and my two other colleagues under the guidance of our firm supervisor went for an outreach. In this case, we were supposed to get some allowance for the outreach, though primarily attaché do not get paid, but the firm allocates for allowances in such occasions. Although, this was the case the supervisor just bought us a meal, and we signed against our names lunch allowance. It was quite painful, but since we wanted the supervisor to give a positive recommendation upon completion of the attachment we had to sign. As such, we compromised our ethical decision making on honesty and allowed the supervisor to enjoy the rest of our allowances as a tool to guarantee our positive rating. The assumption I developed was that the only approach to ensure my positive recommendations’ was compliance regardless of the unethical or immorality of issues I faced. Since then, I have always tried to forget about the incidence, but the question has always been, for how long will the supervisor treat attaché like that? What if I spoke out, maybe the administration could have summoned the supervisor as the firm emphasizes on a corruption free policy? For sure I do regret that I never talked or shared the issue with the relevant authority yet am out of the attachment and months have passed. Similarly, on the global platform, the concept of ethical fading can be illustrated in the growing cases of corruption incidences across the nations and cultures. As such, corruption has become part of the day and businesses and organization are at liberty to execute any actions and functions with the sole concern for gaining success. For example, the Russia winning 2018 bid process was coupled with lots of corruption and subsequent document and software removal is quite questionable. However, the lack of sufficient information led to the conclusion that Russia won the bid as there was no sufficient information to support that Russia; Alexia Sorokin for sure obstructed Fifa’s ethics inquiry deliberately (World Cup 2018, 13th November, 2014). As such, although the issue will remain as a historical challenge on the bid wining process, the lack of vivid evidence at the time led to the erosion of the ethical dimensions on the bidding committee. C: Behavioural Ethics I agree with the two statements that a vast majority of the people will agree if they are asked. This is because my ethical beliefs can only be altered by reasoned arguments or new evidence. As a person I have developed my own set of beliefs and morals that I ensure pursuance and compliance with. In this regard, although my morals are increasingly affected by the background and culture, I resolved to the adoption of an ethical neutrality position, where I refrain from confirmation bias of comparing my actions and decisions with peers, an instead use my judgement and conscience to make my own ethical decisions. As such, my moral character and integrity guides me when faced with difficult moral choices. In my experience, most of the people who consider themselves good usually lie and cheat in minor ways. The people who think of themselves as good people in most cases lie for their own benefits or when confronted by a situation that may embarrass them. In this regard, besides an individual moral and ethical background and reputation as Tangonyire and Achal (2012, p.19) stated, all human beings are inclined on self interest philosophy. In this regard, all strive to make decisions that suit and meet their own personal interests. Therefore, such persons may lie and cheat as a means of safeguarding their interests to the extent that such a lie or cheating does not discredit their reputation and pleases the observance third parties. Thus, it does not surprise me that religiosity is not a significant factor in ethical behaviour. This is because all humans, including the non-religious agree on what is good or what is bad. As such, I agree with Smith (2001, p.21), that besides being religious or not, all human beings seek to retain their reputation and the individual conscious across the religious divides serve as a unifying factor on an evaluation of both good and bad leading to both the religious and non religious beings involvement in volunteer work which is considered good. Any action that is perceived to be bad is usually condemned in equal measure by the religious and non-religious. As a matter of a fact, I know that good people usually do bad things both from personal experience and from the media. Their actions may be intentional or unintentional, but it usually brings a lot of confusion in the community. Some of the people who are perceived to be good have been found engaging in issues of corruption, cheating or child abuse. One such example is my local church priest whom, despite the reputation of being an honest and reputable society member, was recently accused of domestic violence. In this case, although unethical, the priest had reverted to physical assault on the spouse as a measure of ensuring this respect and aligning her to the image and perception, he desired for the society to perceive on his family, as a measure to increase his reputation and regard. In this regard, although such individuals are usually quick to apologize, in most cases the damage as in the defamation case against the priest. Conclusion In summary, this report offers a critical review and evaluation on the concept of ethics among human beings. On one hand, an evaluation of the concept of bounded ethicality establishes that human beings are ethical, but only to the extent that such ethical decisions serve their interest. Moreover, the analysis establishes that ethical fading challenge is a key contributor for unethical decisions as the need to achieve the desired results leads to a fading ethical dimension. Finally, the analysis establishes that the ethical decision making process, although a behavioural practice relies on the need to satisfy individual interests, thus certifying that individual ethics are rationally bound and motivated by personal gains and interests. References Bazerman, M. H., & Tenbrunsel, A. E., 2011, Blind Spots: Why We Fail to Do What's Right and What to Do about It, Princeton University Press, Princeton Fox, L. J., Martyn, S. R., & Pollis, A. S., 2009, A century of legal ethics: Trial lawyers and the ABA Canons of professional ethics, American Bar Association, Section of Litigation, Chicago, Ill. Haidt, J., 2013, the righteous mind: Why good people are divided by politics and religion, Vintage Books, New York. Koslowski, P., 2000, Contemporary economic ethics and business ethics, Springer, Berlin. Levin, L. C., Mather, L. M., & Mather, L. M., 2012, Lawyers in practice: Ethical decision making in context, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Smith, K. E., 2001, Ethics and foreign policy, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Tangonyire, R. C., & Achal, L. K., 2012, Economic behaviour as if others too had interests., Langaa Research & Publishers, Mankon, Bamenda Cameroon. World Cup 2018, 13th November, 2014. Russia Deny Wrongdoing Upon Fifa 2018 Inquiry Finds Evidence Destroyed. [Online] Available at [Accessed December 24, 2014]. Read More

Similarly, on a recent account, one of my friends was over-speeding when he was stopped by a police officer. However, he advised his sister to pretend that she was terminally ill and she was being rushed to the hospital. Their unethical behaviour made them not to land in jail. Hence illustrating that indeed, ethicality among human beings is bounded depending on the prevailing circumstances and potential consequences facing an individual. Therefore, based on the above example, accounts for myself and a close friend of mine whom I consider among the best and good intentioned people, and basing my analysis on the argument by Haidt (2013, p.47), I do not think it’s possible to be completely rational when making ethical decisions.

This is because some decisions depend on the consent of the third parties who at times force even good people to make unethical decisions. In such cases, one is always influenced to put aside personal ethical guidelines and follow the decision of the majority in order to ensure they blend in and retain their status as members of a family or fraternity. Therefore, I conclude that it is hard for a person to be completely rational when making ethical decisions. B: Ethical Fading Levin, Mather and Mather (2012, p.51) discussed ethical fading is a morality concept that explains the concept through which ethical individual considered generally ethical would be influenced to develop and undertake unethical decisions while dismissing the moral and ethical implications of such a decision.

In this regard, the concept of ethical fading is argued as a brain and emotional process through which an individual mind seeks to rationalize intuitively developed decisions against the existing ethical standards. However, as time progresses, the ethical consciousness and guilt cause a reflection that leads to the unethical dimensions realization. In this regard, the ethical fading challenge faces all the society members equally regardless of their moral and ethical perceptions and values (Fox, Martyn and Pollis, 2009, p.75). For example, I am a victim of ethical fading myself.

This happened on an incidence when I was in my attachment this year, when I and my two other colleagues under the guidance of our firm supervisor went for an outreach. In this case, we were supposed to get some allowance for the outreach, though primarily attaché do not get paid, but the firm allocates for allowances in such occasions. Although, this was the case the supervisor just bought us a meal, and we signed against our names lunch allowance. It was quite painful, but since we wanted the supervisor to give a positive recommendation upon completion of the attachment we had to sign.

As such, we compromised our ethical decision making on honesty and allowed the supervisor to enjoy the rest of our allowances as a tool to guarantee our positive rating. The assumption I developed was that the only approach to ensure my positive recommendations’ was compliance regardless of the unethical or immorality of issues I faced. Since then, I have always tried to forget about the incidence, but the question has always been, for how long will the supervisor treat attaché like that?

What if I spoke out, maybe the administration could have summoned the supervisor as the firm emphasizes on a corruption free policy? For sure I do regret that I never talked or shared the issue with the relevant authority yet am out of the attachment and months have passed. Similarly, on the global platform, the concept of ethical fading can be illustrated in the growing cases of corruption incidences across the nations and cultures. As such, corruption has become part of the day and businesses and organization are at liberty to execute any actions and functions with the sole concern for gaining success.

For example, the Russia winning 2018 bid process was coupled with lots of corruption and subsequent document and software removal is quite questionable. However, the lack of sufficient information led to the conclusion that Russia won the bid as there was no sufficient information to support that Russia; Alexia Sorokin for sure obstructed Fifa’s ethics inquiry deliberately (World Cup 2018, 13th November, 2014).

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