Ethical issues in management

Before you read

Vocabulary tasks

Which of these words go with ‘ethics’ or ‘ethical’? Complete the table.

Questionable, training, individual, issues, corporate, standards, professional, actions, medical, dilemmas, investments, principles, questions, foreign policy, code.

1) business ethics	1) ethical behaviour
2) …	2)…
…	…

Think ahead

1. Are some jobs more ethical than others? How ethical do you think these professions are?

accountant civil servant lawyer police officer banker estate agent nurse teacher manager journalist dentist taxi driver

2. Discuss the list of unethical activities. In your opinion, which are the worst? Which are common for Russia?

1. Avoiding paying taxes

2. Claiming extra expenses

3. Using work facilities for private purposes (for example, personal phone calls)

4. Accepting praise for someone else’s ideas or work

5. Selling a defective product (for example, a second-hand car)

6. Using your influence to get jobs for relatives

7. Ringing in sick when you are not ill

8. Taking extended lunch breaks

9. Giving good references to people you want to get rid of

Text 8.2 Read the text and do the tasks in the comprehension section.

Ethics in Contemporary Management

Management ethics is not a separate branch of ethics. Managers face different applications from those faced by other people, for example, in advertising, recruitment, international trade and indus­trial safety, but the moral questions they face are fundamentally the same. They have to decide what is right according to a set of principles.

Most managers recognise that they wrestle with ethical dilemmas. Dilemmas arise because the interests of different parties are in conflict. One finds that benefiting one party cannot be achieved without disadvantaging another.

In addition to unethical corporate behaviour by numerous senior managers, any one individual within an organization can act unethically. For example, consider the following situations. You are a purchasing agent and are offered a case of fine wine by one of the suppliers with whom you do business. Would you accept it? You see some of your coworkers making long-distance personal calls from their office. Should you do the same? You consider taking home office supplies for personal use. Should you do so? These examples are just a few of the ethical dilemmas that any one individual may encounter at work. It should be stressed that the specific examples are not against the law, but would be considered by many to be wrong actions. Unethical actions by individuals in clear violation of the law would include falsifying documents that are sent to regulatory agencies, embezzlement of funds, racial discrimination, and asking sexual favours in the workplace. Actions that violate laws pertaining to pollution, product safety, and safe working conditions would also be consid­ered unethical.

A further difficulty for managers, as for other people such as doctors and lawyers who take on responsibilities that affect others, is that they are acting as agents for the organization. They are carrying out organizational rules and decisions that may have personal implications that they have to resolve.

Corporate social responsibility and the ethics of managers meet at several points. The organization is the means by which stakeholders, both internal and external, achieve their aims. Their influence is reconciled by managers’ interpretation of the validity of those aims and the pressures that the stakeholders are able to resist. Clearly, managers’ individual ethics play their part in this process.

Concept check

1. Answer the questions:

1. Are moral problems that managers face similar to those faced by other people? Why?

2. What difficulties do managers face?

3. In what way can an individual act unethically?

4. What unethical actions are in clear violation of the law?

5. Why is it difficult for managers to act as agents for the organization?

6. What points do corporate social responsibility and ethics in management meet at?

2. Speak about ethical difficulties in the work of managers.

READING III