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Business Ethics Concept
Even though it’s not identical, business
ethics concept (or management ethics) emerges strictly related with the
organizations social responsibilities concept. Ethics can be considered
as a group of values and social rules that distinguish what is right
from what is wrong, being, indicate when a behavior is socially accepted
or not. By other words, an ethics performance means more than respect
the society’s moral principles. These moral principles form general
behavior rules of great significance for the society that cannot be
established or changed by the decisions of isolated individuals or by
the established powers. In the entrepreneurial plan, ethics has to do
with the management decision taking, this is, which the choices made by
the managers face to an options diversity, having morality as
background.
It’s an evident fact that the
organizations contribute for the well being of people through the
management quality by the simple fact of seeking to achieve their
pre-determined goals. But it’s also necessary take into account that
exist numerous situations in which the organizations’ interests are
different from the society’s interests, taking, sometimes, to less ethic
performances. In fact, the lack of ethic situations are originated, in
most cases, by the incompatibility between the organization’s interests
and its members personal interests or between the self organization’s
interests and those of the society. These situations occur generally
when it’s attempted to reach benefits, financial or others, in short
term, at “any price” and by any means (even illegal, illicit or unfair),
when the organizations resources are used for self benefit or when are
not performed the duties or tasks that were supposed to be performed,
among many other situations.
Even though there is a great quantity of
legislation that seeks to avoid many of the situations considered as non
ethic, it’s impossible for the legislator to prevent all of the possible
situations, beyond that would be falling into a hipper-legislation
situation. For that, many organizations, business or not, prepare their
own conduct and ethic codes at which are obliged its members as a way to
fill some of those legislation gaps, namely for some specific situations
of the context in which they are inserted and the activities that they
develop. Still with the same goal of filling legislation gaps and
address specific questions of each activity sector emerge the
deontological and ethic codes generally created by employers,
professional, sectorial and regional codes that force their associates
to respect certain rules and ethic conduct.
Nevertheless, an ethic conduct is only
possible if each one of its intervenients work in this sense,
particularly not placing their personal interests in front of the
interests of the organization and the society which will be easier from
the moment that the managers realize that this conduct also provides
profitability and financial gains.
Translated from Portuguese
by Susana Saraiva, Portuguese-English and English-Portuguese translation
specialist. Contact: spams@sapo.pt.
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