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Ethic Levels Concept
Ethic decisions and behaviors cannot be
understood nor evaluated at only one level, but in a wider context.
There are four levels that can be used to diagnose and consider ethic
questions on an ethic values system: Social, Legal, Organizational and
Individual levels.
Social Level: as we have seen before,
currently and more and more, organizations and its managers are
constantly exposed and judged by the media and by the public opinion in
general, pressuring them to take decisions, based only on ethic
behavior;
Legal Level: as principle, current laws in
each country represent social values. However, for several reasons,
among which the impossibility of the legislator to faithfully traduce to
law all the society’s moral values, respect for the actions and lawfully
decisions doesn’t necessarily make them ethic;
Organizational Level: through the conduct
codes before referred, defined at the organizational level or
associative level, the organization can also determine if the actions
and decisions of its members are ethic or not. Beyond the conduct codes,
ethic conduct is still determined or influenced by the nature itself of
the organizational culture, leadership and prizes system;
Individual Level: lastly the last ethic
level that is referent to the nature itself and the individual’s moral
integrity taking that some individuals aren’t willing to accept ethic
decisions and behaviors inside the organization.
Translated from Portuguese
by Susana Saraiva, Portuguese-English and English-Portuguese translation
specialist. Contact: spams@sapo.pt.
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