Stages of Moral Development - Essay Example

• Identify Kohlberg’s six stages of moral development supporting each stage with an actual or hypothetical scenario/example.

To answer this, it would necessitate one to understand the meaning of the term moral development. Moral development is defined as the principles for how people ought to treat one another on others, justice, welfare, and rights. Moral development focuses on the change, understanding and emergence of morality from infancy through adulthood. Research studies on moral development have unanimously agreed that the understanding of moral development is a prevalent phenomenon in virtually all areas of human beings around the world. Other studies have shown that morality grows in human spontaneously, alongside basic mental and social capacity as well as physical limbs. Although a lot of research has been carried out on moral development, Kohlberg’s is one of the few researchers who ought to design the six stages of moral development.

The first level attempts to describe that individuals lack the personal code of morality, and people of the moral code are shaped by the consequences of breaking or following rules. This level comprises of the first two stages. These stages are obedience and punishment orientation, and individualism and exchange. The first stage, obedience and punishment orientation, states that individuals act to be good to avoid punishment. Additionally, it attempts to describe that people ought to be punished when they have done wrong. For instance, children in the society act perfect to avoid being punished by the parents. The second stage, individualism, and orientation explain that people have different viewpoints which are handed down to the respective authorities. For instance, most of the children tend to belief that there is more than one right view which is to be handed down by the authorities.

The second level is described as the conventional morality and comprise of two stages. These stages include good interpersonal relationship and maintain the social order. Under the third stage, Kohlberg’s describes that most of the people act well in order to be seen by others as good. For example, children in the society pretend to be good in the company of their parents. The fourth stage, maintaining social order, states that people are aware of the rules of the society. Hence they act to obey them to avoid guilt and to uphold the law.

The third level, post-conventional morality, attempts to describe that individual judgment is based on the self-chosen principals. Additionally, the moral reason is based on justice and individual rights. This level comprises of two stages. These stages include social contract and individual rights and universal principle. Under the fifth stage, people are viewed to be aware of the rules which exist for the good of a nation or an organization, however, there are at times when the rules are viewed to work against the interest of a particular people. For example, people are aware of the rules which exist in the society. However, there are times when they think that these rules are acting against their particular interest. The sixth stage, universal principals, suggest that people tend to develop their moral guidelines which may or may not fit the law. This principle tends to apply to every person and include equality, justice, and human rights. People are prepared to defend this principal even if it means going against the rest of the society in the process

b. How do you translate theory into practice – that is, how can Kohlberg’s model help managers maintain an ethical corporate culture? Provide an example to support your reasoning.

The Kohlberg’s theory on the development of morality has been important in psychology and business. For example, the theories can aid managers and business owners to encourage key stakeholders and employees to interact with the leadership of the organization at various stages of growth to maintain an ethical corporate culture. For instance, when the first level is applied to business by managers, it may help to explain the reaction of new employees when they join the organizations. This is often much apprehended about pleasing the managers and their desire to perform diligently and without much upset. The second level which comprises of the third and fourth stage will help to shift the focus of the employees from being productive with their time to the better good of the firm as opposed to the selfish motives of the company. The last level which comprises of the fifth and the last stage will help the employees who have a long history with the firm. These workers tend to have risen to the management positions and are very keen on securing a sense of responsibility and rights among their subordinates.

The Kohlberg’s six stage of moral development serves as an interesting way to think about the growth of companies situations. This is because some of the workers enter at a higher stage than the others, while other will never progress past a certain stage. Therefore, a business owner or an adept manager will be able to meet the workers where they are and to enact the companies’ policies and procedures which work to secure an effective and efficient workplace without the needs of constantly thinking regarding the moral development.

c. Explain the flaws in this approach to being good. In other words, are there really ‘business ethics’ or just ‘ethics’? Explain in detail.’

Moral relativism is referred to as the ethical judgment. This moral upholds that no ethical systems are better than others. It claims that to judge an ethical system; it should be judged by moral standards since the very ethical system should evaluate itself as the best moral systems. It assumes the moral judgment about ethical systems to be meaningless. Additionally, moral relativism holds that values are subjective. This implies that there is no objective morality. This theory rests on the belief that there is no such a thing as wrong or right, evil or good. Therefore, since moral relativism rests on the ethical belief systems are subjective, it is possible to conclude that none is worse or better than others.

Business ethics are referred as a form of applied ethics that examines ethical problems which emerge in a business environment. Contemporary, business ethics exist as a set of values or standards which govern the behaviours and actions of an individual in the business organizations. For example, most of the firms achieve their strategic visions by upholding the set of values or standards which govern the workers in a firm. Additionally, when employees or individuals are presented with an opportunity to carry out an action, it is these ethics which govern them to do the right thing on business. This implies that business ethics are vital in the operation of business activities

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• a. How might the philosophers’ approach to ethics help with doing the right thing?

Ethics are the ideas and right actions under which we live by. Several philosophers have designed different approaches to ethics. Some of this philosopher includes Aristotle, Kant, and Rawls. Kant proposes that justice follows that people are worthy respect because they are rational beings. According to Kant, he tends to discourage utilitarian individuals and views which rely on the distribution of resources to encourage the good virtues as they diminish freedom. Rawls tends to propose that conditions should be in the initial equality. He argues that ignorance is one of the right conditions for this equality. Additionally, people are required to ignore their positions in life and try to adopt the principals they would agree to. The third philosopher is Aristotle. He argues that excellence, perspectives are shaped by the personal virtues. Therefore, encouraging individuals to labour on personal values will undermine the concept of excellence.

Further, Aristotle argues that excellence is connected to distinction individual nature. Again, attainment of good virtues entails development of personal characteristics in ways that enable individuals to make right decisions when required to. This approaches most of the time serves as an efficient role in doing the right thing. For instance, the Aristotle proposal that excellence is shaped by personal values, tend to encourage people to have good personal values to achieve excellence. Second, Rawls proposes that people should ignore their positions in life and adopt principals that would serve the rest of the people to the community. His philosophy would act as an important guide to the people ranked high in the society to ignore their positions and to do what is good for the people rather than doing things for their selfish gains. Third, Kant’s philosophy would help people to do the right thing as a way of respecting the law one has given to himself.

b. What philosopher best supports your idea of ethics and why? If none fits with your philosophy, which philosopher do you most disagree and why?

Rawls idea is the best according to my understanding on ethics. He proposes that people should ignore their social status to do good which may results to the lucrative benefits on the people they serve. These would help curb various practices such as corruption. This is because most of the leaders tend to use natural resources for their own benefit rather than for the benefits of the people they serve. Again, in a firm this proposal also results to an ethical culture where the managers ignore their position to work together with the workers how are lowly ranked to achieve the firms’ objectives.

c. Lastly, in lecture we debated whether it was better to do good than to feel good. What is your response to this idea of morality?

The idea of morality comprises of two things which include “to do good” and “to feel good”. My response to this is that most of the people tend to good in order to help themselves to live a happy life. These things make them to feel good. For instance, when one does something good to others, it actually makes one to feel happier and better. This feeling will actually results to such a person to continue doing more nice things to others.

• Compare and contrast Milton Friedman’s and Archie Carroll’s philosophies of the corporation’s responsibility.

Corporate responsibility is practices designed by the organization to play a crucial role in addressing governance, social and the environment issues ranging from human rights to climate change. The CR policy serves as a self-regulatory mechanism whereby a company ensures active compliance with the spirit of national norms, ethical standards and law. Research studies reveal that corporate responsibility promotes the improvement of the health of people in a firm. Other researchers such Archiel Carroll’s and Milton’s Friedman have proposed various philosophies of the corporation responsibility. Friedman’s argue that business people who act responsibly by reducing the company’s product to avoid inflation, by reducing the product prices or by reducing pollution.

Additionally, business people act responsibly by making expenditures or by hiring hard core employees and spending shareholder money for social interest. He further argues that the role of the social responsibility programs is to use resources and to engage in activities that increase profit as long as they are within the roles of the game, to engage in free and open competition without fraud or deception. Carroll proposes that the management of organization have various responsibilities which include ethical, discrepancy, legal and economic. The economic responsibility of the organizations management is to produce products of value to the society so that the company may repay its shareholders and creditors.

The legal responsibility is defined by the government within the laws that the management is expected to obey. The ethical responsibility is generally to hold the beliefs about the behaviours in a society. The discrepancy responsibilities are the obligations corporations assume. I think the Carroll approach is more accurate. This is because business organizations should not only be concerned with the corporate social responsibility, sustainability and corporate citizenship. Additionally, business entities should be responsible enough to be concerned with the concepts of the environment sustainability such as pollution control and on making positive impacts in the life of individuals and communities respectively.

b. Identify and discuss the rationale of these characteristics and explain the value we place on citizenship in general.

There are five characteristics corporations should exhibit to be good corporate citizens. The firms should be concerned on how well it obeys relevant regulations and laws. This include whether the organization pays fair share of taxes. The firms should also be concerned with how well they contribute to the lives of the local communities. For example, by curbing pollution and other irritations which are below the legal limits so as to enhance the quality of life under distribution centres and factories. The firms should also be concerned with how it involves itself in political process. The firms should also be concerned with how it contributes to the betterment of the society through charitable activities such as paying employees for the time they participate in non-profit organizations.

• Identify and discuss the major role of the board of directors.

There are several roles of the board of the directors. They retain, supervise, evaluate and recruit the manager. Therefore they aggressively search for the most competent candidate for this position. The second role is providing direction for the organization. The board has an important function in formulating the mission, vision and goals of the organization. They are often determined by the general manager of the organization. The other role is to establish a policy-based system of the governance. The board has the role of developing a system of governance for the business. This system provides a framework for a number policies which are to be adopted by the organizations.

The next role is to control and monitor functions of an organization. This role includes being in the charge of the accounting processes and hiring of the auditor. By doing this, they ensure that the audit is done in time each year (). The final role is protecting the members’ investment and the organizational assets. The body of the directors have the responsibility to protect and represent the investors’ interest in an organization. This is done by ensuring that these assets and investment are kept in good order. This includes equipment and facilities, the company’s plant and human capital.

Among the list of traditional duties, what is the single most important measure of an effective board and why?

Effective boards are the ones which link rewards to performance. The right reward structure is determined with how the company choses to measures success and how the measures are tied to the drivers of a long term value in the business but not with pay systems. This implies effective board mainly concentrate on the value of growth of an organization.

From the first two parts of the Primer identify and discuss one major lesson for the future executive. Demonstrate a command of the reading and be specific in your response.

One major lesson for the future executive is to separate the roles of the chairman and the CEO of the board rather than creating confusion about their accountability. This makes it clear that function of the board is to govern and oversee the company management. Therefore, protecting the shareholders interest. The CEO’s responsibility is on managing the firm well and this have a shared consensus about why a firm exit and to when the directors are accountable.

Lastly, we stated in lecture that management is not governance – what does this mean and do you agree with this assertion? In your discussion, clearly define each term.

Governance is described as the creation and design of strategies and the relationship the corporation has to all its stakeholders and the society. This covers the set of regulations, rules and voluntary private sector practices. Management is the execution of strategy in order to produce effective results. From the definitions, it is clear that management and governance are different. Management ensures that the corporation’s performance or strategy is competitive and effective. Governance outlines the rules and procedures which are vital in making decisions on the corps affairs.