Ethics and The Bottom Line - Research Paper Example

Executive Summary A person without ethics cannot be trusted and can lead to the development of bad society. A society has a certain degree of expectation from each individual with regard to his attitude and behavior. An individual’s behavior should always be beneficial to the society. It is a conscious of a person which leads him to do good or bad. So it is ultimately the basic instinct of a person which directs him to do a noble or evil deed. The parents have a great role to play along with society in molding an individual. People tend to think that ethics are all about not lying, stealing or killing. But definitely there is more to it. It has more to do with one’s consciousness and will and upbringing. In the modern world ethics is demanded from every individual in all walks of life. Especially in work place ethical standards are closely monitored. An organization is a big part of the society and its values contribute to the upbringing of the society. So every person in the organization has to have high moral values to uphold the standard of the society. Generally people think of ethics as a set of rules and regulation, and indeed tend to neglect it. Ethics can come from many sources like religion, law and government. But basically religion is supposedly has a vital role to play in building ethics in people. Society in order to function freely needs people with good ethical standards. A corrupt person destroys the very structure of a society. A person with high moral value always does the right thing without any influence from outside. But some people need a lot of training to lead a good life. The standard of ethics can change with time. What was wrong in the past could be right today due to the modernization of thought and educational progress in the society.There are several actions which the society consider to be right or wrong .The actions like stealing, killing, lying etc. are taken to be bad actions while actions like charity, promise keeping and respecting people are evaluated as good. Every country is in some way different in their values and beliefs and there can be seen a conflict in the idea of ethical standards among them. Religion is one factor which helps in forming a moral code in a person .As religion changes there can be seen a change in ethical standard. Prophets and religious books have long time influenced the character of person in establishing a healthy way of living Some people very much doubt about the existence of any ethical system and conduct life in a way which they please. But universally ethics have very well proved to upgrade the society and human value to a great extend. Ethics and the bottom line The word “ethics derived from Greek word ethos which means character and from Latin word mores which means customs. Together they defined how the individuals interact with one another. Ethics is a very important for a person in any sphere of activity. It is a code of conduct which an individual portrays to the outside world. Ethics can be sometimes an innate quality but mostly it is built in by the parents and society in the growing stage of a person. There are various characteristics of ethics like good and bad ethics. Ethics are standard of behavior a society accepts and expects from an individual. But being ethical is always not what society demands .Some people consider ethics to be inapplicable to the real world because they regard it as a system of short and simple rules like “Do not steal, kill or lie”. Ethics even form a vital part of the work place. In order for the workplace to have a clean environment and an unthreatening atmosphere it is necessary for the employees to show a great level of ethical standards. Traditionally ethics is the study of what makes ones action right or wrong. When the subject of morality or ethics comes up, many people tend to think of rules and prohibitions. This is a negative response from people and it projects the fact that we humans simply do not like rules. So a clear understanding of the moral principles is very essential for a healthy life style. Today’s society is ruled by a set of rules and regulation, which monitors whether the activities of an individual are going in the right direction. All rule and regulations are created to uphold and maintain a high standard of ethical values. All modern businesses closely monitor the ethical standards of its employees and encourage the workers to follow high ethical value. Ethics is very important so that the individual and society extract goodness from every individual. Every personnel of an organization including the leaders of the organizational have to follow a good moral standard. Lot of managers and leaders think that ethics has to mainly do with religion as it deals with considerable amount of preaching. This is completely a wrong notion. Menzel (2010) stated that “Governments are increasingly conducting ethics audits, which can be described as an “appraisal activity , the purpose being to determine if changes need to be made in the climate, environment ,codes , and the enforcement of the ethics policies”(Pg.12 ). Managing ethics is a very beneficial practice, as it encourages a clean attitude from the employees as well as lead to a better progression of the organization. An organization forms a substantial part of the society and a country, when it conducts its business in very ethical way it reflects a good standard on the country as a whole. “When a company crosses the ethical line and fosters mistrust among investors, customers, employees, and the public, the effect on its cost of capital can be severe.” When you fool with trust," she warned, "you fool with the capital markets” (Leone, 2010). Ethics are very important as it allows the society to function freely. A society is comprised of numerous human beings, and if they tend to deviate from goodness the structure of society can be badly affected. If a person has no ethics he will conduct evil doings whenever it benefits him and get away with it without punishment. Ethical standards prevent the community from conducting immoral actions and crimes. It can be considered as something a person does in darkness even when nobody is watching him. It is a free will of a person without any influence from external factors. Ethics is a voice from inside which tells a person what is right and wrong. It can come from various sources like religion, law, from learned values or public opinion. If a person is out of ethical standards, he can conduct crime as long as no one is watching him. But a person with good moral code will always do a right thing because of his good nature. The standard of ethics can evolve with time. What considered morally right 100 years ago cannot be taken as good at the present day? As the society changes the value of ethics also changes. It can also mean different things in different situations. There is no certainly a one way to define ethics and what is ethical. Haring and Hill(2009) argued that “Good and bad do not in the first line depend on the knowledge (important as this must be in and for itself as fro action) but on ‘feeling’ and ‘will’ ”( pg 8). What should we do in order to consider ourselves good? What are the actions which make us ethically right? There is lot of things to be considered before we think of practicing ethical code of conduct. Moral norms primarily analyze our interaction with people and give significance if the act contribute to their well being .Normally people tend to do the character evaluation. Religion has lot to do with the building up of ethical and moral values in person. For e.g. Jesus Christ’s has sacrificed all his life in preaching goodness to people surrounding him. Bible only makes a person to lead a correct and honest way of life. For that matter all religious books, prophets and religious leader persuade human being on the path of righteous. According to religion there are forbidden actions which when performed would lead to punishment from God. According to Quran eating of pork is definitely considered as a greatest sin, whereas the western culture considers pork to be a delicacy. Keller (2010) mentioned that “Religion tells us what is right and what is wrong, leaving little room for doubt. But philosophy takes human beings far more seriously, urging each and every one of us to figure out for ourselves how to best behave in complex situations.”(Pg.53) So ethics also fluctuate according to the social, cultural and religious belief of people. All actions tend to have some explanation or other, but it is not possible to justify them morally always. Some people are skeptical about the concept of ethics and morality, and doubt to the existence of such thing as universal moral system. They argue that what morally right is a mere thing of one’s taste or personal belief. For that matter in some countries it is not allowed to eat beef whereas some don’t consider it as immoral action. So who is there to prove whether is it is morally right or wrong? So moral value can vary from individual to individual depending upon the social environment in which he has been brought up. Ethics are necessarily different from law and from things done out of fear. It can be even said that it is even more important than the law. It is not necessary that legal things are ethical as some societies do encourage things which are against to ethical standards. For e.g., gay marriages and abortion are legal in most countries but cannot be considered ethical from a religious point of view. Ultimately we are in a time where moral value has become a confused topic and people are not clear about what is right and what is wrong. Every human being likes to live a good life, and being ethical is the way to achieve it. Ethics can be described as the intention to do right even when selfish desires rest within. “Ethics refers to the study and development of ones ethical standards”(Velasquez,2010). To live an ethical life one has to control his ego centrically tendencies. A society with no ethical standards can gradually take a form of anarchy. So ethics have been developed to grow the personal identity of an individual and increase his quality of contribution to the society. Work cited Haring, T.V , & Hill , B.D. (2009). The Ethics of The Christian Life . Edinburgh: Neil and Co.Ltd. Keller, D.R. (2010). Environmental Ethics. Oxford: Wiley – Blackwell Leone , M. (2010) Ethics and the bottom line . Retrieved July 12 .2010, from http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/14504175/?f=rsspage Menzel, D.C. (2010). Ethics Movements in Governments. Florida: Taylor &Francis Group. Velasquez, M. (2010) What is Ethics?. Retrieved July11, 2010,fromhttp ://www.scu.edu/ethics/ practicing/decision/whatisethics.html Read More