Ethics and Ethical Management
This eBook introduces the concept and reasoning behind Ethical Management and ethical organisations.
Ethical principles provide the foundations for various modern concepts for work, business and organisations, which broaden individual and corporate priorities far beyond traditional business aims of profit and shareholder enrichment. Ethical factors are also a significant influence on institutions, for whom the traditional priorities of service quality and cost management must now increasingly take account of these same ethical considerations affecting the commercial and corporate world.
The modern concept of ethical organisations encompasses many related issues including:
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) – or simply social responsibility
The ‘triple bottom line’
Ethical management and leadership
Fairtrade’
Globalisation (addressing its negative effects)
Sustainability
Corporate governance
Social enterprise
Mutuals, cooperatives, employee ownership
Micro-finance, and
Well-being at work and life balance, including the Psychological Contract.
Many other aspects of modern leadership, management and organisations (which relate to ethics), could be added to the list. Ethics is a very broad area. You will see many different definitions and interpretations of the concept, and you should feel free to develop your own ideas about ethics in terms of meaning, composition, methods and implications.
There are no universally agreed rules of ethics, no absolute standards or controls, and no fixed and firm reference points. This is fascinating given how hugely important ethics have now become in modern life and society.
The aim of this eBook is not to tell you what’s ethical and what’s not. The aim is to help you to determine better for yourself what is ethical and what is unethical.
What is ethical anyway?
The short answer is that there isn’t an answer. There is no absolute rule of what is ethical and what isn’t.
