"Business Ethics" by Shagun Jain.

Essay by shagun007D, September 2003

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What is Ethics?

Ethics is not easy to define. We all seem to know in a vague manner what it is. But we do not always agree on whether a particular action is ethical or not.

Values: -

Ethics Is related to issues of rightness and wrongness. These are determined by ones values. Our sense of right or wrong, or what is proper or not proper, has its base in the values that we upheld or cherish. These values are not explicitly stated anywhere. We may not be aware of the values that guide our actions. But if anything happens that offend our values, we would be disturbed. This disturbance would express itself in anger, or annoyance or a minor irritation, the logic of which may not be easy to explain to some other person.

Values are learnt, not taught. Values are learnt from childhood, from the variety of contacts one has with persons, stories and situations that reflect values.

Fables and fairy tales are important and have lasted several hundred years because they reflect values. That is why these stories are told to children. While listening to these stories, the child also develop some notions of what he/she would like to do or not to do, and which of these characters they would like to emulate in their lives.

Values are guiding principles that determine ones evaluation of what is right and wrong. Values constitute the foundations of one's discipline. They are deep-rooted, fundamental beliefs.

According to Joseph Petrick & John Quinn, Ethics can be defined as the systematic attempt to make sense of individual, group, organisational, professional, social, market & global moral experience in such a way as to determine the desirable, prioritised ends that are worth pursuing, the right rules & obligations that ought to govern human...