Page 165 - DMGT401Business Environment

Business Environment

Notes 3. Making a judgment upon human behaviour based on these standards and norms.
4. Prescribing moral behaviour and making recommendations about how to or how not to
behave (therapeutic goal).
5. Expressing opinions or attitudes about human conduct in general.

Example: Matsushita Electric Co. follows a value system of the Seven 'Spiritual' Values:

1. National Service through Industry
2. Fairness
3. Harmony and Cooperation
4. Struggle and Betterment
5. Courtesy and Humility

6. Adjustment and Assimilation
7. Gratitude

7.5.1 Characteristics of Ethics

1. Ethical decision differs with individual perspectives of different persons. Each person has
its own perception and believes in ethics. Hence, ethical decisions do not have unique
solutions but have a multitude of alternatives.
2. Ethical decisions affect a wide range of other situations as well. Similarly, unethical decisions
do not culminate in themselves, but have widespread ramifications.
3. Most ethical decisions involve a trade-off between costs incurred and benefits gained.
4. Often, the consequences of ethical decisions are not clear. They are ambiguous in nature.
Similarly, it is not clear what the consequences of an unethical decision will be either of an
individual or of an organisation.

5. Ethical decisions have long-term impact. They may produce bitter results in the short
term such as loss on sales, but in the long run, they reap not only good results but t benefits
that will persevere for long term.
6. Such as high quality management may affect bottom line in the short run but it in long
term it the product leaves a lasting impression on the mind of the prospective customer.

7. Every person is individually responsible for the ethical or unethical decisions and actions
that he or she makes. But the consequences of those decisions have to be faced and borne
by the whole organization.
8. Ethical decisions are voluntary human actions. A person cannot escape his personal liability
by saying he committed an act because of a senior's pressure.

7.5.2 Sources of Ethics

Sources of ethics are:
1. Genetic Inheritance: There are persuasive evidence and arguments suggesting that the
evolutionary forces of natural selection influence the development of traits such as
cooperation and altruism, which lie at the core of ethical system. The home is the first
school of ethics, and he foremost. The more ethical the parents, the higher the chances that

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