Page 252 - DMGT519_Conflict Management and Negotiation Skills

Conflict Management and Negotiation Skills

Notes Introduction

Ethics are broadly applied social standards for what is right or wrong in a particular situation,
or a process for setting those standards. They differ from morals, which are individual and
personal beliefs about what is right and wrong. Ethics grow out of particular philosophies,
which purport to (a) define the nature of the world in which we live, and (b) prescribe rules for
living together. Different philosophies adopt distinct perspectives on these questions, which
means, in practice, that they may lead to different judgements about what is right and wrong in
a given situation. The “hard work” of ethics in practice is figuring out how ethical philosophies
differ from one another, deciding which approaches are personally preferable, and applying
them to real-world situations at hand.

12.1 Ethics

Our goal is to distinguish among different criteria, or standards, for judging and evaluating a
negotiator’s actions, particularly when questions of ethics might be involved. An ethical dilemma
in business exists when a manager faces a decision “in which the financial performance (stand in
terms of the obligations to the individuals and groups associated with the firm) are in conflict.”
Analogously, an ethical dilemma exists for a negotiator when possible actions or strategies put
the potential economic benefits of doing a deal in conflict with one’s social obligations to other
involved parties or one’s broader community.
Many writers on business ethics have proposed frameworks that capture competing ethical
standards. Drawing on some of these writers (Green, 1993; Hitt, 1990; Hosmer, 2003), here are
four standards for evaluating strategies and tactics in business and negotiation:
1. Choose a course of action on the basis of results I expect to achieve (e.g., greatest return on
investment).

2. Choose a course of action on the basis of my duty to uphold appropriate rules and principles
(e.g., the law).
3. Choose a course of action on the basis of the norms, values, and strategy of my organization
or community (e.g., the cultural value and norms).
4. Choose a course of action on the basis of my personal convictions (e.g., what my conscience
tells me to do).

Each of these approaches reflects a fundamentally different approach to ethical reasoning. The
first may be called en-result ethics, in that the rightness of an action is determined by evaluating
the pros and cons of its consequences. The second is an example of what may be called duty
ethics, in that the rightness of an action is determined by one’s obligation to adhere to consistent
principles, laws, and social standard that define what is right and wrong and where the line is.
The third represents a form of social contract ethics, in that the rightness of an action is based on
the customs and norms of a particular community. Finally, the fourth may be called personalistic
ethics, in that the rightness of the action is based on one’s own conscience and moral standards.

Ethics are moral standards, not governed by law, that focus on the human consequences of
actions. Ethics often require behaviour that meets higher standards than that established by law,
including selfless behaviour rather than calculated action intended to produce a tangible benefit.
Ethics are sometimes in conflict with individual and corporate self-interest.
Ethics are a product of a society’s culture that includes its traditions, customs, values and norms.
Members of a culture often take ethics for granted. They implicitly understand the requirements
of relationships, duties, and obligations between people and groups and distinguish between

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