Ethics College Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Ethics College - Essay Example They bind people to perform certain actions, or to avoid them, as the case may be. These obligations differ from person to person. They are also dependent upon the type of relationship, that is whether personal or professional. Nevertheless, a person is morally bound to fulfill the same. Secondly, ideals are a set of standards, on the basis of which a person performs actions. It varies on the basis of culture of a person. Moreover, there may be several ways of pursuing these goals or standards. The most common virtues or ideals found in all cultures include loyalty, compassion, tolerance, justice, peace etc. These virtues help us determine whether an act is morally justified. Further, organizational ethics include customer satisfaction, efficiency, superior quality, productivity, fair pricing etc. An action either honors these ideals or disregards them. Hence, these standards help us to determine the morality quotient of the action. Lastly, ethics are concerned with the consequences of our actions and their effect on other concerned people. While determining the likely procedure, one has to consider the outcome of the action. Thus, while evaluating various options available, one must identify the parties involved and carefully analyze the pros and cons involved. From the above, it can be concluded that any course of action which recognizes the obligations, keeping in mind the ideals and benefits all the people concerned, can be acknowledged as morally correct. An action which does not qualify either of the above three factors, cannot be regarded as morally sound, therefore it should be revised. However, one might be in jeopardy, because of conflicting ideals, obligations or effects. To simplify, the course of evaluation to determine the correct action, can be divided into two steps. (Shaw, W.H., Barry, V. and Sansbury, G. 2009) In the first step we ascertain the obligations involved and towards whom they are involved; the ideals which are recognized and those which are ignored. We also identify the people who are affected by our action and the extent of effect on them. The second step involves prioritizing, that is, we deduce which action will prove to be most appropriate out of the set of alternatives. While making a decision one should adopt a stronger objective of the two and the more important ideal which would result in "greater good and lesser harm". Part 2: In real life it is difficult to categorize ideals or objectives on the basis of the importance, so is balancing objectives ideals and effects. Hence the crux of the decision making criteria is left unanswered here. Some propagate that business ethics has unique principles to determine right and wrong on the basis of its business settings. They say that business ethics need not be in tandem with the ethics laid done by the society of right and wrong. (Warlick, Staten Leslie.1998). Some action may be considered as ethical from the point of view of business while it may be unethical from society's point of view. While marketing a company's product, people resort to lying or exaggerating the quality of the product or service in order to sell the product. Say a firm promoting a fairness cream may exaggerate that the effectiveness of the cream shows in a month of usage, while in