1 ETHICS
1.1 Defining ethical behaviour
Ethics is a philosophical term derived from the Greek word "ethos" meaning character or custom (Sims, 1992). Ethical behaviour is behaviour that is morally accepted as good and right, as opposed to bad and wrong (Wood, Zeffane, Fromholtz & Fitzgerald, 2006). An ethical dilemma requires a person to make a choice between competing sets of principles based on how morally good and right as opposed to how bad and wrong they are (Wood et al., 2006). While striving to always do right, – with this paradigm – sound ethical conduct will likely become second nature in today’s world (Zazaian, 2006).
1.2 Ethical behaviour in the modern organisations of today
Philosopher and theologian Paul Tillich once said: “Ethics is not a subject, it’s a life put to the test in a thousand daily moments” (Lagan, 2006, pg.72). This wisdom is relevant to the modern organisations of today that are challenged in every way to uphold high ethical and moral standards which are demanded by the public for the betterment of society (Kranacher, 2006). Organisations have established codes of conduct to guide their employees regarding their ethical responsibilities while trying to minimise unethical behaviour and solve ethical dilemmas appropriately (Kranacher, 2006). Unethical behaviours such as lying to important clients and giving insufficient or inaccurate information to shareholders can result in misinformed strategic decisions and problems for organisations (Collins, 2006). One only has to look and ponder upon the fate of the large corporations HIH Insurance and One Tel, whom both suffered collapses due to their unethical decisions (Wood et al., 2006).
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