Ethics, according to the textbook, are defined as the principles, values, and beliefs that set standards for right or wrong decisions and behavior. There are four major models of ethics, including utilitarian, moral rights, theory of justice and integrative social contracts theory. Utilitarian refers to the idea that moral worth of a behavior is solely determined by the consequence, to see whether it’s maximizing utility.Moral rights respect and protect a set of fundamental rights, which contain right to freedom of speech, thought, movement, association, privacy and equal protection. Theory of justice involves the behavior that treats people impartially and fairly based on legal rules. Integrative social contracts theory defines a kind of behavior that is based on existing ethical norms in industries and communities. As for me, I prefer the combination of theory of justice and integrative social contracts theory, which are between the other two alternatives.
Utilitarian and moral rights are like two extremes in terms of the business world, utilitarian solely concentrates on company interests and maximum profits while ignoring interests of staff, which may lead to their dissatisfaction and hatred whereas moral rights emphasize the fundamental rights of employees, but giving them too much freedom may result in their distraction, slack off and eventually neglecting the goal of company. Therefore, both these models are not beneficial to the long-term development of company.
However, the combination of theory of justice and integrative social contracts theory is a good idea because they treat employees fairly based on the legal rules and existing norms and at the same time adheres to the objectives of business. If I were the CEO of a company, I would make each ethical decision based on legal regulations as a benchmark and then judge whether it’s appropriate or fit for corporation culture according to the existing norms, ensuring that prejudice or bias is not involved.
If no rule or norm is related to that ethical issue, I will let each employee in the company vote and the majority wins, after that, a new rule will be added into the existing ones. Therefore, everyone in the company, from manager to subordinates has to obey the regulations, which shows an open and impartial working environment. Without worrying about getting fired due to unjust reasons, employees are motivated in full passion and devote themselves to the company, which no doubt will bring in a considerable amount of revenues in the future. Personal Ethics and Values
Since a little child, I was brought up by my grandma who embraced Buddhism and always taught me to be a kind-hearted, generous girl and never do the bad things that may hurt someone else; otherwise the “Buddha” staring from the heaven will punish me severely. Hence, I decided to be responsible for my souls and believed in the following saying: “Bad deeds, as well as good, may rebound upon the doer. ” Later on, I participated in the Red Cross organization as a volunteer during my college life and often visited the lonely elders and helped make donations for the homeless children.
What I learned from my friends is to be honest and optimistic. Lying is the worst character that my friends and I have ever seen. Because of lying, people don’t trust each other anymore and the world is full of suspicions and deceits. To keep a good relationship with friends, honesty is the key. I was born with a pessimistic attitude. For every incident, I used to observe the bad side first; however, my friends did in the opposite way and they kept telling me the benefits of being positive about life and future.
Gradually, I was affected by their attitudes and changed my mind. The Chinese culture shapes my view towards power of unite and sharing. Quite different from the western culture that stresses individualism, Chinese culture pays attention to the collectivism where a group of people share the same political, economic and social outlook and goal in a community. I believe in most cases the power of unite by a group of people is stronger than that of individual. Besides, anyone who refuses to share or leaves the group without authorization is considered as unethical and selfish.
Nevertheless, my life experience taught me that not in any situation I ought to follow the general trend. Instead, I can pursue my own dream and live a different life even though it may cause others’ nonsupport and object. Ethical Dilemma Once in the middle school, my deskmates and I tried to ask some English questions. On our arrival to Ms. Wu’s (English teacher) office, she was not there, neither were other teachers. Fortunately, on the table were a pile of papers which looked like the exam paper that we were going to be tested in the afternoon.
My deskmate was so excited that she tried to flip the paper and memorized the questions. I thought that if we knew the questions in advance, we could be well prepared for the exam and my word spelling that was always the weakest part could be improved a lot this time and I would not be concerned about score any more. All of a sudden, I realized that it was cheating and an unethical behavior and most importantly it was not fair to other students. My deskmates and I would get penalties by school and our future would be totally ruined. Immediately, I stopped my deskmate and dragged her out of office.
After all, exams provide each student an equal chance to compete and we cannot break the rule even though we are able to do that. I’m so proud that honesty finally beats my dread towards exams. Corporate Social Responsibility As I have mentioned above, due to different culture backgrounds, Americans concentrates on individualism and freedom while Chinese emphasizes collectivism and social harmony. However, one thing that America and China have in common is both believe that a person or an organization should have social responsibilities.
In terms of ethics, the similarities are that both Americans and Chinese consider duty as the basic human nature that drives people to make ethical decisions. The difference is that Americans measure whether it’s ethical or not on a personal level whereas Chinese weigh if they are responsible for others. As far as I know, no matter an American or a Chinese business organization, making the maximum profit is always placed in the first. Besides, both care about charity activities and public welfare, including donations of money and goods, establishing funds, etc. However, the differences are also quite obvious.
First of all, intention is a little bit different. In addition to the common goal – to help the people who need love and care, some American companies make charities are for avoiding large amount of taxes while most Chinese companies are for improving its image and reputation. Secondly, the scope is different. American companies make donations in a global outlook while Chinese companies mostly do it in the mainland. Finally, the credibility is different. American companies have higher credibility than Chinese companies in such areas as flow of capital, accuracy of amount, etc.
In my opinion, a corporate social responsibility should be pure: the obligation of an organization to serve its duty for society. But the responsibility doesn’t have to be acted in a form of charity; it can be a consciousness that as long as every employee in the company keep it in mind and does business in harmony with the society, the responsibility will be reflected. However, if a company on one hand donates millions of money to the village children, on the other hand harms the environment in the neighbor, I hardly see any corporate social responsibility shown in the company.
