Organisational Ethics - A Case study review

Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject Ethics grade: 85% University of Strathclyde language: English abstract: The origin of the word ethics is derived from the Greek word êthos which in a more precise translation might be better rendered as image. The science of ethics as it became established in the eighteenth and nineteenth century was concerned with the search for absolute standards of conduct guiding decisions and actions and was closely tied to the concept of duties derived from core values . Since ethics itself as moral philosophy set out to establish generally accepted standards of right and wrong the word 'moral' became interchangeable with 'ethics' although the former originally referred to the act and the latter to the abstract principle from which the act was derived. In the meantime being ethical or moral has come to imply conforming with specific (generally acceptable) standards whereby the initial agenda of establishing universally applicable moral principles has been replaced by the realisation that groups of people can also adhere to or deviate from a set of their own ethical standards. From this it follows that such standards can be established by an individual a corporation or a nation to help or guide decisions and actions. Schoen (1979 ) even sees the metaphors employed as vital to the framing of issues since these guide both what is deemed to be a problem and the paradigms used in addressing them. This notion of defining problems and paradigms is clearly applicable to managers and leaders paid to make organisational decisions congruent with the organisational culture whereby the choices they have to make may vary in terms of the perceived ethical solution selected from a range of alternative solutions. A general central part of management and organisations is its study of organisational culture although this has as yet only received minimal attention - and even less in its relation to issues in mora