Ethics 101: What Every Leader Needs to Know
By: John C. Maxwell
Ethical standards in business are important for every leader to know and understand. The book Ethics 101: What Every Leader Needs to Know by: John C. Maxwell discusses ethics in the world today. When people make unethical choices, the reason they do because of three main pitfalls. People do what is most convenient to them, people tend to do what they must do to win, and people rationalize their choices with relativism. In this summary, Maxwell’s definition of business ethics will be framed, examples of ethical standards and guidelines, the meaning and contrast of ethical thinking and ethical behavior, and how to avoid these major pitfalls to live an ethical life. The
…show more content…
As people, we all want to be understood by others. “When dealing with others, seek first to understand, then to be understood.” (Maxwell, 37) Finally, while trying to keep others’ needs in perspective, we do not want to be taken advantage of. When this happens it devalues you and the person you took advantage of. All of these will help give an individual the basic outlines of how to begin to look at “The Golden Rule.” To begin this process of adapting this “Golden Rule” lifestyle, the character of a person is the key to living a life of integrity and ethical excellence. A person’s character is more than just talk. People, who want to earn the respect of their peers and themselves, need to walk the talk. There are many things people do not get to choose, how tall they are or where they are born, but character is a choice that can be made by anyone. “Trust is essential when working with people. Character engenders trust.” (Maxwell 44) People tend to fall into three categories: those who don’t succeed, those who succeed temporarily, and those who remain successful. To have a quality character will help to remain successful throughout their lifetime. In the world today, we see examples in the media of people who do not act as ethically as they should. There are many reasons why people do not do the right thing. These reasons generally fall into five factors that someone compromises their ethics for. To begin with pressure is a major culprit. In our
Ethics, ethical values, and social responsibility should all work in unison in a corporate business structure. These key traits are better defined as maintaining overall good business morals, obtaining employees who possess personal ethical values, and finally to behave ethically and with sensitivity toward social, cultural, economic and environmental issues. For a business to better ensure these quality business traits a code of ethics should be adopted by the business. In the cases of Bernie Madoff and Enron, the most well-known financial scandals in history, I feel, gave a major hand in pushing business all across America to have and enforce the code of ethics.
The author Robert Solomon argues that ethics has to an integral part with regard to business management. He does not believe that business management must include unethical or illegal methods to be able to succeed. Solomon preaches that business management is not as simple as obtaining revenue. “Businesses need to abide by fair policies and their owners have to be ethical in dealing with their customers” (Shaw p. 37). The author acknowledges that while illegal practices in business management could bring positive results at first, eventually the business is bound to fail. This is why Solomon recommended eight important policies that can help businesses in integrating ethics into their operations.
Every business develops a set of ethical principles that they abide by. The business ethical principles intentions: it construct the business certainty in the community , maintain the employees liveried in what the business attempt to have as structural conducts and aid the employees consume principles to make ethical choices that guards the business. In a culture with a diverse assessment structure and augmented judgment visibly by companies with changeable ethics and interests, there appears to be further difficulties on business individuals to make tougher ethical assessments. In our day-to-day performances, we depend on on our ethical principles to monitor us in the correct path and do the correct things. The substance of any efficacious and perpetual business is they segment a mutual ethical matter concentrating on presenting and generating value along with allocating their business values with the citizens they network with on a day-to-day basis.
Ethics is important to everyone for the society as a whole. Whether it is in a person’s professional career or personal life, ethics and morals play an important role. The key to an organization’s success is the way they handle business ethically. Although it is not always simple to do the right thing, it is something that must be done. Conducting an Ethics Awareness Inventory is a way someone can learn how they as individuals see ethics; what is important to them the most, and what is important to them the least. I completed this inventory, and will discuss how it relates to my
This will be an over view of ethics as it relates to business in our society. Concepts from Philosophy will seek to describe the correlation between actions that are classified as morally right or ethical in our dealings with each other as human beings. Clear and concise examples will be given as well as ways in which to improve upon business ethics.
What does education mean if ethics is sacrificed for academic gains? As Aristotle once said, “educating the mind without the heart is no education at all”. Not to mention, ethics is the key in shaping moral identities in people, especially students. This essay examines the importance of teaching ethics to students and the challenges that come with it. Educating students on ethics can minimize academic misconducts, guide students to become self-reliant in decision-making and attain wisdom. Yet, less experienced teachers, ignorance towards the importance of ethics and the increasing pressure on teachers regarding students’ academic standards have become inevitable challenges in the implementation of ethics in education.
Today’s business world presents numerous ethical issues. In today’s world above board/moral ethics in organizations do not often materialize intuitively. Organization must strive to provide employees with a clear understanding of the overall company vision. This will aid employees in practicing the code of ethics, policies and procedures in the workplace. Companies must be unwavering in continuously delivering the uppermost ethics of provision in which customers, applicants and employees are entitled to under fair business practices. One major core value is to uphold responsible and fair business practices.
In today's world, individuals can make a single decision that can have a profoundly positive or negative effect on their family, their employer, coworkers, a nation, and even on the entire world. The life we lead reflects the strength of a single trait: our personal character. Personal ethics are different for each person but for the most part, people want to be known as a good person, someone who can be trusted, and he or she are concerned about his or her relationships and personal reputations. As we go through this paper, we will focus on answering what are ethics, what are your ethics, where do your ethics come from, and how do you manifest your ethics?
Recommend Article Article Comments Print Article Share this article on Facebook Share this article on Twitter Share this article on Google+ Share this article on Linkedin Share this article on StumbleUpon Share this article on Delicious Share this article on Digg Share this article on Reddit Share this article on Pinterest
Leadership is an organizational role that has an effect on every organizational matter. From the employees’ morale, customers’ satisfaction, and the organizational effectiveness, organizational leaders and their behaviors directly or indirectly affect everything. In addition to the leadership’s impact on the organization and its elements, leaders are often perceived as role models for the organizational members. Consequently, it is important that leaders are not only competent but also ethical in their everyday conduct, (Toor & Ofori, 2009). But, how can leader’s ethical behavior be distinguished? \ What are these ethical behaviors that affect the followers? And, how do we know when a leader is an ethical leader?
In today’s world people would have you believe that ethics is a questionable requirement. That ethics is based on perception. Wither we see ethics the same way or not in the business world we should all agree that right is right and wrong is wrong. In business we should all live by a certain standard of fairness that includes an amount of personal morals that prevent you from simply following the crowd. If you want to be a true leader in the business world it requires a certain amount of courage to do what is right regardless of the personal consequences.
Ethical behaviour is what all career people should aim to have. Not just the ethical attribute but exceptional behaviour with this regard.this is because in order to build a career, one must be governed by the rules of ethics to safeguard oneself and others. Ethics are essential in the workplace because a tough ethical code provides a non-threatening environment with high
In their personal and professional lives, people can and, unfortunately, sometimes do go against their moral and ethical standards. Ethical standards are what it means to be a good person, the social rules that govern our behavior. Ethics in business is essentially the study of what constitutes the right and wrong or the good or bad behavior in the workplace environment. A business is an organization whose objective is to provide goods or services for profit. The organization has a group of people that work together to achieve a common purpose. The moral challenges that these men and women face each day along with a whole range of problems that could occur, are why ethics plays such an important
Individuals have their own ethical standards to varying degrees. Businesses have ethical standards in the same way individuals do. Business standards in the United States are consistent with what most westerners would consider ethical and proper marketplace behavior. Just because ethical dos and don'ts appear self-evident in the United States one should not assume these ethical standards can be applied globally. With global expansion, western business leaders should practice cultural awareness while setting acceptable business standards (Cotton, 2017).
I will examine the importance of personal ethics in leadership and how ethics produce effective leaders in organizations today. The importance of understanding ethics, motivation to act as a role model and developing a plan of action for an organization are discussed because of their importance regarding development of good leadership. These key points suggest personal ethics positively affect leadership and when made a priority for leaders will produce ethical and effective leadership. With so many definitions of leadership, the question evolved from “what is the definition of leadership?” to “what is good leadership” (Ciulla, 2004, p. 13). To develop a system of values one must compile a list of the most important instrumental values and terminal values. These lists are unique to every individual because they are determined by personal importance. Instrumental values, such as honest, helpful, ambitious, responsible, etc. should reinforce terminal values. Once a leader’s means are consistent with desired goals, their value system is unified and they have climbed the staircase from the lobby to the first level of values. The climb from the first floor to the second floor results in a person incorporating principles into their newly developed values. Although values act as the bedrock of ethics, principles are required because alone, “values are far too vague to have much meaning in ethical analysis” (Cooper, 1998, p. 12). Morals are ideals that help us decipher between right