Before we can really make progress is explaining the advantages to ethical behaviour in business, we need to be sure everyone is talking about roughly the same things. So, without turning this into our introduction to business ethics seminar, here is a brief explanation of what Action Ethics means when we speak about Business Ethics.

A business is any organization (large or small) with stakeholders and shareholders. Shareholders are those people who own a part or all of an organization and stakeholders are those people affected by the existence of the organization. Keep in mind that Action Ethics also works with non-profit societies and companies that are not designed to make a profit but who are concerned with providing a service or product to those who need it.

Ethics is a set of social rules governing the conduct of individuals or an organization. These rules can come to exist in a number of ways, through common practice, through institutional adoption, through regulatory agencies, through legal adoption and so on.

Right and wrong are the standards of evaluation for actions. We apply these standards to individuals but also to organizations.

A dilemma is a difficult decision with several possible outcomes and several possible interpretations of the standards. In other words, some people might think you were right and others that you were wrong. In many instances a dilemma is evaluated based on the outcome of the actions and not always on the intention of those taking action.

Email ACTION ETHICS @ info@actionethics.com today.

Send mail to webmaster@actionethics.com with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2002 The Action Ethics Consulting Group