Ethics

Ethics Handout and Quiz 11-27-12

Business Ethics can be defined as the critical, structured examination of how people and institutions should behave in the world of commerce. In particular, it involves examining appropriate constraints on the pursuit of self-interest or profits, when the actions of individuals or companies affect others. Business ethics (also known as corporate ethics) is a form of applied ethics or professional ethics that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that arise in a business environment. It applies to all aspects of business conduct and is relevant to the conduct of individuals and entire organizations. Business ethics can be defined as written and unwritten codes of principles and values that govern decisions and actions within a company. In the business world, the organization's culture sets standards for determining the difference between good and bad decision making and behavior. Frederick Winslow Taylor devised a system he called scientific management, a form of industrial engineering that established the organization of work. Taylor had very precise ideas about how to introduce his system: “It is only through enforced standardization of methods, enforced adoption of the best implements and working conditions, and enforced cooperation that this faster work can be assured. And the duty of enforcing the adoption of standards and enforcing this cooperation rests with management alone.” Workers were supposed to be incapable of understanding what they were doing. According to Taylor this was true even for rather simple tasks. William Edwards Deming was an American statistician, professor, author, lecturer, and consultant, perhaps best known for his work in Japan, where he taught top management how to improve design, product quality, testing and sales (global markets) through various methods, including the application of statistical methods. Deming’s famous 14 Points for Management, originally presented in Out of...