Ethical Dilemmas

ETHICS & ETHICAL DILEMMAS,

INTRODUCING

THE BUSINESS ETHICS SYNERGY STAR

- A TECHNIQUE FOR DEFINING A DILEMMA AND RESOLVING IT -

David A. Robinson PhD Brisbane Graduate School of Business Queensland University of Technology PART ONE – ETHICS1 Whenever a manager asks the question "What is the right thing to do?” he2 is searching for the morally appropriate action. If he seeks an applicable rule, norm, value or example to follow, then he seeks to apply normative ethics. If he questions the grounds upon which such values or rules are valid, for example by asking whether ethical rules are merely relative or purely subjective, then he engages in meta-ethics. Normative ethics is the branch of philosophy concerned with moral obligation and intrinsic value in the actions and character of human beings. The term normative refers to theoretical ideals - norms - against which we are able to evaluate practices. The two main branches of normative ethics are virtue ethics and rule-based ethics. Virtue ethics

All the gold on the earth and under the earth is less precious than virtue. Plato, 4th Century BC

A human virtue is a relatively stable character aspect that disposes a person to act in a benevolent way. To describe something as a relatively stable character aspect is the same as saying that it has become a habit. Virtue ethics focuses on the formation of one’s character to equip one for good citizenship in an organized community, in the belief that a community made up of people of good character would be a good community. Virtues are therefore what we would think of as good habits, e.g. courage, generosity, or loyalty; vices may be seen as bad habits, e.g. dishonesty, cowardice, or selfishness. In ancient Greece, the study of ethics was recorded by Plato and Aristotle in the fourth century B.C. Regarding moral virtues as the building blocks of good character, Aristotle proposed a process of habituation, which is an ongoing growth in understanding, culminating in...