Week 2 Discussion Ethics in Organizations

Justice

In The Merriam-Webster Dictionary (n.d.), justice is de�ned as "the quality of being righteous, impartial or fair" (para. 2). Natural law and basic rights assist us in determining what is "right." Natural law includes beliefs about certain rights or values that are inherent by virtue of human nature. Natural law is believed to be accessible by human reason with or without the laws of that culture's religion. However, basic rights stem exclusively from the cultural norms of the society.

From the perspective of the organization, natural law and basic rights suggest that representatives of the �rm can be unbiased and act in good faith with its stakeholders. However, a major problem occurs when the goals and desires of various stakeholders are in opposition to one another. For example, if the primary goal of any for-pro�t company is to make pro�t for its investors, then will it provide funds to support a social cause? Similarly, will the company give a raise to its employees when the raise can decrease the money available for marketing or research and development? Questions about how to resolve incompatible stakeholder goals raise justice concerns.

Several different justice concepts exist:

Distributive Justice: Determining that a fair outcome has occurred. Procedural Justice: Fair treatment in making and implementing decisions. Sense of Justice: Factors determining whether an injustice is experienced. Retributive and Reparative Justice: How to respond to violations and repair moral community. Scope of Justice: Who is included in the moral community?

What is considered "just" today may change as time goes by. The determination of justice comes from the average person's view of morals and ethics. This is the reason laws change over time. Laws regarding accounting practices, laws concerning the Internet, and laws about fair employment practices have evolved over the years and are still evolving.

Reference: Justice. (n.d.). In Merriam-Webster Dictionary (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/justice).

All of us, at some time or the other, are faced with the problem of what we ought to do. For example, we accept that we ought to help a blind person cross the road or that we ought to tell the truth in a court of law. We also recognize that we ought not to cheat in an examination and ought not to drink and drive. These "oughts" and "ought nots" are clear to us, although this does not necessarily mean that we always act accordingly. As a result of this acceptance and recognition, we also attach praise or blame to our own actions and to those of others.

In all these cases, we are making moral or ethical judgments. In these judgments, we decide that this action is right or wrong or that person is good or bad.

Ethics is, therefore, usually con�ned to the area of human character or conduct. Men and women generally describe their own conduct and characters, and those of others, by such general terms as "good," "bad," "right," and "wrong," and it is the meaning and scope of these adjectives, in relation to human conduct, that the moral philosopher investigates.

The philosopher is not, however, concerned with merely a descriptive account of the attitudes and values that people hold, such as "X believes that war is wrong" or "Y believes that abortion is right." What X and Y believe may be of greater interest to an anthropologist or a sociologist, but these beliefs may be of little interest to moral philosophers. What concerns them is not the beliefs of X and Y but the reasons behind those beliefs.

Ethics, in other words, means much more than explaining what you or I might say about a particular problem; ethics is the study of the reasoning behind our moral beliefs or the justi�cation for a particular moral position we adopt. Let's look at some examples to learn more about ethical decision making.

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