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Business Ethics from Multiple Perspectives

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Businesses and organizations have gradually started realizing the fact that ethics is less a goal than a pathway and it is an integral part of almost every decision-making process. Ethical decisions generate and promote ethical behaviors and provide a foundation for good business practices. However, I personally feel that acting and behaving in an ethical manner is not always easy and more often than not, it involves choosing the lesser of the two evils. Employees and managers, who spend most of their time at workplace, continually face such complex situations that often involve apparent mental conflicts between moral imperatives, in which to obey one would transgress another. When I used to work, I frequently had to prioritize and choose between competing ethical values and principles. It is important to identify that even routine choices and relationships we make at work have an ethical dimension. To make ethical decisions or engage in ethical actions, the first step is to recognize the presence of an ethical issue. In order to ensure that I identify the ethical component of a decision, I would employ the following useful strategies: One of the most important strategies that I would put in practice is discussing the ethical implications of my decision with the relevant moral community (i.e. peers, managers and moral experts). Also, I would carefully review the ethical language or words used in the decision making process to assess the ethical component of my decisions, especially when dealing with my clients. To understand the gravity of the situation and to deal with it, I would also revisit the ethical code of conduct laid down by the organization and act in accordance with those organizational ethical principles. Last but not least, I would check if my decision has the potential to produce serious harm to others. These strategies would help me to identify situations that are likely to reduce my chances of seeing the ethical overtones in a situation. In order to address ethical issues in the decision-making process, various effective prescriptive approaches such as utilitarian, deontological and virtue ethics can be used. Based on the gravity and complexity of the ethical situation at work, one approach coul

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