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Today among the urgent problems requiring solutions, the most important is the issue of ethical education and how to increase its level. The study of ethics as a science of behavior allows linking together the presentation of social sciences and humanities on morality and putting a real practical purpose. In particular, the introduction to ethics helps a person to choose his or her own moral position, a line of conduct, the assessment of what is happening and find a solution to the problems faced by him or her in modern life.
Ethics is a philosophical doctrine, which is the subject of morality, and the central problem of which is good and evil. Ethics provides an answer to the question how people should live properly. Ethics is the regulatory science, teaching of morality, a system of rules that monitors and corrects behavior, method of estimating human actions, their approval or condemnation, ‘social control’ of behavior and relationships between people. Ethics does not give recipes for every occasion. It gives just general direction.
The simplest notion of ethical person reflects the moral character of dissatisfaction in human being, assumes its radical change as a consequence of evolving moral consciousness, and as a consequence, ethical standards receive theoretical justification.
Among ethical models, rules, and views that may be used in analysis can be named such as moral rights rule, utilitarian or consequential rule, theory of justice or legal rule, and integrative social contracts rule.
Moral rights rule means that all people have some fundamental rights in every society, which should be protected according to moral perspectives. Moral rules also can be defined as common traditions, some unspoken rules in society – socially accepted notions of good and bad, right and wrong, good and evil, and a set of rules of conduct derived from these representations. Yet the problem is how to define, which rights are fundamental in contemporary globalized society?
Utilitarian rule can be described as ethics of benefit. Choosing among the variety of actions, a person should do something that makes the most good or least evil. But there is a difficulty in identifying what is really good for someone, because understanding of the matter can vary considerably.
Theory of justice bases on the understanding and application of law. Typically rules are written and should be strictly followed to act according to legal rules and standards. The problem also lies in deciding whether the rules are fair or not considering apparent group of people.
An integrative social contracts rule points that culture is always of great importance in society. Cultural and ethical norms in communities are rooted in history and widely accepted so that people act within the framework of existing rules. It always refers to the society but does not pay necessary attention to the minorities.
Personal Perspective
The model that reflects my ethical perspective mostly is the utilitarian rule model. The emergence of utilitarianism is associated with development of production and an increase in the number of goods produced, which raised their consumption to a new level. There is the principle of utility or purposeful achievement of happiness at the heart of utilitarianism. The principle of utilitarianism reflects the way to achieve happiness of each individual, not hindering the happiness of others. For the achievement of the common good, it is necessary to comply with certain moral rules. An important point of the theory of utilitarianism, in my opinion, is the recognition that a person needs to be happy to meet not only the elementary but the higher requirements relating to public recognition, a sense of dignity. Modern utilitarianism can be divided into two streams. The first option is called utilitarian action, understood as every single act performed in a particular situation and aimed at the pursuit of happiness for all. The second one is utilitarianism of rules that highlights laws introduced in society, from the standpoint of which the overall happiness is increased.
This model is closer to me, as I believe that the result is the most important in making any kind of decision, especially regarding other people. When solution of a problem is based on consequences, it makes it possible to get the greatest good or the least evil. The decision is rationally grounded and has some logical points, which is a real advantage in contemporary society.
Ethical Dilemma Recognition and Analysis
The dilemma is a position, in which selection of one of two opposite solutions is equally embarrassing. The ethical dilemma is a moral situation when someone is making a choice, in which application of one moral value is destroying another, not less important. People face ethical dilemmas on a daily basis, but as a rule, solve them on a ground of ‘lesser evil’.
To be more concrete, I want to describe an ethical dilemma that has encountered in my life. I have a friend, a single mother. Her child suddenly fell ill but she was at work at that time. She had to pick the child up from kindergarten, and using the situation that the chief was not at the workplace, she decided to go for a while. Her workmate agreed to ‘cover’ the absence of colleague. When returned, the chief detected absence of the worker at the workplace, so he should have taken administrative measures.
Nevertheless, he decided to analyze possible consequences of the situation. On the one hand, it was against the corporative rules, but on the other, the worker had really important reason to do so and could not ask him personally due to his absence. That was the first time the woman had such a violation and the chief made a decision to leave her without punishment and warn orally. In this situation it was the best good for the company as they did not lose good employee, having resolved the problem peacefully.
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Ethical Leadership and Corporate Social Responsibility
As a rule, when the situation grows to conflict, it is very difficult to distinguish its ethical component. This is the most difficult task in the ethical leadership practice.
In assessing conflict with ethical point of view, it is necessary, first of all, to identify all parties and participants, and analyze the situation in the time length. Having identified the stages of the conflict, it is necessary to see the goals that guided the parties to the conflict. The parties do not always aware of their true purposes, not realizing what brought them to a particular situation. This way, an employee must have sufficient psychological experience of working with people, in order to isolate the underlying motives of an individual. Parties may also carry an element of ethical choice as a challenge to the appraiser is an authorized ethics or ethics committee.
The ethical leader in corporation should balance personal obligations with obligations of a corporation. Such a person appears to be a mediator, who combines decision making with ethical behavior, and only then makings an appropriate decision. He or she acts according to the written rules of a particular corporation, which then stands for corporate ethics. These rules affect social behavior and determine difference between good and evil in every situation.
Very often personal priorities of a leader may harm the organization’s life, so a person should be objective and act according to identified principles to make a decision and engage in actions, which is very difficult to do not knowing theory and not understanding the point deeply.