MGT 3213: Business Ethics

Professional Codes of Ethics

A code of ethics is a guide of principles designed to help professional

conduct business honestly and with integrity. A code of ethics document may
outline the mission and values of the business or organisation, how professional
are supposed to approach problems, the ethical principles based on the
organisations core values and the standard to which the professional is held.
Besides, ethics is also defined as a critical analysis of human acts to determine
their rightness or wrongness in terms of two major criteria truth and justice by
Mauro et al. 1999.

Somewhere between etiquette and law lie professional codes of ethics.

These are the rules that are supposed to govern the conduct of members of a given
profession. Adhering to these rules is a required part of membership in that
profession. Violation of a professional code may result in the disapproval of ones
professional peers and, in serious cases, loss of ones license to practice that
profession. Sometimes these codes are unwritten and are part of the common
understanding of members of a particular profession. For example, that professors
should not date their students. In other instances, these codes or portions of them
may be written down by an authoritative body so they may be better taught and
more efficiently enforced.

These written rules are sometimes so vague and general as to be of little

value, and often they amount to little more than self-promotion by the
professional organisation. The same is frequently true when industries or
corporations publish statements of their ethical standards. For example, with
attorneys the professional codes can be very specific and detailed. It is difficult
to generalize about the content of professional codes of ethics, however, because
they frequently involve a mix of purely moral rules, of professional etiquette, and
of restrictions intended to benefit the groups economic interests.

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MGT 3213: Business Ethics

Furthermore, professional codes of ethics are neither a complete nor a

completely reliable guide to ones moral obligations. Not all the rules of a
professional code are purely moral in character, and even when they are, the fact
that a rules is officially enshrined as part of the code of profession does not
guarantee that it is a sound moral principle. As a professional, we must take
seriously the injunctions of your profession, but you still have the responsibility
to critically assess rules for yourself.

Regarding those parts of the code that concern etiquette or financial matters,
bear in mind that by joining a profession you are probably agreeing, explicitly or
implicitly, to abide by those standards. Assuming that those rules dont require
morally impermissible conduct, then consenting to them gives you some moral
obligation to follow them. In addition, for many living up to the standards of ones
chosen profession is an important source of personal satisfaction. Still, you must
be alert to situations in which professional standards or customary professional
practice conflicts with ordinary ethical requirements. Adherence to a professional
code does not exempt your conduct from scrutiny from the broader perspective
of morality.

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MGT 3213: Business Ethics

Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment is unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual

favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature, including creating
an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment.

There are two main ways someone can prove sexual harassment Quid
Pro Quo and hostile work environment. First, the way to prove sexual harassment
is Quid Pro Quo. In Latin can define as this for that. The most direct is to prove
that rejecting a supervisors advances adversely affected what the EEOC calls a
tangible employment action such as hiring, firing, promotion, demotion, and
/or work assignment. In one cases, the employee showed that continued job
success and advancement were dependent on her agreeing to the sexual demands
of her supervisors.

Besides that, another way to prove sexual harassment is hostile work

environment harassment. A hostile work environment is a workplace in which
unwelcome comments or conduct based on gender, race, nationality, religion,
disability, sexual orientation, age or other legally protected characteristics
unreasonably interfere with an employees work performance or create an
intimidating or offensive work environment for the employee who is being
harassed. This conduct can severely diminish an employees productivity and
self-esteem both in and out of the workplace. A hostile work environment is
created when anyone in a workplace commits this type of harassment, including
a co-worker, a supervisor or manager, a contractor, client, vendor, or visitor.
Examples of a hostile work environment, harassment in the workplace can take
on many different facades. Harassers may make offensive jokes, call victims
names, threaten fellow employees physically or verbally, ridicule others, display
offensive photographs, or impede on another persons work throughout the day.

Evon Loy Jia Ci

MGT 3213: Business Ethics

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