Ethics and Morality
Cyrece Scroggins
BA 3200 – Business Ethics
Professor Verleaish Jones
January 17, 2014
Ethics and morals are a requirement in the corporate business world. Each day employees are faced with moral and ethical issues; and because they have their own individual set of morals, they behave differently. Many have formed a good understanding of the basics of ethics, leadership, morality and social responsibility; but most do not really understand the true meaning of values, ethics and morality. The roots of ethics in America teach us “Ten Universal Values,” namely, honesty, integrity, promise-keeping, fidelity, fairness, caring, respect for others, responsible citizenship, pursuit of excellence, and accountability. However, recent history teaches us 12 ethical principles that include two additional values, namely leadership, and reputation and morals to the list that I will discuss in this essay. I will also discuss the differences between ethical and moral issues. In business, ethics and character count. Therefore, I will also discuss some organizations that have been destroyed or damaged due to their unethical and immoral behavior in business. Let’s begin with Merriam Webster’s Dictionary definition of ethics. According to this dictionary, ethics is defined as: an area of study that deals with ideas about what is good and bad behavior; a branch of philosophy dealing with what is morally right or wrong (Merriam-Webster). According to our text, ethics is defined in two ways. First, it states that ethics are the principles of conduct that governs an individual or group. An example would be the rules by which an individual lives his or her personal life (Text pg 8). A great example would be when a child makes the decision to break the rules of a game, he is creating conflict between himself and his playmates. Then again, the child who chooses to play by the rules ultimately enjoys friendship and