Introduction
Can ethics and morality be used interchangeably? The two words are similar in meaning, but what determines when and how these two words get used? Ethics and morality can have very different meanings based on how the words are contextually used. The word, ethics, is defined as a set of principles consistently followed by a community (Venkatadurai, Dhyani, and Sharma, 2014). Many organizations have ethics programs stating expectations for employee behavior. Individuals face the ethical dilemma of right vs. wrong every day; this morality can have a lasting effect on an individual. Morality can be defined as appreciating everyone in the same way as they want to be respected (Venkatadurai et al., 2014). This paper will explain …show more content…
Research indicates that ethics and morality both embrace the philosophical concept of right versus wrong. One study (Choy, 2012) of ethics in the corporate environment used a retrospective review of the public’s opinion on ethical versus unethical behavior in an organization and included a systemic categorization of the perceptions and reactions to organizational ethical standards. A study specifically focusing on comparing variation in traditional morality versus competitive morality employed another author’s argument to disprove the idea of competitive morality, based on conforming with the opinions of customary morality (Bailey, 2014). Another study reported the use of an exploratory approach to defining ethics and morality to prove that the meanings of these two terms are synonymous (Venkatadurai et al., 2013). All the methods yielded valid results as noted by each study, the contextual use of ethics and morality provided a framework that can be used to help understand the differences and similarities between ethics and …show more content…
An organization must provide an ethical framework that reinforces the behavioral characteristics needed to uphold the organization’s stature (Choy, 2012). The information presented by Choy (2012) proves to be a strong resource because the paper reinforces the need for ethics in conjunction with moral principles. While Bailey (2014) does an excellent job of disproving competitive morality, the information does not create a strong linkage between ethics and morality. Based on the information presented, additional research could strengthen the connection between ethics and morality in the organizational
Can ethics and morality be used interchangeably? The two words are similar in meaning, but what determines when and how these two words get used? Ethics and morality can have very different meanings based on how the words are contextually used. The word, ethics, is defined as a set of principles consistently followed by a community (Venkatadurai, Dhyani, and Sharma, 2014). Many organizations have ethics programs stating expectations for employee behavior. Individuals face the ethical dilemma of right vs. wrong every day; this morality can have a lasting effect on an individual. Morality can be defined as appreciating everyone in the same way as they want to be respected (Venkatadurai et al., 2014). This paper will explain …show more content…
Research indicates that ethics and morality both embrace the philosophical concept of right versus wrong. One study (Choy, 2012) of ethics in the corporate environment used a retrospective review of the public’s opinion on ethical versus unethical behavior in an organization and included a systemic categorization of the perceptions and reactions to organizational ethical standards. A study specifically focusing on comparing variation in traditional morality versus competitive morality employed another author’s argument to disprove the idea of competitive morality, based on conforming with the opinions of customary morality (Bailey, 2014). Another study reported the use of an exploratory approach to defining ethics and morality to prove that the meanings of these two terms are synonymous (Venkatadurai et al., 2013). All the methods yielded valid results as noted by each study, the contextual use of ethics and morality provided a framework that can be used to help understand the differences and similarities between ethics and …show more content…
An organization must provide an ethical framework that reinforces the behavioral characteristics needed to uphold the organization’s stature (Choy, 2012). The information presented by Choy (2012) proves to be a strong resource because the paper reinforces the need for ethics in conjunction with moral principles. While Bailey (2014) does an excellent job of disproving competitive morality, the information does not create a strong linkage between ethics and morality. Based on the information presented, additional research could strengthen the connection between ethics and morality in the organizational