Terminal values focus on desired ends or what someone wants to achieve, such as career advancement. Examples of terminal values considered important by managers include self-respect, wealth, and happiness. Instrumental values focus on the means to accomplish desired ends, such as honesty in relationships. Instrumental values held important by managers include ambition, courage, imagination, and self-discipline.

Views Differ on What Constitutes Moral Behavior

Utilitarian View A business owner decides to cut 30% of a small firm’s workforce to keep the business profitable and save the remaining jobs, rather than lose them all. This decision is considered ethical in the utilitarian view because it delivers the greatest good to the greatest number of people.

Individualism View The individualism view focuses on long-term advancement of self- interests. The notion is that people become self-regulating, and ethics are maintained as people strive for individual advantage over time. Suppose that you are considering cheating on your next test. With further thought, you realize any short-term gain might lead to a long-term loss if you are caught and expelled from school. Thus, defense of your self-interest causes you to reject the original inclination to cheat on the exam.

Justice View A behavior is ethical under the justice view of moral reasoning when people are treated impartially and fairly, and according to legal rules and standards. This view judges the ethics of any decision on the basis of how equitable it is in terms of workplace justice— procedural, distributive, interactional, and commutative.

Procedural justice focuses on the fair application of policies and rules. Distributive justice focuses on treating people the same regardless of personal characteristics

Interactional justice focuses on treating everyone with dignity and respect. For example, does a bank loan off icer take the time to fully explain to an applicant why he or she was turned down for a loan?

Commutative justice focuses on the fairness of exchanges or transactions. An exchange is considered fair if all parties enter into it freely, have access to relevant and available information, and obtain some type of benefit from the transaction.

The moral rights view considers behavior to be ethical when it respects and protects the fundamental rights of people. Based on the teachings of John Locke and Thomas Jefferson, this view believes all people have rights to life, liberty, and fair treatment under the law. In organizations, this translates into protecting the rights of employees to privacy, due process, free speech, free consent, health and safety, and freedom of conscience. This view of ethical reasoning protects individual rights, but it doesn’t guarantee that the outcomes will be beneficial to the broader society. What happens, for example, when someone’s right to free speech conveys messages hurtful to others? Compounding this problem is the fact that various nations have different laws and cultural expectations. As we grapple with the complexities of global society, human rights are oft en debated. Even though the United Nations stands by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights passed by the General Assembly in 1948, business executives, representatives of activist groups, and leaders of governments still argue and disagree over rights issues

Cultural relativism suggests there is no one right way to behave; cultural context determines ethical behavior.

Moral absolutism suggests ethical standards apply universally across all cultures.

Ethical imperialism is an attempt to impose one’s ethical standards on other cultures.

An ethical dilemma is a situation that, although offering potential benefit or gain, is also unethical.