Levels of Ethics

In business most of the ethical issues will fall into one of the following four levels.

i.    Social Level

This level deals with the basic institutions in society eg. Issues on the role of the government in the market place, merits or demerits of political parties or ideologies. Managers of organisations have an obligation to shape debates on social welfare.

ii.    Stakeholders Level

Employees, suppliers, customers shareholders, etc. Certain ethical considerations affect this group of people. A company must deal with the issue of how its decisions affect all those groups of people eg. What obligations does a company have to its suppliers, to its customers, or even to its owners?

iii.    Internal Policy Level

At this level the question of interest is the nature of a company’s relationship with its employees and mangers. “What kind of contract is fair? What rights should employees have?”

iv.    Personal Level

How do people treat one another within a corporation? Should they be honest with one another? What obligations do employees have to their bosses, to subordinates or to peers. These questions deal with the day-to-day issues of life in any organisation.  Ethical questions are everywhere, at all levels of business activity. Ethical issues concern the ground rules of individuals, companies and social behaviour. Being ethical calls for people to examine their actions and be critical of the ground rules they apply in their activities. A seller for example should ask such questions as “should I tell the customer the product is harmful?” A buyer should ask “should I tell the clerk he gave me too much change?”