ETHICS

Manuel Velasquez, Claire Andre, Thomas Shanks, S.J., and Michael J. Meyer

Ethics is based on well-founded standards of right and wrong that prescribe what
humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness,
or specific virtues.

Some years ago, sociologist Raymond Baumhart asked business people, "What does
ethics mean to you?" Among their replies were the following:

"Ethics has to do with what my feelings tell me is right or wrong."

"Ethics has to do with my religious beliefs."

"Being ethical is doing what the law requires."

"Ethics consists of the standards of behavior our society accepts."

"I don't know what the word means."

These replies might be typical of our own. The meaning of "ethics" is hard to pin down,
and the views many people have about ethics are shaky.

Like Baumhart's first respondent, many people tend to equate ethics with their feelings.
But being ethical is clearly not a matter of following one's feelings. A person following
his or her feelings may recoil from doing what is right. In fact, feelings frequently deviate
from what is ethical.

Nor should one identify ethics with religion. Most religions, of course, advocate high
ethical standards. Yet if ethics were confined to religion, then ethics would apply only to
religious people. But ethics applies as much to the behavior of the atheist as to that of
the devout religious person. Religion can set high ethical standards and can provide
intense motivations for ethical behavior. Ethics, however, cannot be confined to religion
nor is it the same as religion.

Being ethical is also not the same as following the law. The law often incorporates
ethical standards to which most citizens subscribe. But laws, like feelings, can deviate
from what is ethical. Our own pre-Civil War slavery laws and the old apartheid laws of
present-day South Africa are grotesquely obvious examples of laws that deviate from
what is ethical.

Finally, being ethical is not the same as doing "whatever society accepts." In any
society, most people accept standards that are, in fact, ethical. But standards of
behavior in society can deviate from what is ethical. An entire society can become
ethically corrupt. Nazi Germany is a good example of a morally corrupt society.
Moreover, if being ethical were doing "whatever society accepts," then to find out what
is ethical, one would have to find out what society accepts. To decide what I should
think about abortion, for example, I would have to take a survey of American society
and then conform my beliefs to whatever society accepts. But no one ever tries to
decide an ethical issue by doing a survey. Further, the lack of social consensus on
many issues makes it impossible to equate ethics with whatever society accepts. Some
people accept abortion but many others do not. If being ethical were doing whatever
society accepts, one would have to find an agreement on issues which does not, in fact,
exist.

What, then, is ethics? Ethics is two things. First, ethics refers to well-founded standards
of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights,
obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues. Ethics, for example, refers to
those standards that impose the reasonable obligations to refrain from rape, stealing,
murder, assault, slander, and fraud. Ethical standards also include those that enjoin
virtues of honesty, compassion, and loyalty. And, ethical standards include standards
relating to rights, such as the right to life, the right to freedom from injury, and the right
to privacy. Such standards are adequate standards of ethics because they are
supported by consistent and well-founded reasons.

Secondly, ethics refers to the study and development of one's ethical standards. As
mentioned above, feelings, laws, and social norms can deviate from what is ethical. So
it is necessary to constantly examine one's standards to ensure that they are
reasonable and well-founded. Ethics also means, then, the continuous effort of studying
our own moral beliefs and our moral conduct, and striving to ensure that we, and the
institutions we help to shape, live up to standards that are reasonable and solidly-
based.

Ethics is what guides us to tell the truth, keep our promises, or help someone in need.
There is a framework of ethics underlying our lives on a daily basis, helping us make
decisions that create positive impacts and steering us away from unjust outcomes.

The difference between personal and professional ethics

Personal ethics refers to the ethics that a person identifies with in respect to people and
situations that they deal with in everyday life.

Professional ethics refers to the ethics that a person must adhere to in respect of their
interactions and business dealings in their professional life.
Personal beliefs, values, attitudes and behavior

The diagram below illustrates the influences on us that result in our behavior and
whether that resulting behavior is ethical. The diagram first outlines the sources of our
beliefs. It then shows the relationship between the beliefs and values to our attitudes
and our resulting behavior.
What is a belief?

A belief is an idea that a person holds as being true.

A person can base a belief upon certainties (e.g. mathematical principles), probabilities
or matters of faith.

A belief can come from different sources, including:

a person’s own experiences or experiments the acceptance of cultural and societal

norms (e.g. religion) what other people say (e.g. Education or mentoring).

A potential belief sits with the person until they accept it as truth, and adopt it as part of
their individual belief system.

Each person evaluates and seeks sound reasons or evidence for these potential beliefs
in their own way.

Once a person accepts a belief as a truth they are willing to defend, it can be said to
form part of their belief system.

What is a personal value?

Values are stable long-lasting beliefs about what is important to a person. They become
standards by which people order their lives and make their choices.

A belief will develop into a value when the person’s commitment to it grows and they
see it as being important.

It is possible to categorize beliefs into different types of values – examples include

values that relate to happiness, wealth, career success or family.

A person must be able to articulate their values in order to make clear, rational,
responsible and consistent decisions.

What is an attitude?

Attitudes are the mental dispositions people have towards others and the current
circumstances before making decisions that result in behavior. People primarily form
their attitudes from underlying values and beliefs.

However, factors which may not have been internalized as beliefs and values can still
influence a person’s attitudes at the point of decision-making. Typical influences include
the desire to please, political correctness, convenience, peer pressure, and
psychological stressors.
A lack of self-awareness or critical insight, or the presence of ambivalence or
uncertainty about values, can lead to a less rational attitude to choices, and ultimately to
undesirable behavior.

Professional ethics and codes of conduct

Professional ethics are principles that govern the behavior of a person or group in a
business environment. Like values, professional ethics provide rules on how a person
should act towards other people and institutions in such an environment.

Unlike values, professional ethics are often codified as a set of rules, which a particular
group of people use.

This means that all those in a particular group will use the same professional ethics,
even though their values may be unique to each person.

The Code is an example of a codified set of professional ethics for those who choose to
enter the immigration advice profession.

Ethical principles

Ethical principles underpin all professional codes of conduct. Ethical principles may
differ depending on the profession; for example, professional ethics that relate to
medical practitioners will differ from those that relate to lawyers or real estate agents.

However, there are some universal ethical principles that apply across all professions,
including:

honesty

trustworthiness

loyalty

respect for others

adherence to the law

doing good and avoiding harm to others

accountability.

Codes of conduct
Professional codes of conduct draw on these professional ethical principles as the basis
for prescribing required standards of behavior for members of a profession. They also
seek to set out the expectations that the profession and society have of its members.

The primary value of a professional code of conduct is not as a checklist for disciplining
non-conforming members, although breaches of a code of conduct usually do carry a
professional disciplinary consequence.

Rather, its primary value is to act as a prompt sheet for the promotion of ethical
decision-making by members of that profession.

The intention of codes of conduct is to provide guidelines for the minimum standard of
appropriate behavior in a professional context. Codes of conduct sit alongside the
general law of the land and the personal values of members of the profession.

Professional codes of conduct provide benefits to:

 the public, as they build confidence in the profession’s trustworthiness

 clients, as they provide greater transparency and certainty about how their affairs
will be handled

 members of the profession, as they provide a supporting framework for resisting

pressure to act inappropriately, and for making acceptable decisions in what may
be ‘grey areas’

 the profession as a whole, as they provide a common understanding of

acceptable practice which builds collegiality and allows for fairer disciplinary
procedures

 others dealing with the profession, as the profession will be seen as more reliable
and easier to deal with.

Other contributors to professional ethics

Fiduciary duties

When an adviser agrees to assist a client, they agree to take on a level of responsibility
for that person and their immigration matter. The client becomes dependent on the
adviser in relation to that assistance. This is a fiduciary relationship between the
fiduciary (the adviser) and a principal (the client). Even without a Code this fiduciary
relationship means the adviser has certain obligations to their client.

Contractual obligations
When an adviser enters into a contract (or written agreement) with a client this creates
legally binding obligations to perform the terms of the contract in a particular way. This
includes a duty to act with diligence, due care and skill, and also implies obligations
such as confidentiality and honesty, even if they are not specifically set out in the
contract.

Many ethical issues are likely to stem from advisers’ relationships with clients. Most of
these can be overcome by having clear terms in a written agreement about how certain
matters will be dealt with, such as the sharing of confidential information, the use of
interpreters, refunds and invoicing.

Solving ethical problems

When faced with an ethical issue, it is important to remember that there is seldom only
one correct way in which to act. The information provided below, however, is intended
as a guide to assist you to make professional and ethically responsible decisions.

Making good ethical decisions requires a method for exploring the ethical aspects of a
decision, and weighing up the considerations that could influence your choice of action.

The following framework provides a method for exploring ethical dilemmas and
identifying ethical courses of action. A Worksheet for Ethical Deliberation has also been
developed for advisers.

Ethical decision-making framework

The flowchart below outlines the steps in the ethical decision-making process. Each
step is described in further detail below.
Recognizing that there is an ethical question:

 requires you to think about how you should act and what you should do in a
given situation

 could relate to a situation and/or a decision that you make, which could be
potentially damaging to a client or a stakeholder

 could involve a choice between a good and a bad outcome – e.g. a situation
where Immigration New Zealand would decline your client’s visa application
because of certain information that the client has disclosed to you, but of which
Immigration New Zealand is unaware.

Understanding the facts of the situation:

 requires you to consider how you can learn more about the situation including
making enquiries and finding additional facts to ensure you have the best
possible understanding of the situation.
Understanding the options available to you:

 requires you to identify and understand each option available to you

 requires you to take into account any legislative requirements, professional

standards (such as the Code), immigration law and instructions, as these may
influence your options.

Understanding the consequences of the options:

 requires you to work out how different parties will be affected by each option -
these parties can include the client, stakeholders within the New Zealand
immigration system, your employer and other advisers

 requires you to be aware that your overriding duty is always to act in the lawful
and legitimate interests of your client

 requires you to ask yourself some searching questions, for example:

o If I am going to act in a way that is adverse to my client’s interests in any way,

am I justified in doing so?

o Which option will produce the best for my client even if it will upset another
person or cause me discomfort or loss?

o Will this require me to act in a way that will harm someone else or go against my
personal beliefs or ethics?

o Is there a way to act that will not damage my client’s interests but will reduce or
prevent harm to another person or institution?

o Is there a way to act that will not damage my client’s interests and will allow me
to act in the way I believe is consistent with the type of adviser that I want to be?

Testing the option, you plan to take:

 requires you to consider the possible effects of all the different options

 requires you to reflect on and thoroughly review the option that you plan to take –
in doing so, you should ask yourself the following questions:

o Am I feeling uncomfortable with what I am about to do?

 o If so, why am I feeling uncomfortable about this option?

o Why am I making this decision?

o Would I be happy if this was done to me?

o Would I be happy explaining this to different parties within the New Zealand
immigration system and explaining why I did what I am planning to do?

Explaining the option, you have decided on to those affected and to other
interested parties:

 requires you to act in a way that your client, or another party, may not like or may
find difficult to understand

 requires you to be able to justify your actions in a logical and straightforward

manner - if you cannot explain your actions, then it is more likely that you are
acting on the basis of your feelings or prejudices

 will often require you to have kept excellent records that note the essentials of
what the issue was, what you did to resolve it, the options you considered and
how you communicated your decision to those affected.

Acting on the chosen option:

 requires you to consider how you will go about implementing your decision

 requires you to actually carry through with the action you decided to take.

Reflecting on the outcome:

 requires you to assess how your decision turned out and what you learnt from
this specific situation - to objectively evaluate what has happened and whether
the option you took worked.

What if things go wrong?

Just like anyone else, advisers may occasionally make a bad decision. In these
circumstances an adviser will be judged as much on how they react and decide to act
next as by the mistake they made in the first place.

Deciding what to do in these circumstances is hard. Acting ethically will often involve
you acting directly against your own interests and against a natural instinct of self-
preservation.
If you are dealing with this type of situation, you may need to revise some areas of the
above methodology. For example:

there would be little point in asking ‘am I feeling uncomfortable about what I am about to
do?’ so instead you should ask ‘I know that this is uncomfortable for me but what is the
right thing to do by my client?’

you may obtain advice about the situation you are in and may also recommend your
client seek independent advice, or at least think about it.

When a person makes a mistake, they are liable to panic and want to protect
themselves and their business. This is a natural and normal reaction. However, this
natural reaction can impair judgement. It may be important for you to ask someone else
to look at the case to see if a mistake has been made, and if so, what can be done to
resolve it.

The advice you receive may be that you cannot, or should not, continue to act for your
client. This may be the best option for the client at that point and other options for
representation could be made available to the client. It may also be that this is not
necessary, or that your client does not want you to cease acting for them.

You may wish to consider the option of taking out professional indemnity insurance;
however, it is important that you review any company’s policy carefully before doing so
as the scope of cover can sometimes be limited.

What Are Professional Ethics and Why Are They Important?

Professional ethics is important because it dictates to professionals a series of rules

related to the way a professional act towards the people with whom he/she relates
professionally.

From a philosophical point of view, ethics has to do with morality and with the way
people act in the sense of goodness or badness.

Professional ethics is constituted by all the moral standards that govern the behavior
and actions of professionals. It should be noted that for each profession these rules may
vary, but they will always be based on principles and values.

It is also pertinent to conceptualize a professional, morals and ethics.

Professional. Generally, refers to a university graduate who has completed a degree

and who exercises his or her profession with ability and application.
Moral. This term refers to a person’s way of acting, in terms of his or her social and
individual life, relating this action to good and evil or to goodness and malice.

Ethics. It refers to the moral norms on which the conduct of a person is based in the
environment in which he/she develops; be it individual, social or professional, among
others. Ethics is divided into three branches or types: metaethics, normative and
applied.

Professional ethics is of the applied type, where controversial issues are dealt with from
the point of view of morality.

Professional ethics are important because they serve to create organizations based on
moral standards of conduct.

Here are a number of reasons why professional ethics are important.

 Based on a set of rules, it can organize a group of professionals from the same
profession.

 The organization formed contributes to the personal growth of the associated

professional.

 Motivates teamwork and increases the bonds between colleagues.

 Creates a system for each profession, called a code of ethics; in which the duties
to be fulfilled by each professional are twinned.

 Provides personal and professional benefits by regulating the actions of a

profession and highlighting the virtues of the professional.

Professional ethics has general characteristics from which other more specific
ones can be derived:

A. It is related to morality.

 Professional ethics arises from the impulse to keep human performance in order
and under rules.

 Professional ethics seeks to support and improve the service provided by a

professional.

B. It pursues the moral rectitude of the professions.

 Professional ethics seeks to ensure that the professions follow the positive paths
established in each society.
  Professional ethics implies compliance with values.

 It presents the virtues with which professionals practice.

Professional ethics are based on the principles of beneficence, autonomy, non-

maleficence and justice.

Principle of beneficence.

Its foundation refers to goods and virtues; and the professional's actions are oriented to
maintain a favorable behavior towards the person requesting the service and towards
society in general.

Principle of autonomy.

It is oriented in the respect for freedom, in the search for balance and equity as a rule in
the relationship between the professional and the client; so that there are no conflicts of
interest and much less ethical.

Principle of non-maleficence.

It is based on the omission of any act that may cause harm; the professional is obliged
not to harm in any way the people he/she deals with.

Principle of justice.

It is based on the social sense of the profession; it pursues the commitment of the
professions to seek the common good, dignified life and the establishment of justice and
equity.

Types of Professional Ethics

Professional ethics refers to principles and criteria that regulate the actions of a
professional; however, there are several types of professional ethics, each of which is
related to a profession. The following are the most relevant ones.

Legal ethics. It has as its main characteristic professional secrecy and refers to the
practice of law.

Medical ethics. It regulates the actions to be followed in a conflict between the morals
of a health professional and his or her professional duty.

Engineering ethics. Refers to placing the best interests of communities above

personal desires.
Teaching ethics. As a guidance counselor and role model for children and young
people, this professional should observe the best of conduct.

Military ethics. Indicates a series of criteria to limit their actions in relation to the use of
force.

Administrator ethics. Loyalty, honesty and legality, among others are basic aspects
expected of this professional.

Ethics of the psychologist. Respect for the individual, confidentiality, honesty, and
responsibility are the most important aspects of this professional.

Professional Code of Ethics

There is no one-size-fits-all code of ethics for professionals, as the ethical principles that
guide a professional’s conduct will vary depending on the individual’s field of practice.

However, there are some general ethical principles that all professionals should adhere
to, such as honesty, integrity, and respect for others.

Additionally, professionals should always put the interests of their clients or patients first
and avoid any conflicts of interest.

The framework of the disciplinary ethical standards must be set out by the organization.

It will be an obligation to follow the code of conduct and ethics for the members of that
profession.

The aim of having a code of ethics is to reduce the doubts in ethical decision making
processes.

Moreover, regardless of the industry, professionals have to preserve the integrity and
reputation of the company.

With a code of ethics, organizations might not ensure totally that employees wil behave,
but it sets out a minimum ethical behavior that is expected to reduce or eliminate any
complaints, confidential information leakage or ethical issues where the image of the
company can be damaged.

Personal ethics

As with beliefs and values, personal ethics can differ widely from person to person.

As mentioned already, beliefs and values often motivate a person by defining what they
see as being important. In turn, they influence a person’s attitudes, and how they
behave.
Ethical expectations often take the form of principles such as:

concern for the well-being of others

respect for others

trustworthiness and honesty

compliance with the law

preventing harm to others.

Ethics in Life and Business

We are all encouraged to make ethical choices and apply ethics in all areas of our lives.
But what does ethics mean, and why do ethics matter for business?

We can think of ethics as the principles that guide our behavior toward making the best
choices that contribute to the common good of all. Ethics is what guides us to tell the
truth, keep our promises, or help someone in need. There is a framework of ethics
underlying our lives on a daily basis, helping us make decisions that create positive
impacts and steering us away from unjust outcomes. Ethics guides us to make the
world a better place through the choices we make.

Ethics in business is just as important as ethics in personal life. Business leaders have
a unique role and a great responsibility in shaping the ethical culture of their
businesses, and thereby influence their broader communities as well.

Tourism and hospitality are two sides of the same coin, and hospitality ethics are the
critical morals and used honesty politics of the hospitality industry.

The hospitality ethics help you to take care of your integrity, business's future,
customers, and employees with cited hospitality management principles to thrive and
avoid known hospitality industry issues.

Introduction to Hospitality Ethics:

All industry practitioners know the hospitality ethics model as a necessary code of
hospitality management that highlights the related morals and principles of this tourism
business.
So, hospitality ethics refers to the manager's role, employee, hotel, motel, or any facility
philosophical ways of treating the business's guests and giving them the best image of
your working culture, relationships, and standards.
9 Important Hospitality Ethics:

As a professional manager in the hospitality industry, you should make sure to apply
these fundamental ethics within your facility's conditional case:
1. Respect:

A significant hospitality ethics factor is showing respect to your customers, in any

sector, when talking, serving, booking, and making check-ins and outs to conduct good
marketing, awareness, trust, and increasing the ethical impression that encourages
people to return. On the other hand, the ethics of hospitality managers must also show
as much as possible respect to their working staff, as this will boost their loyalty and
give customers a tremendous and cited image of your management techniques.
Commitment to the Quality:
Ethics in hospitality management reflects aiming to present the best work quality in
management, services, cleaning, health tracking, and food catering. Ethical managers
will be committed to the best services at all times while focusing on avoiding known
lodging issues.
Reputation:
Ethics in hospitality helps you build the best brand name and reputation within the
hospitality market; moreover, saving this industry's ethical requirements helps managers
protect and maintain their hotel reputation by presenting the finest spirituality and
competitive hospitality business.
Trustworthy Leader:
When being in the hospitality management business, then you would know that people’s
trustworthiness toward you and your good ethics with their accommodation quality,
whether for business or holiday requisites, is priceless; being a trustworthy manager
means providing the best services, operations, resources orientations, solving all
hospitality conditions, environmental terms, aesthetics, and apologizing when an issue
happens.
Generosity:
Understanding the impact of gifts on a client is essential in the hospitality industry; if you
aim to empower business hospitality ethics, you can do this simply by offering
advantages for your clients with gifts, discounts, and remembering what they like or not
virtue their previously filled essay rate.
Loyalty:
Being a loyal host for your institute will, by default, empower hospitality management
and ethics, as loyalty in tourism means loyalty to your company, leadership practices,
employees’ discipline, guests’ concern, and the ethical hospitality principles to provide
top services, and solve conflicts before impacting guests’ accommodation.
Positive Work Energy:
Building good energy is an essential discussion for business managers, tour guides,
and all hospitality and tourism professionals. Good managers include positive energy in
their perspectives, as this may identify a critical factor in the customer wanting to come
back and become a regular or not decision, even with holistic good service availability.
More than that, positive work energy reflects on working staff innovation and boosts
their enthusiasm and productivity.
Fairness:
Fairness in hospitality ethics is the manager’s ability to treat different employees and
visitors without playing favorites based on gender, color, age, or even the guest's social
class and financial statement. The manager should accept differences and act based on
human morality and ethical approach.
Accountability:
Accountability is not only an essential hospitality ethic but also a professional behavior;
thus, in hospitality and tourism, an account manager is someone responsible for all
his/her decisions and behaviors, yet, has a certain compromise level to lead others;
moreover, responsible for his/her team’s actions and issues.
Finally,
To establish stable hospitality ethics, you must study, learn, research, and respect
hospitality moral and legal principles.
How ethics is important in hospitality industry?
The Importance of Prioritizing Work Ethics in Your Business
Unethical business practices and an unhealthy culture will inevitably damage your
brand, workforce, and future viability. The hospitality industry with rotating shifts and
little routine, constantly working with different people every single day, can lead to lack
of empathy and care towards one another.
This can lead to many issues that could be avoided, such as:
harassment,
lack of empathy,
no care towards one another
bad customer service
high absence quota
increased turnover rates
HR must take harassment accusations and bad working culture seriously along with
other ethical issues commonly found in the industry. Between harassment, theft,
internet abuse by employees, and a wide variety of other problems, HR in hospitality
must find ways to continually track these issues while showing their employees a level
of trust- which is a fine line to not overstep.
Fostering Common Ethics Is Not Something to Be Overlooked
Ethics is important for the wellbeing of an organization. It determines the effectiveness
of an organization and its operations. In the hospitality industry, ethical practices help to
avoid issues such as racial conflicts, cultural differences, gender troubles and
dishonesty among others.
There exists a link between common work ethics and employee performance. Most
organizations take ethics as just another set of regulation. Incorporating common work
ethics is in an organization is fundamental in sustaining projected growth and eventual
optimal performance of that organization.
The essence of ethical behavior is shared across cultures of the world. It is important for
the business to foster common ethics to get the best of the workforce. Staff is quite
sensitive to unethical behavior touching on their welfare. Issues such as favoritism in
staff recruitment, remuneration, promotion, allocation of duties etc, do have a lasting
negative effect on staff performance. To enhance staff performance, businesses should
always strive to put in place a clear company policy.
Policies Are the Way Forward
Hospitality administration needs to put policies in place to try as much as possible to be
transparent in allocation of duties. A business must believe that it is important in
supporting employee’s ethical growth. In supporting employees, administration shows
employee’s that they are willing to go that extra mile in understanding their employees
in tandem with the organization’s culture.

What are the Ethics of Hospitality?

According to slideshare.net there are ten basic tenets based on standards identified by
the Josephson Institute of Ethics. These are:
• Honesty
• Integrity
• Trustworthiness
• Loyalty
• Fairness
• Concern and respect for others
• Commitment to excellence
• Leadership
• Reputation and morale
• Accountability
Those values are universal in business and in private life, so why is there an issue with
following them in the hospitality industry? First, it is because of greed and corruption
that are present in all corporations. The Enron scandal is one example, but there are
many more. The hospitality industry, including lodging and restaurants, serves
customers who must trust in the reliability of the establishment to care for them when
they are most vulnerable, providing food and a clean, comfortable safe place to sleep.
Second, ethics are important to maintain standards in an atmosphere of high
competition so that low performance does not become the norm.

WHAT IS ETHICAL MANAGEMENT AND WHY IS IT AN IMPORTANT ISSUE FOR

COMPANIES?
Of great concern is the fact that absence of policies in any organization eats away into
its core profitability. This can be caused due to bad customer service standards as
every employee follows their own rules.
Whenever there is a strong shared work ethic in an organization, this is mostly due to
set policies that are followed across the board. It actually projects a strong message
that the establishment holds onto strong values and pride & customers will notice it.
Fostering a great working culture in hospitality will pay off, if you just give it the attention
it needs to show its effects.
Ethical management is based on two main principles: the human being and the
organization, two very important notions in companies and deeply linked. Let's take the
example of the hospital sector: organization is particularly important in this environment,
as are human relations. Only respect and exchange between employees can ensure
good organization and efficient and ethical patient management. What is ethical
management and what is at stake? How can an ethical management plan be
implemented in a company? In this new article, we take a look at these questions.

What is ethical management?

Management is a set of techniques and principles for managing an organization or a
group of people. Implementing a management approach involves mobilizing human and
material resources to achieve an objective. Ethical management is a little more specific:
it commits those who have responsibility for part of the organization or for the whole
organization to implement virtuous practices and approaches.
These approaches must promote the well-being of the company's organization, but also
of its employees. The objective of ethical management is to build cooperation,
encourage team cohesion, but also recognition between employees and their superiors.
It is a management approach in the broadest sense of the term, in which additional
virtuous notions are integrated, such as morality, justice, virtue and respect.
What are the challenges of ethical management?
The challenges of ethical management are numerous: public health, psychology, safety,
ethics and economic profitability.
Risk prevention
Mental health: the mental health of employees is very important in companies. The
implementation of an ethical management approach helps to reduce unhappiness at
work (stress, pressure, poor understanding with colleagues, feelings of
misunderstanding, violence, fear of superiors, etc.). Ethical management is in fact the
driving force behind personal and collective initiatives, which are the source of a serene
climate at work.
Preventing psychosocial risks to identify the sources of ill-being at work and act against
them.
Psychosocial risks
Ethics at the service of profitability?
Despite popular belief, it is entirely possible to combine ethics and profitability: an
ethical company is a company that is more easily trusted. Good sales methods, the
cessation of cooperation with customers or suppliers who do not meet the
specifications, and the transparency of a company all lead to greater economic
efficiency. The company's values also allow employees to work in a calm atmosphere,
which has a positive impact on their productivity at work. An ethics tax, the cost of not
being ethical, is high: not being ethical can cost a company a lot of money. Employees
who leave because they feel bad, customers who lose confidence, mean a significant
economic loss. It is therefore important for a company to engage in an ethical
management approach and to remain vigilant about its methods (towards its customers,
but also towards its employees).