How Personal Can Ethics Get?

How Personal Can Ethics Get?
Erika M Cleaves
Strayer University
BUS 520
[ April 26, 2011 ]
Dr. Carolyn Tippett

How Personal Can Ethics Get?
Discuss how personal differences and preferences can impact organizational ethics. The different perceptions of other’s personalities and ethical guidelines possessed by the employees including those of both upper management and non-managerial positions have a great impact on organizational ethics.   Kohlberg’s stages of moral development proves this to be true because a person at the interpersonal stage will interpret rules and situations very differently than an individual at   the universal principles stage.   At the interpersonal stage, “proper behavior is what satisfies the person’s self-interest” (Hellreigel and Slocum, 2010, p. 35), and the most important attributes of what an individual at this stage perceives as a good person consists of being loyal and/or avoiding conflict at all times, even if that means sacrificing their own needs for the good of others and to thwart disagreements. A great example provided by chapter two of the text states, “if a work absence creates conflicts or work overload for other employees, some individuals at this stage might be willing to reduce their absences even if that meant not using all of their allotted sick days” (Hellreigel and Slocum, 2010, p. 35).
“An individual at the interpersonal stage consider appropriate behavior as that which pleases or is approved by friends or family” (Hellreigel and Slocum, 2010, p. 35); however, “an individual at the universal principles stage views appropriate conduct as determined by the person’s conscience, based on universal ethical principles” (Organizational Behavior. 2010. p.36).   According to Kohlberg, “universal principles are founded in justice, the public welfare, the equality of human rights, and the respect for the dignity of individual human beings” (Hellreigel and Slocum, 2010, p. 36)
Kohlberg’s model best describes people at...