Determinants Of Ethical Behaviour

There are few influences that determine whether behaviour and decisions are ethical or unethical.

Legal Interpretations

The need to control, legislate and regulate, the ethical conduct at the government, individual, and corporate levels has its roots back to the ancient world. For example, one of the earliest law codes developed, the Code of Hammurabi, made Bribery a crime in Babylon during the eighteenth century B.C

Most ancient societies’ shares common ethical codes, such as against murder, causing injury to fellow human, and attacks on honour and reputation of an individual. In modern world societies, Law and justice to the public are closely related to ethics and they enforce certain rights and duties in an attempt to repress and punish deviations from these standards.

Culture/Country

The culture and the country, in which an individual is based, influence one’s ethical decisions or behaviour. All cultures differ in values and morals. In western culture, one may look into the person’s eyes when one is conversing or talking to them. But in certain Asian cultures such as Korea, it is very rude to converse with a person that is “higher” status (age, work etc.) while looking into their eyes. Thus, what is ethical in a country may not be ethical in other countries.

Individual factors

The individual factors that determine the ethical standards of a person are moral development, personal values, family influences, Peer Influences and Life experiences.

Stages of moral development

Moral development is the process through which children develop proper attitudes and behaviors toward other in society, based on social and culture norms, rules and laws.

Personal values and morals

An individual’s values and morals will also influence his or her ethical standards. A key variable which affects the ethical behavior is “locus of control”. An individual with an internal locus of control believes that he/she can control the events in his/her life. An individual with an external locus of control believes that fate or luck or other people affect his life.

Family influences

Individuals start to form ethical standards as children in response to their perception of their parent’s behaviour and are likely to adopt high ethical standards if they see that their family members adhere to high ethical standard. They develop lower ethical standards if their family members are involved in unethical behaviours.

Peer influences

Peers are colleagues who are always around us in conducting our daily work. The behaviors and attitudes of peers influence an individual’s decisions in their life. They play an important role in ethical decision making. Thus, an employee must establish good relationships with colleagues. If there are no good relations among colleagues, there is no harmonious atmosphere which further leads to failure in achieving one’s goal.

Life experiences

Individual’s life experiences analyze key ethical concepts such as “right”, “wrong,” and “permissible.” It lets us explores possible sources of moral obligation such as God, human reason, or the desire to be happy. It seeks to establish principles of right behavior that may serve as action guides for individuals and groups.