Management Ethics

Objectives
1. Understand the relationships among the legal,
ethical and moral laws.
2. Comprehend the professional responsibilities of
managers.
3. Be able to demonstrate the benefits of ethical
management for managers, as well as
organizations.
4. Apply ethical tests to management actions.
 Can ethics be taught to managers?
An increasing demand for training in the field of
management ethics for supervisors and managers.
– Prevalent in training and education segments of
the hospitality and tourism industry.

• Industry leaders and educators believe there is a

need to include some form of ethical training in
programs of higher learning for managers.
 Purpose of Ethics Training Programs

1. Create awareness of ethical issues that

surround managerial decision making

3. Provide a paradigm for proactive

management practices

5. Convince managers of the need to promote

management as a profession
Experienced HR practitioners include these criteria
in their management selection activities

1. Complete rigorous advanced technical and

supervisory training programs.
2. Subscribe to high levels of personal and
professional conduct, and should contribute to
society through the practice of management.
3. Subscribe to codes of ethics established by their
colleagues.
Entry to the field of management should be restricted
to those individuals who possess the ability and
appropriate character to work in a professional
capacity.
 What’s in it for the manager?
These qualities make a respected manager:

• Proactive manager is a balanced individual who is

passionate about the challenges and meaning of his/
her work.
– Proactive management must make good business sense.
– Unethical activities may have adverse impacts on these
managers on both personal and professional levels.
 Moral and Social Audits

Both are part of the annual strategic planning

process for the organization in the
hospitality and tourism industry
 Are proactive managers ethical managers?
-Moral evaluation of proactive managers

Proactive Managers:
1.
Take charge of personal and professional destiny—they are not victims.

2.
Are mission driven to align their personal goals with organizational goals.

3.
Seek long-term outcomes, not short-term profits or other forms of
gratification.
4.
Are empathetic listeners who care about the needs of others, especially
their staff.
5.
Seek win/win/win for others, themselves and the organization.

6.
Are synergistic by being team stewards.

7.
Are spiritually, mentally, physically, emotionally, and socially balanced—
hence they are holistic beings in search of self-actualization.
 Moral Audits

Focuses on activities within the organization

• Evaluate the actions of workers, managers, and

shareholders and compare those actions with the
codes of ethics for the corporation
• Designed by a cross section of managers from
every level of the corporation
• Form ethic committee to audit the code of ethics
for relevancy on an annual basis
 Social Audits

Focuses attention outside of the organization

• Provides information concerning the outcomes of

decisions on the environment outside the
organization
• Focus on the customer and community
stakeholder groups
 Five Professional Responsibilities of Hospitality Managers

1. Carefully select the hospitality organization they represent

3. Acquire and maintain levels of training and education to

ensure competency

5. Concerns a thorough technical comprehension of

hospitality/tourism interfaces

6. Require the skills to establish and maintain standards

designed to ensure the welfare of all stakeholder groups
associated with a hospitality organization

8. Concern personal and professional conduct to exemplify

integrity as an industry leader and a member of the social
community
 Professional Responsibilities of Hospitality Managers
- Hospitality and Tourism Management Responsibilities Self-Questionnaire

3. Will this organization permit me to manage in a proactive

manner?
4. Do I have the inventory of skills and advanced training
required to manage effectively?
5. Do I have current knowledge of my industry segment and its
interfaces with other segments?
6. Do I subscribe to standards that ensure the welfare of all
stakeholder groups?
7. Do I subscribe to standards of professional and personal
conduct that are above the law?
 Cultural Diversity
Culture…
• A simple definition: Shared values, attitudes, and
beliefs

– The values for one culture may be incongruent

with those for another culture.
– When individuals disagree with or
misunderstand the values of other cultures,
conflict occurs.
 Cultural Diversity
• American culture consists of influences from many
races, ethnic backgrounds, communities and global
regions.

• Individuals must learn to disregards cultural differences

and embrace cultural similarities

The essence of cultural diversity training programs

 Cultural Diversity
- Organizational Culture
• The collection of shared values, attitudes and beliefs for members
of that organization.
– They assimilate into the organization as an employee and begin
to understand the unwritten core philosophies and rules for
behavior in that organization (norms or acceptable behavior)
• Norms include traditions, rites, rituals, ceremonies, and
celebrations within the organization.
• Behaviors including dress codes, formality levels,
inside humor, buzzwords, company
acronyms, and others are symptoms of the organizational
culture.
 Cultural Diversity
- Organizational Climate
A collective worker emotional response to the
practices of that organization.
– The relationship of workers to the organization.

• The climate within an organization- mood,

perceptions, opinions, morale levels, loyalty
levels, enthusiasm, and other attributes relative to
the relationship of workers to the organization.
 Cultural Relativism vs. Universality

Two opposite concepts

• Relativism is relative to individual environments

– When in Rome, do as the Romans

• Universality is the same in every level and area

 Cultural Relativism vs. Universality
• Legal laws are Jurisdictional- therefore they are
relative
• Codes of Ethics are universal-
• The same codes of correct behavior should
prevail regardless of the immediate
environment
• Morals
• Personal convictions of correct thinking and
behavior within an individual that are at the
highest level of ethical thinking
• The same despite the environment
Motivation to Commit Immoral and Unethical Acts
1. Self- egoism
• Personal greed
– Narcissists
• Those individuals who care only for their own welfare despite
the harm their actions cause to others.
– Motivated primarily by personal gain with little regard
to the ramifications experienced by others.

2. Ethical Relativism
– “Situational ethics” or ethic of convenience
• Justify their actions in some manner
– “Everyone does it”
• Involves actions that are contrary to universality
 Ethical Tests

Testing the correctness of an action from an ethical

perspective
3. Consequential testing
4. Formalist testing
 Ethical Tests
1. Consequential testing

Based on the consequences or results of an action

• Utilitarianism (The most common type of
consequential testing)
– Focuses on the “utility” of the consequences of an
action by measuring the harm or good inflicted on
others as a result of the action
– Maximize good and minimize harm through one’s
actions
 Ethical Tests
2. Formalist approach

Focus solely on the “form” or intent of the action

– no regard for the consequences of the action
– Emanuel Kant – process that categorical
imperative
• An action must pass all three categories to be
considered morally correct
Test 1 -- Universality
Test 2 -- Beings as ends
Test 3 -- Autonomy
• If it is considered to be morally correct then the
person has a duty to do the action (imperative)
 Ethical Tests- 2. Formalist approach
Categorical Imperative
Test 1--Universality The action must be universal.
If everyone were to do this
action, the action would
continue infinitely and would
not self-destruct.
Test 2--Beings as Ends The action must respect all
rationale beings as ends unto
themselves. The action may
not treat beings as mere
means to an ulterior end.
Test 3--Autonomy The action must be acceptable
to all rationale beings,
regardless of their
involvement with the action.
 Ethics and HRM

HR managers are responsible for training managers in ethical

thinking, Includes…
– Proactive management
– Strategic thinking
– Codes of ethics
– Social and moral audits
– Ethical testing

HR practitioner must be an eclectic manager.

– As an internal adjudicator within the company
– Function as a “managers’ manager”
– well versed in matters of legal, ethical and moral law for the
purpose of testing the actions of managers to ensure the
prevention of harm on any member of the stakeholder groups