You will hear a speaker giving a group of managers an introduction to busine

Woman: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I am honoured to have this opportunity to talk to you. Today, I am going to say something about business ethics.
Is it possible for an individual with strong moral values to make ethically questionable decisions in a business setting? What affects a person’s inclination to make either ethical or unethical decisions in a business organisation? Although the answers to those questions are not entirely clear, there appear to be three general sets of factors that influence the standards of behaviour in an organisation: individual factors, social factors and opportunity.
Several individual factors influence the level of ethical behaviour in an organisation. An individual’s knowledge level regarding an issue can help to determine ethical behaviour. A decision maker with a greater amount of knowledge regarding an object or situation may take steps to avoid ethical problems, whereas a less-informed person may unknowingly take action that leads to an ethical conflict. One’s moral values and central, value-related attitudes clearly influence his or her business behaviour. Most people join organisations to accomplish personal goals. The types of personal goals an individual aspires to and the manner in which these goals are pursued have significant impact on that individual’s behaviour in an organisation.
A person’s behaviour in the workplace is, to some degree, determined by cultural norms, and these social factors vary from one culture to another. For example, in some countries it is acceptable and ethical for customs agents to receive gratuities for performing ordinary, legal tasks that are a part of jobs, whereas in other countries these practices would be viewed as unethical and perhaps illegal. The actions and decisions of coworkers is another social factor believed to shape a person’s sense of business ethics. For example, if your coworkers make long-distance telephone calls on company time and at company expense, you might view that behaviour as acceptable and ethical because everyone does it. Significant others are persons to whom someone is emotion-ally attached — spouses, friends, and relatives, for instance. Their moral values and attitudes can also affect an employee’s perception of what is ethical and unethical in the workplace.
Opportunity refers to the amount of freedom an organisation gives an employee to behave ethically if he or she makes that choice. In some organisations, certain company policies and procedures reduce the opportunity to be unethical. For example, at some fast-food restaurants, one person takes your order and receives your payment and another person fills the order. This procedure reduces the opportunity to be unethical because the person handling the money is not dispensing the product, and the person giving out the product is not handling the money. The existence of an ethical code and the importance management places on this code are other determinants of opportunity. The degree of enforcement of company policies, procedures, and ethical codes is a major force affecting opportunity. When violations are dealt with consistently and firmly, the opportunity to be unethical is reduced...