At work, we have had several recent memos, discussions, issues, regarding ethics and ensuring that we and our fellow workers are making ethical decisions, both on and off company time. Yesterday, my boss hosted a discussion about it and talked about a book he's reading, The Honest Truth About Dishonesty. He said it mentioned that making ethical choices required ethical muscles and as we make decisions, those muscles can get weak, especially if they weren't strong to begin with.
This made me think about what is the motivation of building, strengthening, exercising these muscles. When I think about motivation for working out other muscles, I think there are a few common reasons. Health concerns: I don't want to have a heart attack and die at age 51 like my mom and her dad (she got better though). Body image: We want to look good for the ladies. Pleasure: Working out feels good and relieves stress (endorphins). There may be others, but the point being we have motivations for working out.
What is the motivation for making ethical choices? I'm not thinking big things like murder, I think for most of us harming another makes ethical choices clearer. But choices that will probably never be found out. Things like fudging my tax-deducible giving to bump up my return, smoking weed, claiming more miles than I really have on a travel reimbursement claim, cheating on a spouse while out of town, revenge porn, being an anonymous cyber *******, etc.. We all have to have some motivation for making the choice to either do or not do these things when given the chance.
For me, my motivation stems from my faith. And my faith not only motivates me, but tells me what the right thing to do is. My ethical decisions come from most basically the commandments of loving God and loving my neighbor, as well as more specific teachings in the Bible. I don't have any nude photos of any ex-girlfriends, but my decision making would be that I'm not loving my neighbor if I am sharing nude photos of her, even if that **** deserved it for cheating on me! I've certainly had my times where I've been an *******, but I at least recognize that my behavior in those situations is wrong, even if it is completely anonymous online. Paul writes about being good subjects of the emperor and even Jesus paid his taxes. I'm no saint, but I feel I have a motivation for doing the right thing when no one is around because my highest accountability comes from God.
What are other motivators for ethical decision making? What is used as the guidelines for knowing if a choice is unethical or not? When I took my ethics class in college, the prof talked about various ethical theories like utilitarianism, but these sometimes seemed at odds with each other and the reason I would choose one over the other wasn't really discussed. Mainly, here's a situation, describe how each theory would approach the problem. I'm not trying to get at absolute truth, but understand what others use to make ethical decisions. If those who I work with are not religious, other than the boss said to do this and I don't want to get fired, what is the motivation and decision matrix for making ethical decisions?
This made me think about what is the motivation of building, strengthening, exercising these muscles. When I think about motivation for working out other muscles, I think there are a few common reasons. Health concerns: I don't want to have a heart attack and die at age 51 like my mom and her dad (she got better though). Body image: We want to look good for the ladies. Pleasure: Working out feels good and relieves stress (endorphins). There may be others, but the point being we have motivations for working out.
What is the motivation for making ethical choices? I'm not thinking big things like murder, I think for most of us harming another makes ethical choices clearer. But choices that will probably never be found out. Things like fudging my tax-deducible giving to bump up my return, smoking weed, claiming more miles than I really have on a travel reimbursement claim, cheating on a spouse while out of town, revenge porn, being an anonymous cyber *******, etc.. We all have to have some motivation for making the choice to either do or not do these things when given the chance.
For me, my motivation stems from my faith. And my faith not only motivates me, but tells me what the right thing to do is. My ethical decisions come from most basically the commandments of loving God and loving my neighbor, as well as more specific teachings in the Bible. I don't have any nude photos of any ex-girlfriends, but my decision making would be that I'm not loving my neighbor if I am sharing nude photos of her, even if that **** deserved it for cheating on me! I've certainly had my times where I've been an *******, but I at least recognize that my behavior in those situations is wrong, even if it is completely anonymous online. Paul writes about being good subjects of the emperor and even Jesus paid his taxes. I'm no saint, but I feel I have a motivation for doing the right thing when no one is around because my highest accountability comes from God.
What are other motivators for ethical decision making? What is used as the guidelines for knowing if a choice is unethical or not? When I took my ethics class in college, the prof talked about various ethical theories like utilitarianism, but these sometimes seemed at odds with each other and the reason I would choose one over the other wasn't really discussed. Mainly, here's a situation, describe how each theory would approach the problem. I'm not trying to get at absolute truth, but understand what others use to make ethical decisions. If those who I work with are not religious, other than the boss said to do this and I don't want to get fired, what is the motivation and decision matrix for making ethical decisions?