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Executive Summary Ethics is one of the cornerstones in life of a manager. If the managers who are tasked with handling many other employees is unethical; the entire company could face ruin; as has been the case in many real-life scenarios where companies have gone bankrupt, simply because the top managers were ready to act unethically to boost sales. Immediate memories of the Volkswagen scandal, Wells Fargo scandal, South Korean Presidential scandal are all great examples of the consequences of unethical decision making. For my development, the first theory was to identify a code of ethics that I agree and adhere to. The code of ethics would aid me in making impersonal, just, and indiscriminate decisions. The second theory was to find a concrete definition of being ethical. Without knowing what being ethical is, a person can never be ethical in true sense. This theory led me to a path of self-discovery where I learned to identify situations from other’s point of view. This helped me materialize the third theory of discovering my true ethical standing. A manager should be headstrong in decision making. And having an astute ethical belief, in my opinion, is the first step to being emotionally strong and immovable. To realize this theory, I went through weeks of self-evaluation to discover ethical theories and my beliefs. This directly led to the fourth theory which focuses on practical implications. This concept focused solely on being able to apply theoretical decision making into a real-life scenario where many variable absent in theories were present. This is always a challenge for a manager who needs to be ethical all while being profitable for the company. The final theory of contextualizing ethical practices is hellbent on developing in managers an acute sense of judgement, shrewd and astute decision making and hence ultimately, contextually ethical decisions in face of dilemmas to avoid any harm to the company and the employees alike. The above theories were tested and the results discovered have developed me into a more ethical person. Someone who is practically relevant and, profitable for the business and the employees. Through study and application of above theories, certain ethical goals can be achieved and the person develops life-long ethical qualities like fairness, dignity, honesty, social justice etc.

Contents Federation University Australia at IIBIT (Sydney).......................................................................1 School of IT..................................................................................................................................1 Executive Summary...............................................................................................................................2 Ethics.....................................................................................................................................................3 Code of Ethics........................................................................................................................................4 Being Ethical..........................................................................................................................................4 Discovering Ethical Position...................................................................................................................5 Applying Ethical Standards....................................................................................................................6 Contextualizing Ethical Standards..........................................................................................................7 Findings.................................................................................................................................................8 Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................11 Appendix.............................................................................................................................................11 A.

Code of Ethics..........................................................................................................................11

References...........................................................................................................................................12

Ethics While talking of ethics, the first thing that comes to mind is the rules to differentiate between right and wrong. People tend to remember the Golden Rule, or the Hippocratic Oath. This shows us the most prevalent way of defining ethics which is social norms and rules of conduct that draw the lines separating acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. [ CITATION Dav15 \l 3081 ] The Golden Rule– rephrased-- “Do unto others as you would like be done.”, is a nice generalization of the overall concept of ethics which deals with how we should treat others and how we should base our decisions. Ethics involves learning the distinction between right or wrong; and using that knowledge to do the right thing. Per McNamara, however; doing the “right thing” is not always as

straightforward as is described in our real world[ CITATION Car15 \l 3081 ]. There is a hazy line distinguishing what is considered ethical and what is considered unethical. Despite best efforts to explain ethics as various theories; there is always a fiery debate when it comes to deciding what ethics is; all depending on the perspective of the arguer. Hence, to avoid confronting and dealing with that foggy differentiation, organisations and businesses have adopted a code of ethics.

Code of Ethics One doesn’t simply become ethical on the whim of it. A professional body is dedicated to dictate the constraints and requirements of being ethical. As a manager for businesses one must be familiar with various ethical codes written by their concerned company. An article by Vivian Roberts serves as an example of code of ethics which dictates rules like; commitment to Australia, its people and its interests, honest representation of products or services, respectful, and courteous dealings with community, environmentally, socially, and culturally responsible.[ CITATION Viv10 \l 3081 ] This brief summarized list could be a generalization of what exists in the real world with real businesses. Various companies, organizations and business have a dedicated code of conduct; a set of which has been linked in Appendix A to serve as examples. Despite best efforts from businesses to create a defining line between ethical and unethical behaviour; there shall always remain a doubt when the question of what being ethical is asked.

Being Ethical What does it mean to be ethical? Does it mean to do the right thing? What does “doing the right thing” mean? People have pondered this seemingly simple question for centuries and it has led to plenty of differing and conflicting ideas. From Emmanuel Kant’s theory of Kantianism – a part of version of deontology; there exist other forms like Utilitarianism, popularised by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, Pragmatic ethics, Role ethics, Ethics of care, Anarchist ethics, and Postmodern ethics among others. From each ethical standpoint, there is never a 100% common consensus of what is considered ethical. One of the most famous problems that describes the deep-rooted conflict among ethical

theories is the “Trolley Problem”. This problem, in short, describes a scenario where the test subject is positioned in a place where he can save 5 people by killing 1 person. The dilemma in question is, whether it is ethical to kill that 1 person to save lives of 5 others.[ CITATION Jud85 \l 3081 ] Now depending on the subject’s moral values, morality and ethical standing; there can be various solutions. Killing 1 person is considered ethical under utilitarian theory, that focuses on doing good to maximum numbers, because doing that will save 5 others. In contrast, under deontological theory of categorical imperative, which focuses on doing unto others what one would do to self; killing of 1 person is considered morally ethically even if end consequence is good. [ CITATION Cro16 \l 3081 ] Trolley Problem is a representative of many other such dilemmas—hypothetical or real world scenarios—which challenge the very concept of being ethical. Thus, every person in the end must develop their own position on ethics, adhere to it and hence act per the belief they hold.

Discovering Ethical Position In the current world dominated by need for financial gain, discovering and adhering to personal ethical beliefs. About a year ago, in a scandal involving Wells Fargo which included illegal activities like fake PIN numbers, fake email ids, fake accounts; it was reported that the, now infamous bank, fired its employees who tried to stop those activities. Per first hand report of former Wells Fargo employee Bill Bado, he confronted the management about this saying the activities were unethical and illegal; he was subsequently sacked from his job which ruined his life[ CITATION Mat16 \l 3081 ]. In another report, another Wells Fargo manager, Claudia Ponce de Leon, was fired after she reported the bank’s ethics hotline of the ongoing fraudulent activity.[ CITATION MAt17 \l 3081 ] Such examples send a chill down any reader’s spine which forces one to think whether being ethical is relevant. It forces the reader to consider their ethical belief and makes the reader re-evaluate their ethical standards. Such scandals are not

uncommon. Indeed, every time such a scandal occurs, it stirs a cloud of controversy and the media throws a rapid-fire series of question that ask where the ethical standards are and even forces the media to doubt the existence of ethical standards. Then again, amidst such harrowing reports, there come more positive reports as a silver lining in dark clouds. A recent report involving Wells Fargo says that the Department of Labour has ordered the bank to re-hire the whistle blower that bank had fired back in 2010 and to pay an estimated amount of $5.4 million in damages and attorney fees.[ CITATION Jul17 \l 3081 ] To add more positivity to this, experts in the field have said businesses to instil a healthy corporate culture to ensure associates meet goals honestly. Learning from the Wells Fargo scandal; experts encourage managers to be proactive, caring and unhypocritical could be the key to instilling a healthy culture at work.[ CITATION Dou17 \l 3081 ] Reports like such act as key motivation in allowing a person to apply the learned ethical standards and beliefs in real world and life. It encourages application of ethical values in the organisations without a fear of retaliation from unethical parties.

Applying Ethical Standards There is a massive difference in learning, or knowing about ethics and ethical standards in a theoretical landscape and applying ethics into our real-world scenarios. Many variables exist that determine whether a “theoretically” ethical behaviour is considered unethical in its practical application. Recent news of US President Donald Trump firing the FBI Director James Comey has proved to be another classical case of unethical hypocrisy. With Democrats in 2016 slamming Comey upon release of scandalous papers against Hilary Clinton and then again hypocritically slamming President Trump for firing Comey in 2017. [ CITATION Ste17 \l 3081 ] Such a case of situational ethics is very prevalent in our world; more prevalent than we would like to admit. In another case; a NHL doctor has slammed his team after allowing a player to play in Game 4 of hockey final despite having being injured in Game 3. The player in question was injured again in Game 4. This led to series of emails questioning ethical standards of the league

organisers. The lawyers for the players have even argued that the league has unethically benefitted from advertising the violence in the league and removed itself from its ethical responsibilities.[ CITATION Ric17 \l 3081 ] Such cases of profit from unethical behaviours has deeply negativized ethical bodies and has widened an already huge gap between theoretical and practical ethics. Application of ethical standards is all dependent of the perspective of the arguers. More recently, Congressman Chris Collins is being investigated for unethically luring many investors to an Australian biotech company called Innate Immunotherapeutics. The Office of Congressional Ethics sees his actions as unethical while the Congressman himself sees his actions ethically valid in doing the greater good.[ CITATION WGR17 \l 3081 ] Such cases of wilding varying perspectives leads us to consider contextualization of our own ethical standards.

Contextualizing Ethical Standards As the saying goes; the difference between theoretically knowing something and applying that knowledge to practice is massive and not all scenarios are as straightforward as they seem in theory. There are many variables at play that determine how relevant a certain theoretical assumption in the existing real world scenario. The Volkswagen Emission Scandal was a real eye opener when in 2014, discoveries were made that Volkswagen was effectively unethically cheating their emission tests by installing “defeat devices” that worked to minimize pollution emission only while under a U.S. emission standards test[ CITATION Lua16 \l 3081 ]. Volkswagen’s ethical guide consisting of 25-page long Code of Conduct was effectively irrelevant and largely ignored when the pressure from top management was immense and success was needed at any cost. In addition, the opportunity to create such a cheating device was present because a modern car uses millions of lines of code which makes hiding cheating software easy. To add more, Volkswagen’s rationalization for such an unethical conduct was that they were fined a mere $120,000 in the 70s for a similar defeat device. Such an insignificant fine could have been more than enough to contextualize their behaviour from an ethical point of view and largely ignore the existing ethical standards[ CITATION Lyn16 \l 3081 ].

Such situational contextualization of ethical standards for practical application of ethical theories is what makes the professional and personal life a challenge where every decision is always between a blurred line of ethical and unethical conduct.

Findings The above theories start from learning the meaning of ethics, learning the value and theoretical concepts regarding ethics and the difference in theoretical and practical application of ethics. From my research on ethics; I have found that theoretical knowledge alone is not enough to solve all the ethical dilemmas that arise during our time. We, humans, have a bad habit of rationalizing and defending everything we do; even if that means going extraordinary lengths to prove our point and our innocence. It was challenging for me to channel my theoretical knowledge on ethics into applying those ethical values efficiently. My path to become more ethical was full of trials and errors which included reevaluating, re-defining and sometimes completely changing my understanding of ethical theories to fit the picture of an ideally ethical human. While inefficiencies remain, I am glad that I took my time, learned, re-learned and developed my ethical standards through weeks of self-evaluation and adjustments. I can safely say that I started as someone who was ethical only in theory. Following my 10 weeks of research on the above 5 theories; I feel that my ethical understanding and ability to comprehend and solve ethical dilemmas has increased dramatically. Upon reading the Code of Ethics of various organizations; I have found many common points in them all. Of which, social justice, fairness, dignity, honesty, indiscriminate behaviour, honourable, respectful of privacy and confidentiality are the key features of what is expected of an ideally ethical professional at work. (Refer to Appendix A) I have taken these points to heart and have vowed to adhere to these expectations to solve my dilemmas ethically. From there on, I set out on a journey to find what being ethical for me personally is. In theory, the distinction between ethical and unethical behaviour is as stark as difference between night and day. However, when it comes to applying that knowledge in real-world scenarios; there is a hazy line separating ethical and unethical behaviour. What creates that hazy line is the fact that we humans rationalize and defend every behaviour of ours;

however ridiculous that rationalization may be. A classic dilemma that explains difficulty in understanding ethical behaviour comes in field of photo-journalism. A journalist’s duty is to take photos of extraordinary events but that photo upon publication could be deemed as breaching privacy of the subjects covered in the event[ CITATION Aiy17 \l 3081 ]. Now, theoretically; this situation is straightforward; from the journalist’s view, it is his duty and ethical right to cover those events and hence he is doing the ethical thing by covering the news. However, in practice; the journalist while doing his ethical duty is breaching another’s ethical right to privacy. As discussed earlier, this breach of privacy violates the common code of ethics. There remains a foggy line separating his ethical rights and unethical technique. From this case; I learned that being ethical is merely a matter of perspective and theories are not truly applicable in all the scenarios in daily life. This realization led me to the next step of trying to discover my ethical position. To improve this area of my quest to becoming an ethical human; I took the path of forming my own viewpoints. In my discussions above I have mentioned many scandals and their ethical implications. To discover my ethical position; I scrutinized each scandal and decided to form my own viewpoints and cross-check my decisions to those that were taken by professional bodies. In the infamous Volkswagen scandal; my theory is that Volkswagen indeed commit fraud and hence were unethical in hiding their defeat device. Any ethical organization would consider the impacts on the environment before selling vehicles with high pollutant emission rates. Volkswagen effectively disregarded their Code of Conduct and hence, from my position they were unethical. Taking my stance in the classical “Trolley Problem”; from my ethical position, I would personally prefer to sacrifice the life of one unlucky workman to save the lives of other five workmen; even if that means I am wilfully sending one workman to their undeserved doom. My rationalization would be that; it is better to save the lives of four people hence, making four families happy rather than letting the four workmen to die and make four families distraught. To precisely describe the discovery of my ethical position; I, through weeks of constant testing, scrutinizing and self-evaluation; I agree with the ethical theory of utilitarianism. In other words, I would find it ethical if the consequences of my actions would make the greatest number of people happy regardless of the path I undertake.

After having discovered my ethical position, I spent the next weeks trying to apply my rationalizations and ethical beliefs in my life. What I found was, the experience and feeling was completely different when it comes to practical application and implications of ethical theories in real. I swiftly found out that my preferred ethical theory of utilitarianism was faulty and needed some fine tuning to become applicable in practice. I discovered that human morality is affected by human intuition and reasons. To add a twist to that classic “trolley problem”, would I still kill that one workman if he was a relative of mine? This simple twist adds a whole new depth in the simple solution provided by utilitarianism. Now, the easy choice of killing 5 unrelated workmen or 1 related workman is blurred because of addition of human relations. In this case, intuition and reason takes over my morality and hence, I would let 5 workmen face their fate to save my 1 relative. Unsurprisingly, this is the c...