Download ETHICAL DIMENSION OF THE MANAGEMENT

ETHICAL DIMENSION OF THE MANAGEMENT
Ivan Blazhevski, PhD
Univerzitet "Goce Delčev" Štip, R.Makedonija, [email protected]
Aleksandar Grizhev, PhD
Ministry of Defence, Republic of Macedonia, [email protected]
Abstract: Current conditions in the global economy, achieving the needed competitive advantage and achieving
goals that do not only mean increased profits, became imperative for every organization. These goals include
achieving and maintaining customer satisfaction, employees, and shareholders, whereupon the realization of
these goals should be made as much as quality, and the most acceptable way for the organization. In order for
employees and the organization to succeed in achieving these goals, it is important that their actions and
activities are based on the ethical principles and business policies. Organizations that succeed to comply and
strike a balance between the principles of profitability and ethics, can justly expect long-term perspective on
growth and development.
Keywords: Ethics, Economics, Management
1. INTRODUCTION
From the outset of the operation and development of the organizations, the way of working and gaining
profit, wealth and other benefits provided by the good and successful business, constantly question arises:
whether the business interfaces with morals and moral actions of individuals and groups? This question can be
seen as a dilemma whether the wealth, inevitably, means also doubt, distrust and envy towards its origin and
method of acquisition. The research and analysis of the relationship between work and ethics can be spread on
the method of operation, the use of natural and economic resources, property relations, management of the
organization, quality of work, attitude towards employees, their relationship with the local community, region,
or state. In addition, in many cases it is stressed that the historical development of economic relations does not
make many arguments for the thesis that ethics and business are directly related. Thereto, it is often emphasized
that ethics and way of operating, especially the management of the company and the way it is organized have
nothing in common, as well as that the economy has no obligation nor need to be moral, meaning that the
economy, in its essence, cannot be ethical, no matter the persistence to be such. Initiating the discussion in the
business world, in many cases leads to a manifestation of the so-called "syndrome of aversion to ethics."1
2. INITIATIVES FOR BUSINESS ETHICS
In the earliest development of the human mind, thinking about the best means of securing human
existence is inextricably linked to thinking about the practical behavior of the Self toward You, toward the
environment, and the behavior of You toward Self. Resentment and admiration, fear and pity, ambition and
shame - all these basic feelings caused by society, represent a source of ethical evaluation. 2 The issue of ethics
in the work is not new, according to Di George 3, the history of ethics in business is long, and extends until the
beginning of the business. However, it was not until the seventies of the twentieth century, that the public’s
interest in the matter increased. According to him, the business ethics received in 1985 the status of an academic
discipline, though still in the process of defining. According to Bebek4, business ethics is a hybrid that combines
the two benchmarks of performance. On the one hand, the work aims material success, respectively meeting the
needs of clients, customers, as well as meeting the material needs of manufacturers in achieving income, profit,
etc. On the other hand, the operation means and includes an ethical dimension. According to Crane and Matten5,
business ethics deals with business situations, activities and decision-making procedures, in terms of right or
wrong.
1
One of the first causes of the syndrome of aversion to ethics is recognizing that it is impossible to have a
completely ethical behaviour in an organization that does not demand such ethical behaviour.
Next reason for the syndrome of aversion to ethics is opinion that ethics would cause unnecessary complication
of labour activities. Prescription of new ethical principles would impede the realization of the already enough
complex jobs. (Geuras and Garofalo, 2005)
2
Jodl, 1963
3
Di George, 2003
4
Bebek and Kolumbić, 2003
5
Crane and Matten, 2004