Ethics

These are some of the questions which are usually being asked by the people concerning ethics:

1. Is every action that is legal also ethical?

2. Can you describe an action that is legal but ethically wrong?

3.  Is every ethical action also legal? is the law not ethics?

4. Is it possible for an employee to be successful in the workplace without acting ethically?

Now, I would try to answer these questions with my own knowledge and understanding about Ethics. But first of all, i would like to define what is “Ethical” and “Legal”.

Ethical -  Conforming to accepted standards of social or professional behavior or being in accordance with the accepted principles or norms of the society.

Legal -   Allowed by official rules, which could be enforced in a business, organization, company or even in the goverment itself. A legal action actually means that it is right because it abides to the law or command which are enforced by those who are in powe.  like for example a president, he/she has the power or authority to create rules and implement them officially.

1. Is every action that is legal also ethical?

     - Not every legal action is considered to be ethical by some people. Let us take the legality of some drugs in Amsterdam.
 Amsterdam is the Capital and largest city of the Netherlands, it is well known throughout the world because in Amsterdam you may just enter a coffee shop and buy drugs; even more they have a special menu for the drugs they offer and it is all part of their business transaction. You don’t even have to worry about getting arrested by the police officers because it is all legal!!. I’ve mentioned above the meaning of the world “legal”, So what kind of laws are these? Aren’t they concerned about the real dangers of drug abuse and its repercussions? There is no way that i would accept this law even if it’s legal, I don’t consider it to be ethical because it is not in accordance with the accepted principles or norms which i follow and believe in.

2. Can you describe an action that is legal but ethically wrong?

     -Let us take for example slavery. There are some countries dating back to history and up to modern times where slavery is legal. If we will use the Fairness approach to judge this action, then we can say that slavery is ethically wrong because it does not treat all people the same.

 3.  Is every ethical action also legal? is the law not ethics?

     - For me, the answer here is also no. An action can be ethically correct as long as it conforms to the norms set by society as what they believe is right but it doesn’t always follow that it conforms to the regulations set by the law.

 4. Is it possible for an employee to be successful in the workplace without acting ethically?

     -  Of course!! you don’t have to ask such questions because nowadays not only employees but almost all people are resolute to become successful in their lives or in their workplaces but success cannot be attained so easily. Success is a ladder that you must climb with the use of your acumen, strength and determination to arrive at the place you dream of but unfortunately this requires great motivation and a lot of harwork. This is one of many possible reasons why people or employees search for easy ways to attain their goals in life but in the process of doing so, they obliviously take paths which are considered unethical or ethically wrong.