Free Business Dissertations - Gentleman:would You Do It In Exchange For $1? Lady:ahem. You Must Think I Am
Gentleman:Would you do it in exchange for $1?
Lady:Ahem. You must think I am a whore..
Gentleman: That, ma’am has already been established, we are presently just haggling over the price.
Such an example clearly illustrates one of the key precepts for many justifications that a person will use, especially for such petty offenses as are listed in the previous section:that the idea of degree is relevant. This concept is likely to be especially prevalent in such petty violations as using the telephone for personal calls or taking pens (a few) home for personal use.
To go further as to how a specific behavior could be justified, there are a number of factors of ‘factor groups’ that give insight to the ways in which unethical behavior is justified.
Culture as a Context for Decisions
According to Bird, there are four cultural factors that are useful to understand the beliefs that people hold that, if not providing justification, at least influences the course of their choices.
Prevailing economic philosophy Simply put, it is quite common that the rationality of a decision is based on its economic outcome and any choices aside from maximization of self-interest is viewed as irrational (Bird 1996, p. 145).
Assumptions about the possibility for effective change This feature expresses itself in the idea that many people become accustomed to a given situation because they feel that they cannot change it and, in many cases, if they were to attempt it, their personal situation would likely be worse, i.e., out of a job, ostracized, etc. (Bird 1996 p. 148).
Beliefs regarding the role of legal action This factor might also be labeled the not my job factor and many feel that certain people are supposed to speak up either for or against certain things and that it is not my job to say what is legal or not (Bird 1996 pp. 149-150).
Cultural systems that support tolerance and expressive individualism Following World War II, it was noted that people, in general, were more pre-occupied with themselves and that, similar to the cliché, two consenting adults, if it did not directly affect your rights, tolerance of other belief and value systems was outright encouraged ((Bird 1996 pp. 151-152).
Distributive Justice
There are perhaps two schools of thought on what constitutes ethical behavior. The first, which could be described by adherents as being the a priori sense of right and wrong that we have within us the gut feeling, the nagging doubt and the essential intuition that is either hard-wire or wired so early that most of us do not remember the work being done.
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