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- Origin of ethics
- synonym study for ethics
- Words nearby ethics
- MORE ABOUT ETHICS
- What are ethics?
- Why is ethics important?
- Did you know … ?
- What are real-life examples of ethics?
- Quiz yourself!
- Words related to ethics
- How to use ethics in a sentence
- British Dictionary definitions for ethics
- Derived forms of ethics
- Medical definitions for ethics
- Cultural definitions for ethics
- What are the principles of moral behavior?
- Which of the following is a system of moral principles or rules of conduct relating to human behavior?
- Which of the following refers to the principles of morality or rules of conduct?
- What are moral principles called?
Ethics can be defined as the well-founded standards and fundamental principles of an individual. Ethics are used to determine what is right and wrong, and usually dictate our course of action in our daily lives.
Good work ethics play an important role in bringing benefits to a business in many ways. Generally, strong ethics attract customers/clients who appreciate honest services that will then boost the sales and profits of your company. Having a respectable reputation also helps to attract new customers and builds higher loyalty among customers. For public-listed companies, having a strong ethical behaviour and corporate social responsibility would bring confidence in investors, thereby maintaining the high value of the company’s position in the marketplace.
At the workplace, HR plays an important part in hiring professionals with good ethics right from the start. Having an honest, hardworking workforce with high values in integrity will not only improve the company’s business and reputation but also lift the overall morale of the employees. A strong ethical culture will then undoubtedly attract more talents who share the same ethics and values, reducing the costs of recruitment and enable the company to obtain a pool of talented employees in its workforce.
So, what are the common work ethics and how are these ethical behaviours valuable to an organisation?
1. Integrity
One of the most important workplace ethics is integrity. By definition, integrity is the “quality of being honest and having strong moral principles, a personal code of conduct that goes above the level of good conduct and encompasses the spirit of good conduct.” Employees with integrity are usually the ones you can count on, the ones with the highest moral values and the ones who are bent on doing the right thing at all times.
2. Honesty
Being an honest individual means you do not deceive others by giving out misleading information. This includes the truthful way of conduct that is usually without the intention of lying, cheating or any form of falsification. Customers typically only deal with a business or a service provider whom they trust. In a workplace, an honest employee is the one you can rely on to continue doing their best in their jobs for the company’s benefits.
3. Discipline
At times, an employee may be talented in his line of work but lacks the commitment and dedication to complete the tasks given. It requires a certain level of discipline to not only complete the tasks within a certain time frame but to also execute them well, instead of doing just the bare minimum at the very last minute. Disciplined employees are extremely important as they ensure that all assignments and projects are delivered and executed in a timely manner.
4. Fair and respect
Achieving an ethically strong workplace involves the cooperation of every employee, from top decision-makers/leaders to entry-level employees. No matter which level you are at, you need to ensure that all your actions are fair and just, particularly if you are entrusted with a position to lead. This will ensure a positive work culture in your organisation. Always remember that every one of your staff deserves to be treated with respect and dignity, regardless of who they are or which position they are at.
5. Responsible and accountable
If an employee has a strong sense of responsibility, he or she would undoubtedly turn up for work on time and complete the tasks given with the best effort that he or she can offer. Nevertheless, there will be a time when an employee may make a mistake, hence it is important to also be able to acknowledge these mistakes, be accountable for it and accept any consequences. In certain scenarios, an ethical manager will take accountability for their staff or colleagues for reasons that are not for self-interest but for the well-being of all parties involved.
What may seem like something that was previously swept aside in previous generations now plays an important part for a business to succeed. Furthermore, a lack of business ethics can easily tarnish your reputation given the easy access to social media platforms where your company reputation is being readily monitored and exposed to issues at all times. Ultimately, maintaining a strong ethical culture within your organisation is key in building trust among your workforce and preserving credibility of your business.
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noun
(used with a singular or plural verb) a system of moral principles: the ethics of a culture.
(used with a plural verb) the rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of human actions or a particular group, culture, etc.: medical ethics; Christian ethics.
(used with a plural verb) moral principles, as of an individual: His ethics forbade betrayal of a confidence.
(used with a singular verb) that branch of philosophy dealing with values relating to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such actions.Compare axiological ethics, deontological ethics.
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Origin of ethics
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English ethic + -s3, modeled on Greek tà ēthiká, neuter plural
synonym study for ethics
Words nearby ethics
ethically, ethical relativism, ethical will, ethicist, ethicize, ethics, ethinamate, ethine, ethinyl estradiol, ethion, ethionamide
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022
MORE ABOUT ETHICS
What are ethics?
Ethics are a system of moral principles or rules that say what is and is not acceptable.
Generally speaking, ethics refer to the rules or code of conduct that people use to determine when an action is acceptable or not. Often, a person’s ethics are based on the rules of their society, such as laws or religious teachings. A society’s ethics might say that it is wrong to steal from someone else, for example.
You may have your own ethics that are different from the society or community you live in. For example, you may move from a country where owning a gun is legal to one where it is not. In this case, your personal ethics (your belief that owning a gun is okay) may contradict the ethics of the country you now live in.
In philosophy, the word ethics is used to mean the study of what makes a person decide what is right and wrong. Philosophers often use the word morality to mean the same thing.
Outside of philosophy, though, we consider ethics and morals to be two different sets of values. Generally speaking, the difference between the two is that ethics are what a community considers to be right and wrong, and morals are what an individual considers to be good and bad or evil.
Why is ethics important?
The first records of the term ethics come from around 1400. It ultimately comes from the Greek éthikos, which combines the word êthos, meaning “custom,” and –ikos, which forms adjectives. The ethics of many societies are often determined by their customs.
It is understandable if you are still confused by the difference between ethics and morals. The two concepts are often closely interconnected, and ethics are often motivated by the morals that a large number of people have. Many laws, seen as the ethics of society, forbid things that people consider to be a serious violation of morals, such as killing another person.
However, people can have different morals and ethics from each other or their society. For example, the law might allow a farmer to do whatever he wants to the animals he owns. So, a farmer might decide to kill most of his male chicks because he only wants female chickens to lay eggs that he can sell. The farmer is both not violating the ethics of the society he is a part of and he is not violating his own ethics or morals because he personally believes there is nothing wrong about culling male chicks. But many animal rights activists would declare that this practice is morally wrong. You’ll find that people often passionately debate about what should and should not be considered acceptable according to ethics.
Did you know … ?
Sometimes, the ethics of a profession are in conflict with the ethics of society. Journalists will often protect the identity of their sources even under threat of being sent to prison because they refuse to violate the ethics of journalism.
What are real-life examples of ethics?
To help you out, we have a video explaining the difference between ethics and morals:
What’s The Difference Between “Morals” vs. “Ethics”?
The word ethics is often used in instances where a person or even a whole society had an ethical dilemma or violated ethics.
I hope you're all happy after sharing a dead child's photo. A few RTs are probably worth the violation of ethics.
— Mahwash Ajaz 🇵🇰 (@mahwashajaz_) January 9, 2018
It really goes against my ethics to simply 'design' something because that's the way they want it when it's clearly wrong.
— Cerven Cotter (@cervencotter) March 7, 2013
My ethics professor LOVES arguing with us bro
— Christyn (@CogginsChristyn) October 5, 2020
Quiz yourself!
True or False?
Ethics are the rules that define what is right and wrong.
belief, conduct, conscience, convention, conventionalities, criteria, decency, ethos, goodness, honesty, honor, ideal, imperative, integrity, morality, mores, nature, practice, principles, standard
How to use ethics in a sentence
Will Huntsberry reports that as part of her probation she’ll also be required to take a medical ethics course.
It is yet another potential violation of the city’s ethics rules.
Barrios stressed in the new filing that “no conflicts arose” during his period of overlapping employment, but he could have run afoul of the city’s ethics ordinance anyway.
This is, of course, nothing new, but it has highlighted the need for international standards on ethics and reporting mechanisms that are flexible but responsive.
Anya’s been thinking a lot about Disney princesses lately because of a writing project she had in school, for ethics class.
Fridays there is ethics and law of war training and instruction.
Tom Rust, a spokesman for the House Ethics Committee, declined to comment to The Daily Beast.
Still, his conviction will restart a House Ethics Committee investigation into his actions.
Whether or not Hippocrates ever actually said “First, do no harm,” the axiom is central to medical ethics.
Arthur Caplan is the director of medical ethics for NYU Langone Medical Center.
She was just as honestintentionallyas she could be, but the ethics of business dealing were not quite straight in her mind.
The religion of Rome may not have advanced the theology or the ethics of the world, but it made and held together a nation.
Your religion does not make it—its ethics are too weak, its theories too unsound, its transcendentalism is too thin.
Impatiently I smother the accusing whisper of my conscience, "By the right of revolutionary ethics."
Ethics, in short, may be regarded as composed of unlike halves, which unite centrally to form a whole.
British Dictionary definitions for ethics
noun
(functioning as singular)the philosophical study of the moral value of human conduct and of the rules and principles that ought to govern it; moral philosophySee also meta-ethics
(functioning as plural)a social, religious, or civil code of behaviour considered correct, esp that of a particular group, profession, or individual
(functioning as plural)the moral fitness of a decision, course of action, etche doubted the ethics of their verdict
Derived forms of ethics
ethicist, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Medical definitions for ethics
n.
The rules or standards governing the conduct of a person or the conduct of the members of a profession.
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Cultural definitions for ethics
The branch of philosophy that deals with morality. Ethics is concerned with distinguishing between good and evil in the world, between right and wrong human actions, and between virtuous and nonvirtuous characteristics of people.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
What are the principles of moral behavior?
Moral principles are guidelines that people live by to make sure they are doing the right thing. These include things like honesty, fairness, and equality. Moral principles can be different for everyone because they depend on how a person was raised and what is important to them in life.
Which of the following is a system of moral principles or rules of conduct relating to human behavior?
At its simplest, ethics is a system of moral principles. They affect how people make decisions and lead their lives. Ethics is concerned with what is good for individuals and society and is also described as moral philosophy.
Which of the following refers to the principles of morality or rules of conduct?
What are ethics? Ethics are a system of moral principles or rules that say what is and is not acceptable. Generally speaking, ethics refer to the rules or code of conduct that people use to determine when an action is acceptable or not.
What are moral principles called?
the moral principle that behavior should be determined by duty. type of: precept, principle. rule of personal conduct. the principles of right and wrong that are accepted by an individual or a social group. synonyms: ethic, value orientation, value-system.