Determining What Is Ethical

Facilities Check List
Practical, step-by-step guides for the busy FM
March 2003

Determining What Is Ethical

Sometimes, making a decision is easy because some obvious standard, value, or norm of behavior applies. In other cases, supervisors have trouble deciding what to do.

Many large companies have a code of ethics to guide employees as to what constitutes acceptable and unacceptable practices. A code of ethics is a formal document that states an organization’s primary values and the ethical rules it expects employees to follow. For instance, a code of ethics might instruct employees to be law-abiding in all activities, to be truthful and accurate in what they say and write, and to recognize that high integrity sometimes requires the company to forego business opportunities.

Codes of ethics do not, however, provide enough guidance for the many dilemmas employees face. In fact, philosophers have debated for centuries about the specific criteria that determine whether or not decisions are ethical. The two principle schools of thought regarding ethics are the duty-based theory and the utilitarian theory.

  • Duty-Based Theory
    • Morality is based on duty. When you do the right thing, it is not the outcome of the act that is the measure of its morality, but rather your intent.
    • An act is moral if it could become a universal rule of society.
    • On deciding the morality of an act, you must consider the perspective of the doer and the recipient.
  • Utilitarian Theory
    • Moral behavior is tied to the common good.
    • An act is moral if it increases the happiness or decreases the misery of the greatest number of people over the long term.
    • The results are the measure of moral behavior, not the intent.

Distributive Justice

One cannot discuss business ethics without including the concept of distributive justice. This concept pertains to equality and fairness in the distribution of economic and social benefits. Distributive justice has five rival principles of how wealth should be divided:

  • Equality: provides an equal share to everyone regardless of their contribution
  • Effort: rewards each person according to individual productivity
  • Social Contribution: gives to each person according to his or her social offerings
  • Merit: rewards an individual according to noteworthy qualities
  • Need: gives to those who are in the greatest need, regardless of merit, effort, or social contribution

There are a number of business situations that require decisions based on justice, or fairness. These often pertain to personnel-related issues (hiring, promotions, bonuses, and layoffs, for example). The following are illustrations:

  • Equality: distribute the same end-of-year bonus to everyone regardless of individual performance
  • Effort: promote workers based on how hard they work
  • Social Contribution: offer tax incentives to companies who relocate offices to inner city areas and who employ the economically disadvantaged
  • Merit: promote and award bonuses based on quality of work, skills, and productivity
  • Need: award overtime to those with the lowest salaries

In business, as in life in general, decisions resting on judgments of what is fair can result in a great deal of turmoil and unhappiness. Depending on the situation, any of the five principles of distributive justice could be claimed as the most appropriate to use. What might seem just to one person could seem grossly unjust to another. For example, should we promote an employee based on seniority (effort), quality of work (merit), or affirmative action (need)? That is but one of many similar dilemmas that provoke a great deal of discord and soul-searching.

Justice is an elusive yet powerful concept that is important to business ethics. How you make judgments about fair employee treatment will determine your moral authority and the respect of others.

To explore ethics in a national forum, be sure to participate in BOMI’s 8th annual NATIONAL COMMERCIAL PROPERTY ETHICS WEEK April 14–18, 2003

During Ethics Week, BOMI Institute’s Ethics Is Good Business® seminar will be held in 10 cities nationwide, serving as a forum for facilities and property managers, building engineers, and building technicians to discuss ethics in the workplace.

Using video presentations of real business scenarios, group participation, and instructor interaction, the one-day Ethics Is Good Business® seminar will address such issues as tenant and employee relations, trade secrets, proper use of funds, contract negotiations, and more. The seminar will be offered for just $250 per person or $220 per person when three of more people from the same company register at the same time. Continuing education credit toward real estate license renewal may be available in certain states.

Call 1-800-235-BOMI (2664) or visit BOMI Institute’s Web site at www.bomi-edu.org/ethics to register for Ethics Is Good Business® during “National Commercial Property Ethics Week.”

BOMI’s “National Commercial Property Ethics Week” 2003 Schedule BOMI’s Ethics Is Good Business® seminar will be held in the following cities:

  • April 14, Portland, OR

  • April 15, Baltimore, MD; San Francisco, CA

  • April 16, Chicago (Lisle), IL; Washington, D.C.

  • April 17, Charlott, NC; Omaha, NE; Philadelphia, PA

  • April 18, Atlanta, GA; New York, NY

For more information on ethics, see the article from May 2008, The Business of Ethical Behavior .