Thinking ethically, and therefore behaving ethically as a result of that thinking, is very important in business. Although the news is often full of individuals in business that did not think and act ethically, they make the news because they are the exception, not the rule. Ethics involves the standards of behavior that indicate how an individual should be acting in a particular given relationship (A Framework, 2006). Many people believe that ethics involves the feelings that an individual gets that tell him or her whether something is right or wrong. These feelings are often important, but they are not what ethics really is. Ethics are also not: religion, law, the acce

These other important issues that people use to determine what decision should be made do not necessarily make the decision an ethical one, as there are people that would feel uncomfortable with doing something, even though it is 'right,' and others that would feel perfectly content doing something that is considered to be 'wrong' (A Framework, 2006). Because of this, the identification of ethics for making decisions within the business environment is very difficult. It becomes hard to determine what ethical standards are based on and how they are applied to each and every individual situation that is faced. There are, however, five different sources that are often used in business (and in other aspects of life as well) to determine whether something is ethical or not. These include: the utilitarian approach, the rights approach, the fairness or justice approach, the common good approach, and the virtue approach (A Framework, 2006).

While all of these different approaches have their merits, it is often difficult to find just one that works well for all situations, and sometimes it is difficult to find just one that works well for a single situation that is very complex and confusing. For this reason, it is often advocated that the approaches should be put together. When combined, the whole becomes more than just the sum of its parts and there is a higher chance that the decision made by the individual will truly be ethical. In order to combine the approaches, however, everyone that is involved in the decision-making process must be able to agree on the definitions of 'common good,' 'virtue,' and other words that can be confusi

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Approximate Word count = 1110
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)