Difference between Ethics and Morality

Difference between Ethics and Morality

Many people are unaware of the difference between morality and ethics, but a basic and important difference exists between them. Morality refers to an individual’s character, whereas ethics stresses an entire social system in which morality is practiced. It can also be said that ethics explain the codes of conduct of a group that an individual should adhere to.

Morality and ethics can come into conflict at the workplace. At the workplace, individuals’ morality may clash with the organisation’s ethics. For their greed, businesses sometimes put employees into difficult and demanding situations where they have to choose between challenging business ethics and their moral responsibility towards family, children, etc.

Points highlighting the differences between ethics and morals are described in the Table below:

Difference between Ethics and Morality 

	Morality	Ethics
1) Meaning	Morality means ideologies and beliefs regarding right or wrong behaviour.	It can be defined as the guidelines made for a certain group of people, i.e., society, organisation, etc., to ensure a particular set of behaviours by them.
2) Origin	It originates within an individual; hence, its nature is internal.	The social system is responsible for ethics; hence, its nature is external.
3) Flexibility	Consistent in nature. But, if the beliefs of an individual change, it may also change.	The definition of ethics is dependent on various concepts such as values, morality, etc. Hence, it is consistent, but only within a concept, and inconsistent among different concepts.
4) Covers	A morally correct person is held strong by his moral values. Yet, he may follow the ethical codes because it is a demand of the system.	A person who is a firm follower of ethics may not have morals. Similarly, a morally correct person may break the ethical codes for the sake of the integrity of his moral values.
5) Acceptability	Morality is superior to cultural norms.	Ethics are directed by professional rules and legal provisions within a certain time, place, or group.

Meaning of Morality

The word ‘moral’ is derived from the Latin word ‘moralis’, which pertains to the principles of right and wrong or good and bad. Moral refers to the standards that are set to evaluate the appropriateness and goodness of the personality or behavior of a person.

The values and beliefs that a person has innate into himself are said to be the morals of that person. Human beings do not require much time to make moral decisions as the basis of such decisions are their deep-rooted values and beliefs. Hence, it can also be said that morals are reflex responses to the situation. The moral actions of human beings are based on their morals, which they have learned from their parents, friends, colleagues, teachers, situations, etc.

Definition of Morality

According to Ayn Rand, “Morality is a code of values to guide man’s choices and actions – the choices and actions that determine the purpose and the course of his life”.

As per Hegel, “Morality is an internalisation of values and external legal relations”.

According to Purtilo and Criss, “Morality is everyday behaviours that allow us to live successfully with one another. They include concepts like values (what we cherish) and duties (actions that we are required to do)”.

According to Max Weber, “Morality is the set of norms and values that dominate society at a certain moment in time/place”.

Characteristics of Morality

Morality or morals have the following characteristics:

1) Informal Execution: Morals are enforced informally. It is enforced either in the form of advice or in the form of lectures and scolding.

2) Time Scale: Morals are generally very deep-rooted in the history of society and religion, as they grow and develop over centuries and millennia. In the Western part of the world, beliefs of Judaco-Christian and Old and New Testament are prevalent; whereas in the Eastern part of the world, one can see the dominance of Islam and the Quran.

3) Voluntary: Morals are personal; even family members and friends may have differences in their moral decisions and actions. A person may be influenced by the moral opinions of others, but agreeing or disagreeing with them is up to him.

4) ‘Ought’ Concerns: In every society or community, people are persuaded or even forced to behave in a manner how they ‘ought’ to be. Even a person with high moral values sometimes faces criticism related to these ‘ought’ issues.

Relationship between Ethics and Morality and Ethical Theory

There is a close relation in the original meaning of both, the Moral (moralis in Latini and the Ethics (ethos in Greek). The meaning of both words is the custom or way of life. Morality, nowadays, refers to an individual’s behavior, while ethics, also known as moral philosophy, refers to the study of moral behaviour

A criterion of a person or a group regarding right and wrong or good and bad is known as morality.

Ethics is the study of morality, and it talks about the reasons that explain particular rules which help in help in deciding what is wrong or what is right in a given circumstance. These rules are known as ethical theories. The relationship established from this viewpoint is that morality is preceded by ethics, which is then preceded by ethical theories.

The relationship is illustrated in the figure provided below.

Morality and Ethics: Exploring Their Similarities and Effectiveness

Morality and ethics both are concerned with good, bad, right, wrong, etc., hence looking identical to each other. The activities, persons, decisions, etc., if considered moral, then they would also be considered right. Similarly, if any of them is considered immoral, then they would be considered wrong. It is also believed that the principles that a moral person follows are right and important.

A morally correct person will always stick to his principles, even if his interests get negatively affected due to it. Such persons, if lose any argument, court case, election, etc., do not deviate from their principles and they are said to achieve a “moral victory”.

Such principles provide due respect to the right behaviour, and they are not only held by a person or two, but the society at large also considers them supreme. These principles are respected by the majority of people only because concerned persons get praise for their moral victory,

The principles that are respected and accepted by a majority of people are considered as ‘moral.’ As per definitions and theoretical contexts, ethics and morals have some differences, but in all other cases, they may be considered similar.

What are Ethics?

The word “ethics” is extracted from the Greek word “ethos”, which refers to nature and guiding values. principles or ideals that are spread through a group, community, or people. Every individual is responsible to their community for their actions. The community can exist in various forms such as neighbourhood, profession, city, state, etc. Ethics serves as the guiding principle that distinguishes between good and bad, right and wrong, moral and immoral,  just and unjust, and appropriate and improper actions of human beings.Thus, ethics means a code of conduct. It directs a person’s behaviour with another person.

Ethics is necessary for human life. This is a way of deciding on a course of action. In the absence of it, the actions would be arbitrary and without any goal. There would be no manner of working towards an aim as there would be no way of choosing between a limitless number of aims. Even after following ethical standards, people may not be able to follow goals successfully. Only to the extent that a rational ethical standard is taken, people can organise their aims correctly and take actions to fulfil their significant values. Any defect in ethics will reduce an individual’s ability to succeed in his efforts.

Meaning of Ethics

Ethics is a group of norms or codes or value systems, devised from human reason and experience, through which free human actions are determined as right or wrong, good or malicious.

Definition of Ethics

According to Webster, “Ethics is the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligations”.

As per Josephson Institute, “Ethics is defined as standards of conduct that indicate how one should behave based on moral duties and virtues”.

According to Philip Wheel Wright, “Ethics is a branch of philosophy which is the systematic study of selective choice of the standards of right and wrong and by which it may be ultimately directed”.

Characteristics of Ethics

The characteristics of ethics are as follows:

1) The concept of ethics applies only to human beings because they have the freedom to choose and the means of free will. They can decide how they wish to pursue their goals and the means to achieve the ends.

2) There was a debate regarding the he nature of ethics: was it a science, or was it an art? But the experts viewed ethics more as a science than an art. The reason behind this was that ethics is a systematic knowledge of the moral activities and behaviour of human beings.

3) Ethics is concerned with voluntary human behaviour that is not forced by the situations or by other human beings. It can be concluded that at the basic level, ethics involves moral judgment about fixed human behaviour.

4) Ethics is considered a normative science. It seeks a perfect and absolute test of right behaviour. Normative science involves deciding on moral standards that govern the conduct of good and evil.

Scope of Ethics

Ethics encompasses the study of all human actions, i.e., good or bad, just or unjust, beneficial or harmful. It studies the cause and effect of all human acts. What is the basis or cause of human acts? Human acts: Are they voluntary or forced? Are they caused by external or internal factors? Are they unconscious or deliberate?

For example, are they canned by societal compulsions (law) and practices, or driven by one’s conscience they lead to happiness and benefit or harm and punishment? Ethics also enquires into and investigates what constitutes human freedom, morals as determined by society, duties, obligations, etc. It is the study of all human behaviour against the backdrop of the values of society.

Scope of Ethics: Understanding the Fundamentals and Practical Applications of Ethics

Ethics also focuses on the morality of human behaviour. What behaviour is good, and why is it good? Is it because the morals of society deem it to be so, or are there other higher meta-physical reasons? Are morals absolute and universal, or do they vary in time and space? Ethics does not lay down morals but rather studies them. It distinguishes between the inherent intrinsic goodness of man as opposed to the goodness of his skills or knowledge.

Meta-ethics has dealt with the key concerns of Ethics or Moral Philosophy and Normative Ethics. Meta-ethics focuses on the moral aspects of a person’s thoughts, actions, and language, while Normative Ethics is judgmental in nature and scope and evaluates the norms or rules of what is considered right or wrong, good or bad.

When the principles of ethics are applied to day-to-day situations to judge and evaluate human acts, it is known as Applied Ethics. Depending on the field or area of its focus, we have Business Ethics, Medical Ethics, and Parliamentary Ethics. Legal Ethics and so on, which deals with subjects like abortion, profiteering (large unfair profit), use of money and muscle power in elections, child marriage, etc. Thus, Applied Ethics has an organic connection with all branches of human knowledge, life, and society.

Importance of Ethics

The Importance of ethics is explained below:

1. Facilitates Better Decision-Making
2. Concerned with Basic Human Needs
3. Improves Cooperation
4. Reduces Possibilities of Errors
5. Promotes Moral and Social Values
6. Helps in Dealing with People

1) Facilitates Better Decision-Making

Ethics helps in making better decisions. Ethical decisions made by the organisation will always be in favour of the shareholders, other stockholders, the public, and their employees. This is because ethical consideration will compel the management to think about all aspects of a question, i.e, economic, social, and ethical.

2) Concerned with Basic Human Needs

Ethics is related to the fundamental needs of humanity. The majority of people desire to be ethical both in their personal and professional lives. They want to associate themselves with an organisation because they perceive its purpose and activity to be advantageous to society. The basic ethical needs are perhaps one of the most important reasons for ethical concern on the part of organisations.

3) Improves Cooperation

In every organisation, cooperation and coordination between people at various levels and different fields are needed. Also, various values are transferred and shared between these peoples, like responsibility, equality, trust, and mutual respect. These values help towards healthy and conducive working conditions, leading to growth and success in the organisation.

4) Reducing Possibilities of Errors

Ethical norms help gain knowledge, verify the truth, and avoid any chances of mistakes while investigating any given circumstance or situation. Thus, ethics is most effective for reducing mistakes and prohibiting formulation, manipulation, or misrepresentation of any kind of data.

5) Promotes Moral and Social Values

Ethics is considered to be significant because it helps in promoting other essential moral and social values. Also, values like social responsibility, human rights, protection of animals, conformity to the law, and health and safety are supported by practising proper ethics. When a person’s values are wrong, his capacity to achieve success in his attempts is reduced. For example, s person who makes up false data in a clinical trial can harm or even kill patients.

6) Helps in Dealing with People

The correct thinking sense can be of great help in dealing with people regularly, properly, and positively. Lack of the proper approach and wrong sense can cause only negative feelings, thus affecting our communication with other people. Ethics is based on trust. helps in treating everyone as children of God and love. Therefore, ethics, which we  transfer to others, show the correct way of life.

Ethical Principles

The basic principles that ethics seeks to propagate are as follows:

1. Principle of Least Harm
2. Justice and Fair Play
3. The Principle of Doing Good or Beneficence
4. Principle of Respect for Autonomy

1) Principle of Least Harm

This is an outcome of the beneficence principle. If you cannot ensure “good” then minimise “bad” or in other words, if you cannot ensure “pleasure” then minimise “pain”. This is often reflected in a surgeon’s choice, e.g., to surgically remove a part to save the whole body.

2) Justice and Fair Play

This principle is another cornerstone of ethics. It implies that all actions must be fair and as per norms (rules, laws, etc.). For example, no one is allowed to take another person’s life. However, this, like other principles, is not absolute but tempered by emergency. For example, a soldier or a policeman is permitted to shoot and kill in the larger interest of the country’s defence or the interest of law and order.

3) Principle of Doing Good or Beneficence

This is the central principle of all ethics. It seeks to ensure the greatest good of the greatest number, ie, to first define and establish what constitutes “good” and then find ways and means of extending it to the largest number. An example is the medical ethics of making available healthcare to all, or the ethics of governance which seeks to ensure basic amenities to all citizens. This is also the central principle of utilitarianism, which seeks to maximize overall happiness and well-being for the largest possible number of individuals.

4) Principle of Respect for Autonomy

Autonomy, or the freedom of every human being to choose his or her actions, is another central principle of ethics. It provides choice and respects human dignity. Also implicit in this principle is the element of trust, which implies that every human being can be trusted to take actions appropriate to his interests and well-being (without compromising the interests of others). Every individual is a rational being who knows what is best for himself and others. Hence, whatever he does would be appropriate and correct in his own and the larger interest.

This principle, however, has two viewpoints:

i) Paternalistic Viewpoint: Under this viewpoint, an authority usually helps the individual decide (dictates) based on what is considered to be in his best interest. For example, a cricketer may want to become a fast bowler, but his coach may decide on his becoming a spinner, based on an assessment of his abilities.

ii) Libertarian View: This is a liberal viewpoint that does not believe in interfering with the individual’s choices. The individual can be trusted with knowing what he thinks is best for him and choosing to act accordingly.

Ethical Performance

It refers to the employee’s performance in the organisation that is consistent with their values and the commonly shared values of the organisation, society, and community. Ethical performance is apparent when we do things or have done things that were ethically correct as determined by the society we live in and the organisation we work in.

The importance of accurate measurement of ethical performance in organisations and investigation of the levels of accuracy of ethical performance judgements (i.e., judgement of ethical dimensions of employee performance) is needed. The ethical performance of organisational employees has always been a critical issue and pained substantial interest during the past decade

However, performance appraisal systems have remained completely resolute for only understanding the company’s overall performance and protection and solely neglected the dimension of ethical performance. Hence, the determination of the dimensions of ethical performance requires substantial attention. Therefore, now organisations are moving more toward an ethical approach to conducting business.

Hosmer (1994) has eloquently made the case that organisations that follow ethical precepts have a significantly better chance of success than those engaged in dishonest and unethical behaviour. The most successful organisations possess a culture that is in line with strong ethical values.

The Price of Unethical Conduct in Business

Unethical behaviour leads to failure in a business environment, and hence, the environment selects against those who engage in unethical behaviour. As long as organisations are comprised of people, unethical conduct will be a fact of organisational life.

However, those organisations with positive ethical cultures can self-correct from such behavior and ultimately emerge and grow stronger as a result. In contrast, the same conduct can destroy an organisation with a degenerate culture because instead of repelling and correcting the behaviour, the culture reinforces it. At work, individuals cut corners on quality control, cover up incidents, abuse or lie about sick days, lie to and deceive customers, bribe, steal from employers, and put appropriate pressure on others.

Other unacceptable actions include cheating on expense accounts, discriminating against co-workers, paying or accepting kickbacks, fixing prices, and other forms of fraud. These types of unethical behaviour seriously cost industries and organisations and damage the images of corporations.

Steps to Ethical Performance Assessment

A comprehensive 10-step process for assessing an organisation’s ethical performance based on its code of ethics is outlined below:

1. Step 1: Code Familiarization and Baseline Establishment
2. Step 2: Individual Ethical Performance Evaluation
3. Step 3: Identifying Improvement Areas
4. Step 4: Sharing and Comparing Evaluations
5. Step 5: Highlighting Ethical Success Stories
6. Step 6: Sharing Ethical Challenge Stories
7. Step 7: Developing Improvement Plans
8. Step 8: Group Summary and Facilitator Submission
9. Step 9: Managerial Review and Action
10. Step 10: Employee Feedback and Progress Updates

Step 1: Code Familiarization and Baseline Establishment

Form small groups based on shared job functions and assign participants the task of reviewing the organization’s code of conduct. If none exists, inform participants that organisational members are expected to treat owners, company property, customers, employees, suppliers, the government, and the natural environment with the utmost respect and integrity.

Step 2: Individual Ethical Performance Evaluation

Each group member independently evaluates how well the organisation meets each of its ethical goals individually, utilizing a five-point Likert scale.

Step 3: Identifying Improvement Areas

Each group member independently highlights one weak area and develops strategies and action steps to enhance their performance in that area.

Step 4: Sharing and Comparing Evaluations

Group members share their survey scores and analyze the similarities and differences among them. 

Step 5: Highlighting Ethical Success Stories

Each group member shares a story about the survey item that received the highest score. What happened during the past year that demonstrates why the organisation is excelling in that particular category?

Step 6: Sharing Ethical Challenge Stories

Each team member shares a story about a survey item that received a low score.

Step 7: Developing Improvement Plans

Each group member shares action steps and strategies that would improve the low score. By incorporating ideas and suggestions from other group members can develop a detailed continuous improvement plan.

Step 8: Group Summary and Facilitator Submission

The group summarises its scores and suggestions for improvement, then submits the information to the facilitator for ongoing follow-up on continuous improvement initiatives.

Step 9: Managerial Review and Action

The facilitator forwards the information to the manager responsible in charge for handling it.

Step 10: Employee Feedback and Progress Updates

Management or the facilitator provides regular updates to employees about progress made towards the suggested improvements.

Types of Ethics

Ethics are classified into four broad types:

1. Descriptive Ethics
2. Normative Ethics
3. Analytic Ethics
4. Applied Ethics

1) Descriptive Ethics

Descriptive ethics, as the name suggests, observes and records in great detail the ethical behaviours in various cultures and societies, often over some time. The basic purpose of descriptive or comparative ethics is to enquire, observe, and record. The focus of its study is beliefs, practices, social and cultural institutions, value systems, aberrations, deviations, etc., and how they have evolved over some time and/or how are they different from those of other societies or cultures. It has a close cross-functional relationship with the disciplines of History and sociology. Psychology and Anthropology, with whose help it seeks to conduct its enquiry.

It also seeks to answer the following questions

i) What are the ethical norms or morals or values of different cultures and societies?

ii) Why do people accept and validate these?

iii) How have they evolved?

iv) Why do people follow or abide by them?

v) How do people resolve ethical dilemmas?

2) Normative or Prescriptive Ethics

Normative ethics focuses on norms or morals or accepted, legitimised practices as against behaviours. What is right and what is wrong? Why are certain actions considered good and others bad? What is the regime of morals of a society? It is also judgmental in as much as it evaluates all answers to the above questions. Just as social and religious leaders in a society, the Church in the West, e.g., determine and oversee moral behaviours, similarly, every organisation also lays down acceptable behaviours through codes of conduct and rules and also ensures internal adherence. Such legitimised behaviours in society are further authorised and enforced through laws.

Normative ethics also seeks to do the following:

i) Establish and define what is good and what is bad, what is acceptable and what is not.

ii) Lays down the moral precepts or principles.

iii) Legitimises certain behaviours as moral.

iv) Establishes the authority structure for enforcement of the accepted or moral behaviour.

It is a well-known fact that every individual’s decisions and acts can affect morality. If the individual is working in an organisation, then his morality can affect the moral agency of the organisation. Normative or prescriptive ethics is a way of recognising all moral issues and formulating guidelines for solving them. Organisational leaders perform a vital role in creating and maintaining a congenial environment for effective moral agency.

3) Analytic Ethics

Analytic or Meta-ethics investigates and explores the status, foundations, and scope of moral values, properties, and words. It is essentially non-normative and rather focuses on analysing and understanding various facets of human acts, attitudes, prejudices, biases, judgements, etc. It does not focus on assessing particular choices like worse, better, bad, or good; instead, it enquires into the nature of morality and related issues and concepts. Analytic Ethics seeks to answer the following questions:

i) Is morality absolute or objective?

ii) What is the relevance and importance of morality?

iii) The religion-morality mystery.

iv) The foundations and rationale of moral issues.

4) Applied Ethics

Applied Ethics, as the name suggests, is the application of various ethical theories and precepts to day-to-day situations. It draws heavily from disciplines of sociology, philosophy, anthropology, history, etc., and seeks to provide solutions to real-life problems and dilemmas. It is often used by lawmakers to determine public policy. Applied Ethics finds wide usage in professions like law, business, medicine, environmental conservation and protection, etc. It also sometimes assumes the nature of social reform, e.g., the movement against sex determination tests.

Thus, applied ethics is a practicable branch of ethics, distinct from normative ethics, which focuses on what is right and wrong, and meta-ethics, which confines itself to the intrinsic nature of morality. As an emerging field, it typically works on the following six areas to improve social and professional life:

i) Decision-Making: Decision ethics works on the ethics involved in decision-making processes.

ii) Professional Life: Professional ethics seeks to enhance the quality of professional life by making it more fair, equitable, and transparent.

iii) Health Care: Clinical or medical ethics seeks to improve the delivery and coverage of health care to all.

iv) Business Culture: Business ethics seeks to enhance the competitive space amongst organisations. It focuses on how businesses should deal with each other in a competitive environment.

v) Organisational Culture: Organisational ethics seeks to improve the internal cultures of the environment within organisations.

vi) Social and Global Life: Social ethics works on how to make the world a better place to live in. It works on issues and conflicts affecting societies and nations.

Ethics and Business

The relationship between ethics and business or the role and place of ethics in business has been the subject of intense debate amongst social thinkers and philosophers. Classical economists like Adam Smith thought that the sole aim of any business was to generate profits, and hence, there was no place for extraneous factors like ethics. Many others held a contrary view, saying that business was an integral part of life and hence could not be insulated against ethics.

Milton Friedman and Talcott gave their opinions on the connection between business and ethics.

They are explained below:

1) Unitarian View of Ethics

All human activities, including business, were seen as one unified whole activity, which could not be separated or broken into parts. Business is considered to be an element of moral structure and moral ethics. For a business to achieve long-term success, it is important to consider the interest of the society in which it operates. The business also had social responsibilities and objectives like social welfare and development. Businesses should aim at fulfilling all the responsibilities towards society along with earning profits.

2) Separatist View of Ethics 

Classical economists, most notably Adam Smith and Milton Friedman, believed that business was distinct and independent of other social spheres. Business, according to this view, was carried out only to make a profit by producing and distributing goods and providing services. Any intrusion of ethics would undermine and dilute the basic objective of profit-making. Another aim of business is to maximise shareholders’ wealth. All social and ethical concerns, according to them, are best left to the government, the Church, and other social institutions.

3) Integration View of Ethics

Talcott Parsons, the eminent sociologist, took a different view of business ethics. He gave an integrated view, in which all sectors of a society were interlinked and influenced with each other.

Ethics influenced all sectors of a society like the government, legislature, judiciary, etc., which in turn had a bearing on business as well. Hence, business could not be separated viewed or operated in isolation. It was part of the integrated whole. Ethics influenced government policy, which in turn influenced and affected business.