The nature and scope of ethics: Eth

The nature and scope of ethics: Ethics are the moral
principles that an individual uses in governing his or her
behaviour. It is the personal criteria by which an
individual distinguishes “right or wrong” (Ogbonna and
Appah, 2011). According to Ogbonna (2010), when we
talk about ethics and ethical values, we mean our concern
about things, which we think, say and/or practice that may
not necessarily violate the rules of the organization or
infringe the law of the land or amount to outright crime or
felony, but which borders on our sense of morality, our
sense of right and wrong. They concern issues like
conflict of interest, insider’s dealings, compromising
integrity, objectivity, independence, confidentiality,
disclosure of official secret and destruction of official
documents for financial benefits and other similar acts
that are against moral principles and ethical standards.
Nwagboso (2008) argues that ethics or morality as matters
of good and evil, right and wrong and subscribes to the
fact that “we are living today in an ethical wilderness”.
Nwagboso believes that ethics is in ferment and chaos
among all people. Hayes et al. (1999) say ethics represent
a set of moral principles, rules of conduct or values.
Ethics apply when an individual has to make a decision
from various alternative regarding moral principles.
Ethical behaviour is necessary for society to function in an orderly manner. The need for ethics in society is
sufficiently important that integrity, loyalty, and pursuit
of excellence cannot be incorporated into law. They
further stated that the following ethical principles
incorporate the characteristics most people associate with
ethical behaviour: honesty, integrity, promise keeping,
loyalty, fairness, caring for others, respect for others,
pursuit of excellence and accountability.