It is believed that adherence to ethics in human actions would ensure smooth functioning of an…

Question

It is believed that adherence to ethics in human actions would ensure smooth functioning of an organization/system. If so, what does ethics seek to promote in human life? How do ethical values assist in the resolution of conflicts faced by him in his day-to-day functioning?

Ghissu Editorial · Accepted Answer

Ethics seeks to promote integrity, trust, justice and the common good, and its values help resolve daily conflicts by ranking duties over self-interest and guiding choices where rules are silent. Gandhi's Talisman settles right-versus-right clashes by asking which choice helps the poorest person.

**Introduction**

An organisation runs smoothly when people trust each other, and ethics creates that trust. It seeks a good life for the individual and a just order for the community, and its values become tools when interests and duties collide.

**What Ethics Seeks to Promote in Human Life**

1. **Integrity and inner harmony**: Aristotle's *eudaimonia* ties flourishing to virtue practised as habit, aligning thought, word and deed.
2. **Trust and cooperation**: Honesty lowers the cost of every transaction, which is why the Tata group codifies it in the Tata Code of Conduct and treats reputation as an asset.
3. **Justice and common good**: Ambedkar wanted liberty, equality and fraternity as a way of life, and Gandhi's *Sarvodaya* directs action to the welfare of all.

**How Ethical Values Resolve Everyday Conflicts**

SKETCH: flow | Resolving a Conflict Ethically
- Name the clashing values
- Rank by duty and law
- Seek a just middle path
- Act and record openly

1. **Self-interest versus duty**: Integrity makes a person declare a conflict of interest and recuse, ending a dispute before it begins.
2. **Right-versus-right dilemmas**: Gandhi's Talisman, asking which choice helps the poorest person, settles a clash between efficiency and equity.
3. **Workplace friction**: Empathy and self-regulation, Goleman's emotional intelligence, turn blame between colleagues into problem-solving.
4. **Where rules are silent**: Conscience, the residual guide where law gives no answer, helps an officer refuse an oral instruction to bend a rule and seek it in writing.

**Conclusion**

Ethics promotes flourishing, trust and justice, and the same values act as a compass when duties clash. Rules cover only what was foreseen; character settles the rest, which is why ethical people keep systems running smoothly.

It is believed that adherence to ethics in human actions would ensure smooth functioning of an organization/system. If so, what does ethics seek to promote in human life? How do ethical values assist in the resolution of conflicts faced by him in his day-to-day functioning?

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