Definitions of ethics

1. Moral principles.
2. Principles which govern the conduct of any individual or corporate member of a professional organisation.

Characteristics of ethical issues

The Institute of Business Ethics (IBE) identifies the following characteristics, to help to determine whether a business issue is an ethical issue.

If one or more of these characteristics is present, it is likely to be an ethical issue:

• One individual's 'right' decision about the issue may not be the same as another's 'right' decision.

The issue:

• raises moral questions
• is not covered by law
• compromises personal or organisational values
• is against any code of ethics or code of practice
• involves personal duties and responsibilities or
• provokes the responses 'should I?' or 'ought I?'

Tests of ethical behaviour

The IBE has identified a number of key tests to help to determine whether a course of action, or inaction, is ethical:

• Is the action legal, transparent and fair?
• Who will it affect?
• Who benefits?

See also

• ACT Competency Framework
• ACT Ethical Code
• Actuarial standards
• Agency risk
• Asymmetry of information
• Best practice
• Boilerplate
• Business ethics
• Code
• Code of practice
• Competence
• Compliance
• Contract
• Corporate governance
• Corporate social responsibility
• Directive
• Enforcement
• Ethical business
• Ethics washing
• Framework
• Good practice
• Governance
• Guidance
• IESBA
• Institute of Business Ethics
• Jurisdiction
• Law
• Legislation
• Objectivity
• Principle
• Professional behaviour
• Red tape
• Regime
• Regulation
• Reporting
• Reputational risk
• Rules
• Standards
• Supervision
• Tax
• The Code
• Transparent

Other resource

Does ethics matter? The Treasurer 2010

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