Ethic Levels Concept
Ethic decisions and behaviors cannot be understood nor evaluated at only one level, but in a wider context. There are four levels that can be used to diagnose and consider ethic questions on an ethic values system: Social, Legal, Organizational and Individual levels.
Social Level: as we have seen before, currently and more and more, organizations and its managers are constantly exposed and judged by the media and by the public opinion in general, pressuring them to take decisions, based only on ethic behavior;
Legal Level: as principle, current laws in each country represent social values. However, for several reasons, among which the impossibility of the legislator to faithfully traduce to law all the society’s moral values, respect for the actions and lawfully decisions doesn’t necessarily make them ethic;
Organizational Level: through the conduct codes before referred, defined at the organizational level or associative level, the organization can also determine if the actions and decisions of its members are ethic or not. Beyond the conduct codes, ethic conduct is still determined or influenced by the nature itself of the organizational culture, leadership and prizes system;
Individual Level: lastly the last ethic level that is referent to the nature itself and the individual’s moral integrity taking that some individuals aren’t willing to accept ethic decisions and behaviors inside the organization.
