When most people think of ethics, they will most likely think of rules for distinguishing between right and wrong, such as the Golden Rule, a code of professional conduct like the Hippocratic Oath, a religious creed like the Ten Commandments, or a wise aphorism like the sayings of Confucius. This is the most common way of defining ethic as norms for conduct that distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable behaviour of the norms or mankind.

Most people in the world will learn ethical norms at home, at school, in church, or in other social settings. Although most people acquire their sense of right and wrong during childhood, moral development occurs throughout life and human beings pass through different stages of growth as they mature. Ethical norms are so ubiquitous that one might be tempted to regard them as simple common sense of behaviour. On the other hand, if morality were nothing more than common sense, then why are there so many ethical disputes and issues in our society?

According to the Ethics Resource Centre’s research report that non-unionized employees perceive stronger ethical cultures within their organizations than their unionized counterparts. The non-profit organization also reports that young workers are more likely to perceive weak ethical cultures within their companies than older ones. Managers also tend to value stronger ethical cultures than employees in non-management positions. It is the duty as a manager to incorporate and manage a strong ethical culture within the business. Workplace ethics are significant to your business and provide numerous benefits.

One plausible explanation of these disagreements is that all people recognize some common ethical norms but different individuals interpret, apply, and balance these norms in different ways in light of their own values and life experiences.

 Most societies have their legal rules that govern behaviour of their people but ethical norms tend to be broader and more informal than laws. Although most of the societies in the recent world use laws to enforce widely accepted moral standards and ethical and legal rules use similar concepts, it is important to remember that ethics and laws are total two different things. For example, an action may be legal to carry out but not mean that it is ethical or the action is illegal but ethical. As the knowledgeable societies appear in the neighbourhood, they tend to use ethical concepts and principles to criticize, evaluate, propose or interpret the right or wrong from the judgement of laws.

In addition, there is another way that most societies will define ethics as the disciplines that study standards of conduct. For me, I will rather define ethics as the method, procedure or perspective for deciding a complex issue like global warming and the environment pollution, an economical issue, ecological issue, political issue or an ethical perspective issue on the problem solving point of view. For example, the economist will examine the cost and benefits of various policies related to global warming while the environmental protectors will examine the ethical values and principles related to the cause of global warming.

In conclusion, action with ethics is much important than action with legal. However, if possible mankind must carry out the task or action with ethical and legal in the view of laws. The societies must take their responsibility in adapting the ethical change through the various codes of ethics such as openness, carefulness, social responsibility and honest. With those codes of ethics, we can have a harmony and better society. The codes can create the trust among the different societies. There are several ethical principles that I think it is widely addressed by philosopher through various codes:

Honesty: Strive for honesty in all scientific bias in experimental design, data analysis, data interpretation, peer review, personnel decisions, grant writing, expert testimony, and other aspects of research where objectivity is expected or required. Avoid or minimize bias or self-deception. While in the society point of view, one must know the objective to start a conversation to the others. It is really very important for us to own the objective of life before the new life start. Disclose personal or financial interests that may affect research on human experiment.

Carefulness: Avoid careless errors and negligence; carefully and critically examine our own work and the work with peers in the scientific field. Keep good records of research activities, such as data collection, research design, and correspondence with agencies or journals to avoid the previous careless mistake. While in the society point of view, one must careful what he/she said and what he/she did to avoid being involved in the social conflict which may be result in the law cases. Keep the good image and impression for other towards ourselves which correspondence to the future status in the society.

Social Responsibility: Strive to promote social good and prevent or mitigate social harms through research, public education, and advocacy. In the United States of America, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the organization or government body that doing the research and respond to the social about everything the consumers might be used in the daily life. Once the product is examined and positive result then they will announce and take the action. The society must take the responsibility to protect other life especially those who have high education level because they know more information about contain of the products.

Openness: Share data, results, ideas tools, or resources to everyone if is not the private and confidential. The scientist must share the finding with the societies when they get the recent result from the research to update the mind-set of the society. On the point of view of the society towards the openness is that they have to accept the positive criticism from other for their own good.

Human subjects Protection: When conducting research on human subjects minimize harms and risks and maximize benefits; respect human dignity, privacy, and autonomy; take special precautions with vulnerable populations; and strive to distribute the benefits and burdens of research fairly. In the point of view of the social that the human subjects Protection have to be strongly encouraged in order to maximize the benefits and minimize the lost. The privacy has to be protected through the laws and rules of the society. Private and confidential must be used in this case.

 References

A Guide To Research Ethics, 2003. University of Minnesota Center For Bioethics. Available at http://www.ahc.umn.edu/img/assets/26104/Research_Ethics.pdf

Berg. K. 1993. The need for laws, rules and good practices to secure optimal disease control. In: Ethics and Human Genetics. Proceedings of the 2^nd Symposium of the Council of Europe on Bioethics, 30 November- 2 December 1993. Strasbourg: Council of Europe Press, 1994: 122-134

Berg.K. 2001. The Ethics of Benefits sharing. Clinical Genetics. Issn: 0009-9163

Ranuia, 2006. Business Ethics as competitive Advantage for Companies in the Globalization Era. Published by Alexandria University Article Press

Research ethcis committees: Basic Concepts for Capacity-building. World Health Organization. Available atr http://www.who.int/ethics/Ethics_basic_concepts_ENG.pdf

Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research involving Humans, 2010. Canadian Institutes of health research. Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada. Catalogue No: Mr21-18/2010E-PDF. ISBN 978-1-100-17237-81