Most people who engage in unethical behavior do so with good intentions. For example, there are instances whereby a person may be told to lie to a customer by his boss. There are other people who engage in unethical behavior by exaggerating their accomplishments so that they can qualify for an interview.
Therefore, it is true that temptations make people engage in unethical behavior. Though many people view unethical behavior as harmless, they later find it difficult to refrain from engaging in dishonest practices. This is because, once a person gets used to engaging in unethical behavior, he finds it difficult to live an honest life.
This kind of habit distorts the thinking ability of a person such that he often finds it difficult to make decisions that would be respected by other people in society. When a person engages in unethical behavior, he cannot manage to make effective decisions. As a result, the decisions that such a person makes result in negative repercussions.
A person who engages in unethical behavior usually taints his reputation. Also, he ruins the personal relationship that he has with other people thereby making people lose confidence in him. When a person develops the habit of engaging in unethical behavior, he always becomes a victim of temptations.
As a result, such a person cannot be able to solve a problem effectively thereby making other people in the society refrain from trusting him. The goal of this paper, therefore, is to summarize the major concepts that are depicted by Howard and Korver in their book titled “Ethics for the Real World.”
“Ethics for the Real World” is a book written by Ronald Howard and Clinton Korver and it guides people on the best ways in which they can become good decision makers by practicing ethical behavior. Howard and Korver stipulate that for people to be able to master the art of ethical decision making, they should be able to identify the critical issues that can put their lives at risk.
They should also be able to apply measures which can help them to clarify their ethical decision-making potential. This would enable other people in society to trust in their decision-making potential. Ethics are said to act as a central feature in the lives of all people in the world today. They influence how people relate with each other in a society.
However, it is said that it’s not possible for every person to practice ethical behavior in their daily activities because there are those people who can find other ways of enabling them to engage in unethical behavior thereby making it possible for them to take advantage of other people in the society.
There are various ways in which people can be taught about ethical behavior. The most popular sources of information about ethical behavior include novelists, friends, and families. These people provide information about ethical behavior to reduce the negative repercussions that are associated with unethical behavior.
Many people do not understand whether a pile of maxims can influence them to stop engaging in unethical behavior. Therefore, it is not clear whether the teachings that people get regarding ethical behavior can provide them with a solution which can enable them to be happy with the decisions that they make.
Howard and Korver guide people on the best ways in which they can practice ethical behavior without having to go through meta-ethics coursework. Readers are shown that they can manage to practice ethical behavior without having to attend classes that teach ethical behavior. By reading the book, a person can reflect on his behavior.
This makes it easy for a person to differentiate between good and bad behavior. Therefore, a person can think critically before engaging in any unethical behavior. To influence people to practice ethical behavior, the book provides real-life examples which are drawn from the headlines and from mundane encounters that people come across while carrying on with their daily activities.
The various examples of unethical behavior that are presented in the book include stealing, harming, and deceiving. People are said to engage in unethical behavior when they get trapped in ethical predicaments. People also behave unethically when they demonstrate laziness and therefore fail to do what they know is right. Therefore, people can be said to engage in unethical behavior when they engage in wrong activities knowingly.
Such people do not think of the consequences of their actions and therefore do not respect the wellbeing of other people in society. Howard and Korver stipulate that people can make their lives more difficult when they do not engage in perfect ethical behavior. When people decide to engage in ethical behavior, they should do so willingly and in a perfect manner.
Therefore, when people fail to engage in ethical behavior, they end up making their lives more complicated. This is because of the daily activities that they engage in becoming more complicated and difficult to handle. For people to make effective decisions, they should add more effort so that they can be able to engage in ethical behavior that would enable them to coexist with other people peacefully.
This way, people can be able to do the right thing since they can manage to implement effective decisions. Therefore, Howard and Korver provide people with tools which can enable them to make better decisions while interacting with other people in society.
People need to improve their codes of conduct to be successful in terms of making effective decisions which can influence how they relate with other members of society. Howard and Korver, therefore, guide people on how they can develop personal codes. In this perspective, a person is required to know what he stands for him to have an inner system that can enable him to check the consequences of his actions before he engages in unethical behavior.
Therefore, for a person to be able to do the right thing in society, he should take time to understand who he is. He should also refrain from emphasizing the existing rules in society because not all rules require a person to practice ethical behavior to abide by them. A person should also take time to know how the activities that he engages in can impact on his reputation in the society.
Howard and Korver describe self-examination as an effective tool which can enable people to develop personal codes. They, therefore, instruct people to consider religious, familial, cultural, and workplace messages regarding ethical behavior. People should then be able to determine which messages to accept and which ones to reject after assessing them critically.
Howard and Korver also show people that there are two approaches which can enable people to adopt ethical behavior. These approaches include the utilitarian approach and the Kantian approach. In this context, Howard and Korver avoid the technical details which many professional philosophers adopt to convince people to adopt ethical behavior.
The authors also guide people on how they can be able to reflect on their ethical behavior. In this perspective, people should be able to come up with their ways of making decisions by relying on their codes. They should, therefore, be able to evaluate the risks that are associated with certain decisions before they implement them. For members of a society to build lasting relationships among them, they should practice ethical behavior fully.
“Ethics for the Real World” is, therefore, a book that is meant to assist people in adopting ethical behavior which can then guide them in making effective decisions which can transform the lives of the members of their society. Howard and Korver lay more emphasis on deceiving, stealing, causing harm as the most common forms of unethical behavior.
Howard and Korver have also shown that ethical behavior also enables people to think clearly regarding the tasks that they wish to undertake. They present readers with examples of how they can make ethical decisions in real-life personal and work situations. It is, therefore, true that “Ethics for the Real World” is a book that is effective in terms of inviting people to live lives that are characterized by ethical behavior.