ABSTRACT
Ethical standards are frequently codified, following general principles, into sets of rules of behaviour appropriate to particular professions. In the first part of the chapter, consideration is given to the nature of professions and the need for professional ethics, together with the problematic nature of classifying management positions in general as ‘professional’. At the same time, the text reflects on the need for codified rules of professional ethical behaviour as against trusting general moral judgements as to ‘good’ behaviour. The remainder of the chapter illustrates implications of the general absence of universal codified statements of ethical intent for managers via three scenarios. The first examines whether managerial attitudes towards pay in the hospitality industry may be considered ethical – especially in cases where employers are encouraged to pursue low-wage strategies. The second scenario concerns the nature of whistle-blowing (the disclosure of information about behaviours that organisations would prefer to remain undisclosed, to a wider population who may consider these behaviours morally wrong) and the final scenario focusses in greater detail on the implied and general ethical obligations of managers and the forces that act upon them, and indeed may constrain them, in their ethical choices.
