CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.0      BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Over the years, the term ethics in organizational performance has long been associated with management scholars and business leaders around the world.  There is a broad agreement the world over that as a matter of corporate policy, every organization strives to be committed in a manner that is ethically transparent.  Ethics in the world of organization’s business involve “ordinary decency” which encompasses such areas as integrity, honesty and fairness.  Behaving in an ethical manner is seen as part of the social responsibility of an organization, which itself depends on the philosophy that organizations ought to impact the society in ways that go beyond the usual profit maximization objective.

It is often argued in many instances that, it isin the interest of an organization to behave in a way that recognizes the need for moral and ethical content in managerial decision as this will benefit the organization especially in the long run.

Ethical behaviour is characterized by honesty, fairness and equity in interpersonal, professional and academic relationship and it respects the dignity, diversity and the right of individual and groups of people.  Therefore, for an organization to move forward in the aspect of performance, it is however important for such an organization to have a good understanding of ethics and also take it seriously as this can undermine the competitive strength of the organization and the society at large.

Morals spring virtually from every decision, thus organization stability and survival depend on the consistency of quality of ethical decision made by managers.  Marketing managers are challenged and encouraged to have obligation on organizational performance and society at large, to support and assist the society to imbibe the ethical culture in which there was the interest of every one.

In recent times, most organizations have come up with codes of ethics in dealing with ethical issues challenging them.  Code of ethics is a set of moral principles used by organization to steer conduct of the organization itself and the employees, in all their business activities, both internally and externally.  Codes as opposed to straight forward policy have advantage of providing explicit guidance on key issues that might arise during the course of organization activities.

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