Lesson 1 of 6 · 12 min
What ethics is: principles, codes and standards
Ethics is a set of moral principles and rules of conduct that guide behaviour, asking us to weigh our own interest against the effects of our actions on everyone with a stake in them.
In short
- Ethics = moral principles plus rules of conduct that guide behaviour. The word comes from the Greek *ethos*, meaning character.
- Stakeholders are everyone directly or indirectly affected by a decision: clients, colleagues, the employer, communities, regulators, the profession and the wider market.
- Ethical conduct follows moral principles and balances self-interest against the direct and indirect consequences for others.
- Rules come in three layers: laws and regulations (set by a governing body), a code of ethics (a general guide to a community's values) and standards of conduct (specific benchmarks for the *minimum* acceptable behaviour).
- Breaking a community's code harms its reputation outside and trust inside, so communities investigate, discipline and in serious cases expel violators.
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