Behaviorism theory operates on ‘stimuli response,’ meaning that external stimuli cause all behavior and can be explained without considering internal mental states. Behaviorism undertakes that an individual is inactive, only responding to the environmental incitements. The individual starts with nothing, and behaviour is formed through positive or negative support. Both this support be it positive or negative, tend to increase the likelihood that precursor behavior will happen again. If punishment -be it positive or negative- is meted out to the individuals, it decreases the chances of the precursor behavior to happen again. Thus, a positive shows the use of a stimulus, whereas a negative shows the suppression of a catalyst.  Therefore as a theory, behaviorism emphasizes seen behaviors and assumes that there are no ethical differences between what ‘seen’ – actions- and what is hidden – feeling or thinking. This means that behaviours are obtained from interaction with the outside world through conditioning.

Human Dignity- Centered Framework and Support with Scripture

Generally, people are attracted to what is right, beautiful. They tend to fend off what they perceive as evil, but in the business world, the question of doing right and wrong becomes harder to discern as one climbs the ladder of success. Many ethical issues have been observed recently, and laws have been enacted to guide ethics. The only problem is that if the individual does not have a moral fiber in him, then the business will fail as people will shun that business since they will be repelled from it and will not want to be associated with it. According to Mele (2015), the ethical issues are in the act of doing good, and an alternative to organization flaws is found in faith-inspired lessons that will improve organization ethics. To make the right decisions, individuals need a good foundation, rules that will govern individuals to behave appropriately. The natural law supporting Catholic social teaching gives that foundation as it comprehends the human behaviour that the “Creator stored in us.”  Natural law comes from familiar sources and one that all individuals relate to instinctively, like killing is terrible even in the most primitive societies.

Catholic social doctrine and teaching

The Catholic Church’s stand is that human life is sacred and should be upheld with dignity, as this is the basis of a moral vision of society. This conviction is the foundation of Catholic social doctrine, where human life is under attack from various issues in this world. The targeting of human life, mainly civilians, from terrorists is always wrong. The Catholic Church advocates for the protection of human life and moral standards to be upheld by all people and that all institutions should enhance the life and dignity of each individual. The Catholic Church also believes that the economy must serve people and that work is more than just making a living since it is a form of participation in God’s creation. Therefore, dignity should be protected at work, the right to a decent wage, the right to join unions, and the right to productive work for all workers.  The church’s teaching on social justice incorporates poverty and wealth, economic, social, and what the state is supposed to do. It also looks into relationship matters between the people and the institutions (Goodpaster, 2017).

Foundations of Human Dignity centred business ethics

The Catholic Church is spread worldwide, making its moral guidelines extremely important. It focuses more on personal transformation and not ethics, but it provides transparency to business leaders. The idea of human dignity has been embraced by CSD/T, improving the philosophy of ethics. Human dignity believes that all individuals have value within them and that it is vital in making a person human. Mele (2015) defines human dignity as a notion that all individuals are worthy of esteem, honor, and respect.

Organization – Legal and ethical foundations of behavioural theory

In organizations, decision-making is essential to business ethics as it determines how professionals deal with moral agency by establishing what the practice covers. A behavioral theory of an organization plays a vital role in the business’s economies, and a behavioral perception of business ethics looks at how individuals make ethical decisions and judge other peoples’ decisions. The behavioural theory of an organization shows that individuals tend to go back to their routine in daily processes. Conscious choices are enacted occasionally but are still influenced by reasons they cannot explain themselves. Individuals make decisions that are based on incomplete information and dominated by emotions. People allow themselves to be led by several unconscious reasons. Individuals make decisions based on contradictory cats, where political issues are a significant concern; insufficient resources are used to make conclusions.

Since the 1950s, several studies have been conducted in relation to behavioural theory; for example, when a product is priced at $4.99, we assume it to cost little more than $4. Still, in reality, it costs $5. In this case, the behavioral theory states the assumptions that individuals apply without fail and the use of speculation in practice.    

An important controlling principle of the behavioral theory is that individuals can choose how to organize their work and private lives despite being subject to group influences making hard practical choices. While group pressures exist, employees have individual discretion to make their own decisions doing things their way. Behavioural theorists think that ethical choices related to others’ judgments are at odds with perceptions and the benefit of society. If there is no moral guidance, then individuals’ discretions become problematic. As stated above, individuals make little use of their discretionary choices, as their opinions influence them.

The law administrative guidelines and moral of individual training all point to adjusting an individual’s behavior.  Governments strive to repel bad behavior while promoting good behavior in all aspects of life, even business. This is possible as it tends to individuals’ awareness on the assumption that they are reasonable individuals who will do more good than that which is prohibited. However, this tends to work less in the business world as people are motivated by getting more money. If the standard behavioral psychology research, behavioral financial aspects help to acknowledge balanced personal responsibility. For example, behavioral psychology to influence individuals’ decision making in policy goals; since people are psychological misers who use their minds sparingly, the government can increase the number of students who apply for financial aid by streamlining the application form be simple. The government can also require a grocery store to charge more for using unrecyclable grocery bags to reduce litter.

Ethical Actions

There are steps to follow to act ethically right; first, they have to deduce the ethical dimensions they face, then have the ability to decide on the course of action that is correct, thirdly they must want to act on that right action, and fourthly, they must have the motivation to take up that action.

Moral Awareness

Individuals cannot make ethical choices if they are unaware of the extent of the issue involved. The absence of moral awareness can lead to individuals making a choice. Others might make the wrong choice. Moral understanding leads to selective attention to details; hence, individuals are very good at hiding the ethical scope of people’s issues when other things are noticeable.  Individuals tend to be compliant to authority that might make them be focused on pleasing the superiors that they might miss out on the unethical issues. The traditional twist might cause individuals to indicate good behaviour from their peers without noting that they are using corrupt ways. The sensation of incrementalism known as the slippery slope might cause the individuals not to notice that their actions have evolved from small to significant fraudulent activities.

The Ten Commandments

Executive decisions are unspoken and involve changes that impact the employees in an organization and the community at large. The Ten Commandments presented to Moses were clear on what is right and what is wrong, and once an individual breaks one of the commandments, they tend to lose the community’s trust. The seventh commandment, ‘thou shall not steal’ (Exodus 20:15), has been in the business scene for quite a long time as it rules on the relationships of individuals economic world. People need to practice charity and justice in administering worldly goods. The Commandments guide the financial world in knowing what is evil and avoiding it. Following this guideline, one tends to be the right person of high moral standards by avoiding the bad, which is not a guide to a profitable commercial venture.

The Bible (Mathews 7:12) has a golden rule about human interactions. Jesus of Nazareth gives a summary of the biblical passages concerning the responsibilities of a man. It talks about “love your neighbour as you love yourself,” which extends the ethical behaviour logic even further. These ideas speak of the desire rooted in the heart of humans, and it involves a desire to find harmony and build a relationship with other people. Business is a way for people to be connected.

Managers lacking specific knowledge

Most people expect that managers since they are leaders, are beyond reproach as they look after or guide large corporations. This is because they are assumed to be smart and understand the business’s risks; they have social shrewdness and are successful at bringing people together to achieve the organization’s goals.

With this in mind, people expect managers to apply ethics properly in their business decisions, but this is not the case, as seen in newspapers filled with stories about ethical failures. This is brought about by managers’ tendency to be at the top no matter the cost because, with time, they have been out of tune with their conscience.

The CSD/T is not a remedy for the bad in business, but for managers, it is thanks to ethical principles. It is not required to be adopted by individuals of other faiths without first looking closely into it. Still, Catholic social teachings bring out principles that managers can cram for use in their ethical course of action. According to Hanna (2016), the Roman Catholic Church teaches people of all faiths, even those without faith. As once Pope John Paul II (1991) stated, “Many people who profess no religion will also contribute to providing the social question with the necessary ethical foundation.”

Social Teaching

In relating Catholic social teaching to business, some standards are up-right, like the philosophical principle, which assumes that one can never do an evil act to gain good. The CSD/T does not come out that straight to help individuals make the right decisions. It gives an all-encompassing principle to be carefully examined as they relate.

The dignity of human persons

The Scripture teaches that everyone has a unique relationship with God as ‘we are made in God’s image.’ The business, which is a social order, is a vital development part of man’s creation as it is from the creation of man (Naill, 2010). The mechanical notions of a business have been used in economics since the Industrial Revolution.  The Catholic Church’s traditions on these mechanical notions complicate individuals with the tools people use. Using certain words fails to show that individuals have dignity; these include human resources instead of persons or people, training instead of learning, and labour instead of people. One can confuse human resource with raw material as people are meant to sound like objects. The words objectify a person and make people look like machines once used; they are thrown away to be replaced with others.

An essential aspect of a person is that they have free will, and they can choose to work for themselves or serve others in cooperation with others. Individuals should use their skills for selflessness for the good of others and society. Therefore, the capital and workers should maintain human dignity (Mea & Wall, 2016).

Common Good

This principle refers to the “total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfilment more fully and easily.” This belief aims to make individuals have virtues and, ultimately, the society to be virtuous. Once the community is honest, the economic environment and the political configurations will ensure that people have fundamental rights like suitable housing, education, and healthcare facilities and can freely express themselves. Looking out for others’ good is not easy; like people having more obligations, more is required from them to support others. Amassing material wealth is not the highest good; it is advancing community development. From the Catholic catechism comes three principles needed for the common good: respect for other people, the well-being and development of the human race, and peace from which stability and order are derived (Mea & Wall, 2016).

Participation

This belief assumes that every person has a role to play in this world as every person is unique, with special talents that are required in society to improve them. This belief in participation is grounded in the notion that individuals have a unique identity and are social animals; hence, the community benefits if they participate in the economy, work, or any other aspect of life.

Unity

Unity comes from shared interests, and in terms of CSD/T, it has a different meaning: all individuals have dignity, rights, and a shared responsibility towards the community. The advancement of technology has caused an increase in commerce worldwide; hence, there is the unity of purpose that comes with moral responsibility. The social view of agreement can overcome selfishness through laws and market regulations to benefit all community members.

Private Property

Catholic social convention has consistently held that private property, including pay a specialist procures, is essential to an economy. It is valuable to an individual since it gives the capacity to help one’s requirements and family. Furthermore, responsibility is useful for everyone’s benefit. The need for getting property offers center on an individual’s imaginative endeavors. It constructs prudence because the individual must arrange for the future, fulfil clients’ requirements, be tireless, plan and use time well, prudentially balance hazard/reward, and help others accomplish shared objectives that benefit the community. Such movement prompts a feeling of expert pride in achievements and guarantees that an article will be very much thought about. The confidence has now upheld the possibility of private property, respect for which is found in Jesus teaching the parables.

Ethics for business managers

It is not easy to contend that managers should have concepts for business ethics taught to them as they are perceived as high moral standards, having risen to such positions. Some managers even queried what ethics one is talking about because ‘ethics these days in the business world have become useless as they can get away with.’ Approaches to business ethics should be aimed at providing a way for making a moral judgment; two deontologists’ theories are based on the duties carried out. It assumes a worldview that the correct ethical decision depends on the task an individual ought to fulfil instead of the outcome. Then, we have consequentialism, which looks at the consequences of individual actions.

References

Dornay, G. (2016). The virtue of faith in business. Blog post, Busch School of Business and   Economics, Catholic University of America, Washington, DC.

Engelland, B. T. (2017). Force for good: The Catholic guide to business integrity. Manchester: Sophia Institute Press.

Goodpaster, K. E. (2017). Human dignity and the common good: The institutional insight. Business and Society Review, 122(1), 27–50.

Hanna, F. J. (2016). What kinds of virtuous relations lead to prosperity? Presentation at the conference on human ecology; integrating 125 years of Catholic social doctrine. Washington, DC.

Mea, W., & Wall, R. (2016). A human dignity approach to business ethics for executives. In R.         R. Sims & S. A. Quatro (Eds.), Executive ethics II: Ethical dilemmas and challenges for the C-Suite (pp. 327–358). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

Melé, D. (2015). Three keys concepts of Catholic humanism for economic activity: Human            dignity, human rights and integral human development. In D. Melé & M. Schlag (Eds.),        Humanism in economics and business. Perspectives of the Catholic social tradition (pp. 113–136). Dordrecht: Springer..

Sina, S. (2016) Humility. Unpublished homily delivered at St. John the Beloved Church,           McLean, Virginia, USA.

Schlag, M. (2016). What is the impact of faith on capitalism? Presentation at the conference on human ecology; integrating 125 years of Catholic social doctrine. Washington, DC..