Ethics in Administration - Practices that may help you to score better in final exam!

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This is practically the same like PAST YEAR ANSWERS FOR ETHICS IN ADMINISTRATION.
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1.0 Identify importance of ethics

According to BBC (2014), ethics are a system of moral principles and a branch of philosophy which defines what is good for individuals and society. Or else, ethics can be said as the code of moral principles that sets standards of good or bad, right or wrong, in one’s conduct and guides the behaviour of a person. Everybody need to handle with ethics everyday either they realize it or not. Basically, ethics deal with human relationships like on how humans treat other being so as to promote mutual welfare, growth, creativity and meaning, as they strive for good over bad and right over wrong. Ethics have many important as it deal with an individual itself and people around.

First, with ethics we can differentiate between good and bad, or right or wrong. When a person want to do something, he or she need to think either the action taken is good to do or not. This is important for their selves as it will reflect the person itself. Ethics means making better choices by considering the rights and well-being of others that may be affected by our decisions (Zuehlke, 2005). For example, in Islam, there are rule that prohibits a Muslim to take alcohol as it brings bad effect to a person itself. So, when a person know that he is prohibited to doing so, the person need to think by himself carefully either to take it or not. This will guide the person to be a good Muslim as there is an ethical guidance that the person needs to follow.

Next, the importance is to solve moral problems resulted from many choices. With ethics, before an individual do something, many questioning will be asked, about what is good and bad, better and worse, and even right or wrong. The individual will not easily do something without think first about it. Even there are so many choices but still when it comes to decide whether to do it or not, the person needs to think it carefully. As an example, euthanasia that allow the termination of someone life when it looks like there is no more chance for the person. It might be accepted by certain people, but still there are other people that not agree with it. There are also a country that support and allow it, but still, there are the country that against it. It actually depends on the people, environment and culture at the area.

Other importance is to ensure effective administration. Ethics align a clear code of principle that what should or what not. Every organization of course will have rules and regulations or some of ethical conduct that organization had been aligned for the employee to follow it. With the practising of ethics, an organisation will be more disciplined, more productive and efficient in their work. For example, every employee in an organization should follow the rules and regulations as it sometime become a culture to the organization like in Armed Forced, there is parade every day to take their strength. Other than that, in an organization, they should respect each other to create harmony environment, so that it easier for them to work together in other employees.

Lastly, ethics allow us to learn various ethical theories and thoughts will be discussed. There are several theories in ethics that explain more about ethics and there are two broad categories of ethical theories concerning the rightness or wrongness of actions (consequentialist and non-consequentialist). For example according to Thiroux & Krasemann (2014), in National Law theory, it refers to concept of a body of moral principles that common to all humankind like at a day, people usually go to work, go to school or university and at night, people will have their rest and sleep.

In conclusion, ethics is something that important in our daily life as it can reflect us in any situation. It can be whether a good things or bad things. The study of ethics actually helps people to understand the nature of ethical problem, think critically about ethical matters and analyse ethical argument. It also will help people to make a rational decision according to the situation they faced.

2.0 Identify the differences between ethical egoism and utilitarianism

According to (P.Thiroux, 2014) ethical egoism is a normative theory, states what we should do and also how we should do. The ethical egoism claims all the actions makes is based on the self-interest of and individuals. (Standford, 2002). The keyword of this theory is SELF INTEREST. Meanwhile the utilitarianism is theory based on the principles of utility that brings greater happiness to the society at large. (Mills, 2015)There are many differences between ethical egoism and utilitarianism that can be seen in various aspects.

First and foremost, in aspects of purpose and involvement, the purpose of ethical egoism is more to benefit of individuals itself. The people tend to make any action because of their self-interest. For example, I would like to help manager who has been robbed because of my self-interest since I like him. However, it is different from utilitarianism theory since the purpose of this theory is to make any actions which can bring greatest happiness to the society at large. This theory involves the large number of people. It is very important to ensure that at the end of this action would be greater happiness and benefits to the society at large.

In addition, these two theories also can be compared in aspects of implementation. The ethical theory is easier to be implemented since it involves only the individual. So that, the individuals do not have to consider any point from the other side to make a decision making. Meanwhile, the utilitarianism theory is hard to be implemented since the purpose of this theory is to bring the happiness to the society at large. So that, for example the government should consider and hear the opinion from the other side to ensure that they can achieve one best solution for the benefits of the society.

These two theories also can be compared in aspects of consistency. In ethical egoism, the theory is inconsistent. It is because since the theory involves the self-interest of an individual, so that the decision making can be easily influenced by the emotions and feeling itself. The utilitarianism theory is consistent because since it involves the greater numbers of happiness, the decision must be consistent by following the steps to ensure that the objectives can be achieved.

Lastly, it also can be compared in aspects of cost and time management. The ethical egoism need less cost and time consume since it only involves an individual interest itself. It will be less cost use since it is easy to be implemented. Vice versa, the utilitarianism theory needs more cost and time since it is very hard to be implemented and finally at the end of the action there must be a greater happiness to the society. So, there are very important to come with one best solution.

The example of and ethical theory is when I as the workers would like to help my manager who has been robbed because I like him as my self-interest. Meanwhile, the example of utilitarianism theory is New Economic Policy (NEP).This policy is implemented by the government to eradicate poverty and also restructure the economic. The policy has brought the greatest happiness to the society since the all the races in Malaysia have their own equality in economics sector at the end of the implementation of this policy.

3.0 Give reasons why religion must be the basis for morality

Religion is one of the oldest human institutions. It is always believed that religion served as most powerful sanction for getting people to behave morally. All religions have a moral component and religious approaches to the problem of ethics. Traditional Judaism, Christianity and Islam are all basically agree about the fundamental and essential belief in God as the ultimate source of morality (Jacques P. Thiroux & Keith W. Krasemann, 2014).

There are a few reasons why religion must be the basis of morality. The first one is religion serve as the solid basis that ethics need (St.Olaf, 2015). All religions have moral components and religious approach to the problem of ethics supported by divine teaching. All religions teach and invite their followers to do good deeds. For example, in Islam, they believe that all people are on the same level, the sole thing that differentiating human beings between one another is just the level of imaan. Only Allah knows it and that is why people should not underestimate other people and treat each other kindly. Rich or poor, skinny or fat, short or tall, all people are just the same. Meanwhile, in Christian religion, they stress the need for grace, mercy and forgiveness because of human weaknesses. They believe that due to the weaknesses that human have, they make mistakes and therefore they are deserved to be forgiven. In Buddhist ethics, they cannot injure nor do violence to all living creatures even to the lowest insect or human.

Secondly, religion provides ethical certainties (Online, 2015). All religions provide a clear and certain set of values and norms such as can only be found in a set of divine commands. Since there are certainties, people cannot easily change moral values for their own self interests. For instance, in Islam, the people must abide all the rules that had been set by Allah SWT. Muslims cannot take bribe as it is illegal in Islam religion. It also had been stated in the Al-Qur’an, Chapter 2: Verse 188, “And do not eat up your property among yourselves for vanities, nor use it as bait for the judges, with intent that you may eat up wrongfully and knowingly a little of (other) people’s property.”  In fact, in Christian ethics they also not support bribe. This can be proved as it was written in the Bible that “You must not distort justice, you must not show partiality and you must not accept bribes for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of those who are in the right.” Confucius through the Confucianism ethics was stating the same thing, “Wealth gained by unrighteousness will not last.” All of these proved that all religions in this world are advocating its people to do good deeds and are providing ethical certainties.

Apart from that, religion provides a religious sanction to back up ethics (Philip, 2015). The concept of God would provide a sanction for backing ethics. There is a belief of the existence of God that judge the every way of the people’s thought and actions and there is also another belief that reward and punishments beyond the grave, that encourage people to be moral. For example, in Islam, Muslims believe that Allah SWT is The Most See, He always sees what they do and He always knows what is in their hearts. Other than that, the Divine Command Theory suggests that a strict obedience to God’s Command is the key of moral life.

Lastly, religion can shape good behaviour (Madigan, 2014). There are no religions in the world that encourage its people to be bad. Religion contains a lot of good values and ethics to be practiced in life, which helps in shaping a person’s attitude. For instance, in Islam we are encouraged to give ‘sedekah’ to those who in need. Muslims believe that, the more they give, the more sustenance they will get.

In conclusion, religion is vital and it should be the basis for morality. Human cannot only depend on their own made rules and regulations as there are a lot of weaknesses and injustice in it. People without God will be perfectly imperfect and world without religion will be worsened. Hence, religion must be the basis of morality so that the world will be more peaceful and ethical.

4.0 Describes the Uniqueness of Islamic Ethical System

According to the (Al Hasan Al-Aidaros, 2013) basically all the Muslim scholars have written about ethical issues based on the main Islamic sources, which are Quran and Sunnah. This is because the entire story or the uniqueness have stated in the Quran and also Sunnah.  Both of the references to the Muslim had attracted many people to know about the uniqueness and the content in the Quran itself. All the Islamic people believe that Quran and Sunnah are their references in this world. So what is the uniqueness of the Islamic ethics?  Ethics is providing some manners in performing ritual obligations, such as, performing five daily prayers in the right time and also the behaviour in reciting the Qur’an  (Rahim, 2013) and this routine need to be performed by all of the Muslim. There are a lot of uniqueness of Islamic ethics that are tawhid, harmonious, universality and compressive nature.

First in the aspect of tawhid, all Muslim is believed that Allah is the creator of this world and Prophet Muhammad S.A.W is the messenger of Allah. Then, they also said that Allah have the supreme power in this world. Therefore, as they are holding on this principle so they all the Muslim will afraid to made misbehaviour as they know that there will be judgement day during hereafter. So the people will behave in a good ways as an example they will respect parents and also the older, they will not stealing, and many more. They will just doing the things that Allah ask only and they will not made anything that prohibited by Allah. This shows that the through religious people will be in a good manner as they notice that the creator looks on what they are do.

Second is in the aspect of harmonious. The means of terms harmonious is harmonious conformity to natural human disposition. This means that all people need to balance with the physical and spiritual. This is to ensure that the people not forget about the creator of this world, all the Muslim will balance their activities in the religions and in the activities that show the loyalty to the god for an example doing the 5 prayers in a day, fasting, zakat and so on. In the context of balancing we can take an example of students, even though they are busy in their day with tests, assignments, project and many more but they still need to perform their prayers so it shows that the student still doing the what Allah ask to made.

Third is in the aspect of universality. In this aspect of uniqueness in Islamic is even though religion of Islam is a long time ago had been practiced by  the Muslim but all the act that should be done is still not look weird and also can been accept by all people. In addition, all the said in the Quran is align with what happen in this time. This shows that Islamic value had teach all people to be in a good conditions and still can be accepting by the society in the world. Then, all the Sunnah is also relevant with the situation now, even though it had been a long years that prophet Muhammad S.A.W had gone.

The last is compressive nature, in this scope Islamic is really compressive as it teach human all scope that we should know in this world. If Muslim want to know something they just need to refers to the Quran and Sunnah as all things that Muslim want to know have inside the Quran and also Sunnah. This shows that Islam is really concrete as its have a specific guidance to guide the society. Then, all the law and rules that contain in Islam is complete and can be practised by the people with no regrets. Islam had teach in so many aspect such as in how to be in manner with people, how to study, and many more, so we can use what Islam ask we to do to be success in future.

In conclusion, there is a lot of uniqueness of Islamic that we can see as in the aspect tawhid, harmonious between physical and spiritual, universality and also compressive nature. With all the uniqueness of Islamic it shape the behaviour of Muslin and they had to act based on what they should do and they should not do what are the prohibited from Allah. Definitely that, the things that they should do is the good things only as all the religion teach their people to behave in a good way as same as Islam

5.0 Provide arguments that support morality should be based on culture

Firstly, cultures and morality interrelated each other. People that are living in society to ensure they can learn about moral action (Hugh, 2007). Cultures and morality cannot be isolated. This is because sometimes both of cultures and morality play an important role. Without morality, there will not be a culture. Besides that, what family teach and believes also can be derived from culture. Society or individual automatically will imitate about the routine activities. These activities can become a culture. It’s happen because the activities that people did are familiar with them. For example, most Malaysian children learn the importance of age hierarchy, especially the proper use of titles to address their elders like aunty, uncle and so on. Parents also teach that kin are an appropriate source of friendly companionship. Not only respect to the family members, but children will also respect to other society.

Secondly is cultural relativism. It refers to the different societies or cultures are analysed objectively without using the values of one culture to judge the worth of another. We cannot possibly understand the actions of other groups if we analyse them in terms of our motives and values. Characteristics of cultural relativism are no absolute values at all; right or wrong is based on the particular situation and it relative to time, place, person and situation (Krasemann J. P., 2014). For instance, war in between Israel and Palestine. The Israel culture claims that they are fighting to get their holy land, Jerusalem back. However, this was has killed thousands of Muslim in the name of doing what is culturally right, in accordance with the relativist theory. Another example is caste system of Hinduism which rejects equal treatment of different caste members in Hindu society. These individual are denied to get an education, healthcare and job. Some of people think that they can do anything they want in all way, but we as Muslim should considered about halal and haram. We have the limits that lastly will give the benefits to us.

Besides that, similar needs is also to support why the morality as sources of culture. All people, whole society in the world needs culture. This is because culture shapes the way how people think, communicate with others and understand the world around them (Singer, 1991). Culture can bond the relationship among people that not only in their races, but in different races, language, cultures and religion. Culture determines what we know, what we don’t know and determines what we want to be. As good as example, each people that come from different races, have different culture. If the people do not disclose about their culture, the others people do not know that cultures. Western cultures are not same with east cultures. Cultures also can determine what a person wants to be. For example, in a family, most of the family members work as a doctor. So, for the next generation, it will become the culture for them to be a doctor.

Lastly, similar moral principles exist in all society. It can exist in various cultures especially based on custom or tradition. Customs is the practices that are followed by many people in a society or culture. Customs usually based on individual and family. Once a practice that a father indulges in is practiced by his son, it qualifies to become a custom. Shaking hands with people is the most common and universal custom when a person is meeting them for the first time. A Malay woman does not leave the house for 40 days after the birth of her child. Another example is in West Malaysia and Sarawak, the call to prayer is basically made by the sounding of a drum, called ‘bedok’. All traditions can be stated as customs, however not all customs can be referred to as traditions.

In conclusion, the cultures and morality interrelated each other, cultural relativism, similar needs and similar principles exists in all society are the arguments that support the morality as sources of cultures.

6.0 Challenges in maintaining integrity among civil servants

Integrity refers to the quality of being honest and having strong moral principle. As general, integrity means a personal choice to maintain ourselves to consistent with any moral or ethical standards. When a person, has greater integrity in their selves, they will do and follow all ethical and moral standard. For example, for public servants, they need to have high integrity especially in their job to do all the duties and responsibilities as it will reflect their selves and the institution generally. Ethics and public service values are important elements in comprising the “body and soul” of public administration (Menzel, 2003, as cited in McDougle, 2007). But, nowadays, there are several challenges in maintaining integrity among the public servants.

The first challenge is lack of cooperation among the top officials. To implement a very high integrity among the public servants, of course, the main actors or the leaders respectively need to show a good action and give full cooperation or commitment towards it. This is because the staff will look and observe for the main actor when they do something especially if they do unethical things. If the main actor itself doing something that unethical like receiving bribe, how can they aspect their subordinate will not follow what they did. For example, as police, the superiors must show a good attitude to encourage the subordinates to do so as the policemen need to have high integrity because they are the one who responsible to keep the national security and need to be example for public. So, they need to carry out their duties efficiently and trustworthy either they are the superiors or subordinates.

Next, lack and not strong monitoring of the watchdog. Integrity among the public servants could be affected by the absence of an agency that overlooks at the country’s integrity issues. The responsible agency should enforce and give more attention on the issue like corruption and any issue regarding the integrity as sometimes, there is still case that released without any further or strong action. For example, in Malaysia, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission functioning to eradicate corruption, abuse of powers and malpractices and its functions rooted to the principles of Independent, Transparent and Professional (SPRM, 2012). So, it needs to seriously enforce and take action regarding the fault that the people do. MACC has right to do further investigation on the person when it suspected guilty and the investigation should be done in honest, transparent, and no interference from other party.

Third is lack of awareness among the civil servants itself. As a civil servant, you should know that you need to have high integrity especially when it comes to your work and responsibilities. As a civil servant you are reflected the government. When there are issue like corruption it not only you that get bad reputation, but of course, the government or agency your work will get the bad interpretation too especially from public. Public will assume the whole organization is worse. For example the Royal Police of Malaysia, public clearly knows their duties and responsibilities, but then, if there are some of them that do something that unethical or not integrity, what will public said about them or about the institution? Public will lost faith with them. That’s why as a civil servants itself, they need to have clear view and become more integrity.

Lastly, challenge is political interference in the work of public and private agencies. Usually, there will be interference in both, public and private that always is associated with political interference in their work. These agencies should not be involved with any political influence or interference as the agency needs to be independent. The interference is actually can influence the way they operate and decide especially when it comes to sensitive issue. For example, according to Astro Awani (2015) in the case of 1MDB, there are special team that established to investigate the issue of 1MDB alleged misappropriation of funds. The team include the Royal Police of Malaysia, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), and the Attorney General. Along the process of investigation there is interference from many sides as this should not happen because the team need space to investigate without fear or fear with intervention of stakeholders.

As a conclusion, when there are challenges in maintaining the integrity, it seems that integrity is quite difficult to implement, but, it can be achieved, when there are support and cooperation from many side. It is not only the government that need to put more effort to ensure the civil servants have high integrity. That is mutual cooperation from all sides to make it happen. Integrity is something that related to someone moral principle and of course, it reflects the behaviour of someone too.

7.0 The importance of good governance in the context of corporate governance

In the organization which is public sector or private sector should have ethical value in their system. This is because through ethics the employee will know what they should do and what they should not to do. Therefore, the knowledge in terms of ethics and morality is really important and needed by all the organizations. Corporate governance is one of the government businesses. This means that corporate business should have appropriate system in order to align with the law or with the rules and regulations that stated in the federal constitution. There are a lot of importance of good governance in the context of corporate business such as transparency, fairness, accountability, and responsibility.

First, the fairness has been an important of good governance because when the public officer is dealing with all of the public that want to dealing with the job relate with the government. There is various meaning or perception towards the terms of fairness, as we could not measure the fairness itself. However in the corporate business, the employee will give their best in giving the fairness treatment to everyone. For an example in the e-procurement that had been made by the government, all the tenders that govern by the government nowadays are dealing with e-procurement. This is to ensure that the government is treating all the people that want to get the tenders in a fairness ways. This means that the fairness will bring a really important of good  governance as public will think that government had try give the best to ensure society feel satisfied with the government decision. 

Second, the importance of good governance is transparency. According to Nestor, Takahiro & Guy (n.d), the good corporate governance calls for a strong disclosure regime, knowing about the transparency as a focus principle of a successful in economy, social and also politics. This is because all the transparency or the information about the tender that government do is needed to inform to the public. This is in order all the society feel satisfied with the decision that had been made by the government if not the society will become chaos as they did not get the right info about all the things that they need to know. Then, with transparency, the government also will gain trust from the society as they will believe with the government as they are provide them with the relevant information as the government will not involve with the fraud or misconduct behaviour if the transparency is one of the ways that the government need to follow.

Third is about accountability. When we talk about accountability it is deals with the clarifying government rules. This means that we must always do what we should do and not do what we cannot do. All of our behaviour must relate with the rules that had been stated in the organization or other else we will become unreasonable when doing our job. In the aspect of accountability, it is give a lot of important to the entire employee to understand about it. As without accountability the organization, will hard to achieve good governance in handling their works. So, this means that accountability will give a huge impact to the company in enhancing all the aspect that needed in building the good governance. For an example, all of the employee should do their job with accountability so that there will be no error when they handle their job. As a result the effectiveness and efficiency while making the job will occur.

Forth, the importance of good governance in the context of corporate governance is responsible. When the organization is applying good governance, definitely the employee will be more responsible in doing their work this is because they must follow all the rules before they want to make any decision. Therefore, with good governance principle it will change the behaviour of people to be more responsible in doing their job. This is really an impressive result as the employee will become more discipline and accurate in doing their job. As, they have to follow all the rules and the regulation in all the aspect when they want to handle their job.

In conclusion, there are a lot of benefits or the importance that the organization can get when they are applying good governance in the organization. All programme that made by the government is good but it depend on the employee themselves either they want to follow the rules or not. This is because, sometimes we cannot change or modified the behaviour of the employee but through the problem that government implement it perhaps can change a little bit of their behaviour to become more good in handling all the task or duty given to them.

8.0 Identify the good impacts of globalization in the context of morality

Firstly, the good impact of globalization is economic impact. When society have morality in life and know their responsibility in upgrading their standard living of life, of course they will have high spirit in doing something. Occur of globalization will provide the economic impact. Globalization is the meaning of process or widening economic integration. The process of globalization includes the factors of economics, migration, disease transmission, culture, the environment and politics (Stearns, 2010). In the context of morality, if the people or society practise and get involve in globalization, of course they will get the benefits. When they use the correct way the globalization, it will enhance the faster of economic development. For example, people can increase their family income by doing the online business. They must handle that business with the honesty. So, the customers will happy to buy with them. Besides, economic development also can be seen when the government do their roles and duty in providing the enough infrastructure and facility to public. For instance, government provide health care, social services, education and job opportunities. Hence, it will increase the standard of living of public. Not only that, globalization also access the new market. It opens a trade between countries. This helps company or country to develop new technology, product and service. For example, Japan established their companies like Toshiba, Toyota and Honda in Malaysia. When the both company practise the morality like give cooperation, trusted each other during business, it will give the more benefits such as the business will expand and gain more profit. Lastly, globalization can decrease unemployment. Government or agencies prepared job opportunity for people due to the good economic impacts. As good as example is people can get the better job in industrial and construction sector, business services like transport, storage and communication services.

Secondly, the good impact is technology. Technology make easier for people because it is save time and energy. People should use the technology in the right way, with ethical manner to ensure they will gain the true advantages. For example, nowadays, the uses of E-business and E-government. E-government should be extended to include e-participation mechanism to get citizen’s views and input on government public policy and planning for better delivery of information. It is believed that e-participation can serve as two way communication between government and citizens. This two-way communication is such as government provides information to the citizens and whereas citizens can also incorporate input for decision making (Masrom, 2015). Through E-business, public is able to pay bills of utilities, bills of credits card, apply for loans, pay taxes and so on. Hence, uses of technology with morality are interrelated each other.

The next good impact of globalization is in the context of cultural impact. Globalization makes it possible for different cultural background to interact with each other. For instance, interactions between the Easts culture with the Western culture. The East culture is more to politeness and modesty way meanwhile the Western culture is more to freedom and openness, especially in voicing out opinions. The globalization, increasingly expose the people to different ways of thinking, interacting, cultural values and so on. For instance is the implementation of 5S concept through the Look East Policy. Through globalization, Tun Dr. Mahathir who was impressed with the work culture of Japanese people decided to implement the 5S in the Look East Policy (Talib, Sulaiman, Isa, & Saad, 2013). The public sectors were applying the 5S method were including the Ministry of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, Department of Public Services and so forth. The result of the implementation were the management becomes better, files and documents were updated every 6 months making files systematic and easy to review and access at any time, and waste is reduced tremendously. Hence, the globalization is giving positive impact to the culture of people in Malaysia. People of Malaysia can know the culture of other places and learn then gain positive values in it. The implementation of 5S in Malaysia had given so many benefits towards the government excellence in delivering services to the publics.

The last one is in the context of justice impact. As we all know, there are a lot of countries especially the Muslim countries that are facing war. The globalization helps the interaction and communication of the people around the world becomes better, thus the other countries will also become aware about the issue. For instance, the wars that are continuously occur in Gaza, between Palestine and Israel. Nowadays, many people including the non-Muslims or the Western people show their support to Palestine and they argue that Israel have done wrong to these innocent people. Almost every day, the social websites such as Facebook and Twitter kept replaying the videos of the children, women and old folks of Palestine being shot by Israel soldiers with illogical reasons. This caused the people of entire world opened their eyes that the ones who being oppressed there are not the Israel people, but the Palestinians. That is one of the reason that number of people out there including the Non-Muslims and Western people show their supports to Palestine are keep increasing as they had realised the truth.

 During 2011, Mahmud Abbas said that he wanted to declare Palestine as the independent and sovereign country (Noor, 2010). His announcement attracted the Latin America countries such as Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay to support the decision as they realize that Israel is the real culprit of the genocide and inhuman attacks on the innocent Palestinians. Although this is not giving the absolute justice to Palestine but at least, it is a strong step that gives hope that one day Palestine will be free from Israel and gain its independence.  Hence, this clearly shows that globalization manage to give positive impacts in the view of justice of the people around the world.  As the communications becomes easier nowadays, many stories and news can be shared with other people. Those Israel people will not manage to lie to the world again as the proofs are too concrete. Other than that, through globalization, the people around the world who experiencing war or natural disasters will manage to get assistance or aid from other countries easily and faster as the news about their current state being spread.

(Week 3) Explain various sources of ethics – Intro to ethics

Ethics  comes from Latin word which is ethicus and also from Greek ethikos which can be define as branch of philosophy that deals with the values that relate with human conducts, the right and wrong of certain actions and also the good and bad of the motives and outcomes of that action (dictionary.com)

According to (Sources of Business Ethics) ethics also can be referring to system of good and bad, moral and immoral, fair and unfair. Ethics is code of conduct that must align with the behavior the organization and social framework.

According to (Sources of Business Ethics) Religion is the one source of ethics. Religion can influences across of people in world and it is believed that ethics is the manifesto of divine towards people which can guide between bad and god in society. Religions is the best basis and sources for people which all religions in world are advise the people to do good things and also as the guideline to people which can avoid them in doing bad things that can effects them and others. It is depends on people itself whether they put religion as the basis of their ethics in life. In Islam, people use Quran and Sunnah as their guidance in their life which there are clearly message from God that pertain to ethics which is akhlaq  that is the standard of behavior that  cover all aspects truthfulness, honesty, kindness and etc that can be adopt by mankind (Sattar, 2014)Example, the seller must have ethics when doing their business. They must honest when weight the good and give enough as the customer paid not like the case happen today which they cheat their customer about the weighing.

Besides, according to (Sources of Business Ethics) culture is the one of sources of ethics. Culture is transferred from one generation to another which is the pattern of behaviors and values that considered as ideal or within the acceptable limits. Culture will determine whether it is wrong or not and also it defines some behavior whether acceptable or others as unacceptable. We know that parents will teach their children what they have learned from their parent which is can be call culture. This culture will influence their ethics and we know some cultures were redrafted as it was not suitable for use in present and some culture still be used by people. There are many ethnics groups that live in Malaysia which lead to multi-cultural society and there are different culture and customs based on their ethnicity. The example of ethics that were implied in Malay culture that how they meet and greet with other. Malay women cannot shake their hand with man and man also cannot shake hand with women and they may only bow towards their opposite gender.

According to (L.Head, 2006) ethics comes from discussions with others. Almost daily, we casually talks with our friend or family about others and our actions whether what are they or we had done is good, right and sensible. We can talk about it anytime either when gossiping, chit chat or mealtime which we realize that there is implied or clear the ethical judgments about the behavior that being discussed. Over time, we can sense what people around us think are and also consider what are good and bad, ethical and ethical conducts which can influences us. It is because, we know what action that people not like and what they think as bad through the conversation. So, it is can be said as sources of ethics as we refer and concern about what have been discussed through our conservation. By discussion with other, we know what is not good, like our parents discuss with us what are they think about our behavior and also what our friends think.

Besides that, according to (Sources of Business Ethics) law also can be regard as sources of ethics. Law is the procedures and code of conduct that was laid down by legal system of state that means to guide human behavior. Rules and regulations are compulsory for people to follow and if they did not follow it they must bear the punishment or fine. It will influence their behavior to act good that based on rules and regulations that will laid a good act towards country and also society. In government there is ethics which is referring to professional code of conduct for people that work in government. These refer to rules and guidelines about what and wrong behaviors for host different groups include the elected leaders such as the Prime Minister and Cabinet Minister and also elected representative-members of parliament (Makarenko, 2007)

In conclusion, ethics is important toward all people whom it is as guideline towards people to do something whether it is bad or wrong. The source of ethics is important because people need to refer to the good sources in order for them to do the right things. If people refer to bad and not good, it can influence them to do the bad things.

(Week 4) – The Philosophical Foundation of Ethics – explain similarities of all these 5 theories

According to (Jacques P.Thiroux, 2014) there are five ethical theories that can be dividing into the two categories which are consequentialist and non-consequentialist. Under the consequentialist are consist ethical egoism theory and utilitarianism while non-consequentialist are consist Kant’s moral, natural and virtue theories. There are several similarities of all these five theories.

Firstly, the similarities of all these five theories are act as guideline. Guideline can be defined as a rule or instruction that shows or tells how something should be done. It is mention to the people surrounding that must practice or apply any theories that can help them to refer the theory as a guideline in doing something. For example, workers in any organization should practice any rule and regulation that organization already provide as guideline for them to conduct their duty properly and ethically.

According to (moral-definition and synonyms, 2015), define the moral as relating to right and wrong and the way that people should behave. This is one of similarities of all these five theories, which are focus on the morality. Here, moral relate to what human beings should do if they want to be moral. For instance, employees are motivated their self to become good employees towards their company through their performance, ethical behavior such as attend on time at office.

Lastly, other similarity is human beings. All of these theories are refers to the human beings. According to (Philosophy Pages, 2011), stated that the good for human beings are they should involve the entire proper function of human life as a whole. Hence, human beings should aim their life to have a good behavior. It means human beings should become a good towards each other to ensure that they can bring happiness between both of them. For examples, human beings are help each other to get the happiness and indirectly can gain benefits if they conduct in a good manner.

(Week 5) – Ethics & Religion – Implications of Divine Command Theory in relation to the ethical conduct of man

In general, according to (Krasemann, 2014) Divine Command Theory is about the moral principle that command by God through the Messenger to the mankind. This mean that God deliver His command through Messenger so the Messenger will exercise the God commands to the mankind. Then, Divine Command Theory also about what God commands and prohibit the mankind to do as they know the things they want to do is good or not. What mankind has to do to become a good person is based on themselves. If they thinks it is morally and not sin if they do whatever the bad things, they will get punish. This is because, what God prohibit to do is the wrong action such as killer, robber, thieves and so on. Furthermore, God is the source of morality, this is because God is all-everything. Then, there are some implications of divine command theory in relation to the ethical conduct of man.

First and foremost, the implication of Divine Command Theory in relation to the ethical conduct of man is this theory becomes the moral guidance to the mankind. This is because, Divine Command Theory is giving the guidance in the man ethical conduct. After that, this theory also commands the man to what they needs to do and they did not to do to be moral person. According to, (Austin, 2015) Divine Command Theory contains the statement that morality is eventually based on the commands or character of God, and that the morally right action is the one that God commands or requires.  The people will avoids to the prohibit things because they know what are the reason God prohibits it. For instance, the things that religion or God prohibit for human to do the bad things such as make the weak person to be suffered or take advantage on the others. This is shows that this theory is be the moral guidance to the man to become a humane.

Besides that, the other implication of Divine Command Theory in relation to the ethical conduct of man is this theory makes the man feels secured for being moral. This is because the man thinks that by being moral will guarantee happiness to them. In order to be a moral person, the mankind himself will think rationally to what extend they make that things. In addition, the man believes that God will give the rewards as for they do the right things. The person who are do the right things will feel peaceful and not feeling any doubt or afraid because they have do the right things. As God has been state that, Heaven and the threat of Hell as promise so that this will make the man are more discipline in their act. From this promise, the people will act and behave more morally. They will be more excellent as God has promise Heaven for who are doing more good things. According to (How is the divine command theory related to ethics and morality?, 2015) God's words are absolute because His character is absolute. They are good because His character is good. His commands are for our advantage because it is only reasonable for Him to wish the life He created to continue.

Last but not least, the implication of Divine Command Theory in relation to the ethical conduct of man in negative views is the misinterpretation command by God. There are many good implication of Divine Command Theory in relation to the ethical conduct of man. However, if there was a misinterpretation command by God, there will be a problem to the man. For example, according to (Pearce, 2014) Divine Command Theory is either the same with, or defers to, secular ethical systems, and there seems to be no way around this. When man was interpret wrongly what God has been stated, the Divine Command Theory will be not good the people.

In conclusion, there are some implications of divine command theory in relation to the ethical conduct of man such as becomes the moral guidance to the mankind, makes the man feels secured for being moral and misinterpretation command by God. Then, morality is based not upon the consequences of actions or rules, nor upon self-interest or other interestedness, but based on something “higher” like God.

 (Week 7) – Islamic Ethical System – Differences between Islamic and secular ethical system

Islamic ethics can be define as everything was started and end with God or Allah. Islamic people was follow and hold to the al-Quran and as-Sunnah. They believe that God the Wise, the Knower, the Sustainer, the Just and all of this was referred to the Asma Ul Husna. While for the Secular it can be define as their believing were based only on human sense and moral philosophy like moral intuition, logic and they do not bound with any source of religion. The example of Islamic country is Arab Saudi while for the Secular country is Singapore.

The differences between Islamic and Secular Ethical System is way of life (Javed, n.d.). The Muslims people was encourage to live in a humble or in a simple way at the earth. It is was stated in the al-Quran on how they should life and they must take the al-Quran as a guideline for their daily life. Islamic people also was encourage to have a good relationship with society or their family and they need to share their properties with the people who really needed like do the “sedekah” or must pay “zakat”. For the Muslims people they perceive Earth as a transit and they need to do something like do good action or well behave so that they can get reward from the God when they go to a lasting life. So, because of this they more focus on prayers or worship and chosen to a humble life (Javed, n.d.). While in the secular ethical system they lived in the secular system that they prefer to life in comfortable and based on their morality. They was different with Muslims because they do not believe the life after death and they believe their life only once so they need to struggle and get whatever they want at the Earth. The example we can see the way of life is in Arab Saudi that totally Islamic and in Singapore as a Secular.

Next, in judiciary also have differences between Islamic and Secular Ethical System (Javed, n.d.) . In Islamic their justice was based on Islamic laws which are Syariah law. Al-Quran and as-Sunnah was a guideline for this law and Islamic people following this law in settle their daily life problem or crime that happen. For example, some of punishment was stated by Allah in the al-Quran like how to punish the people was stealing and must be punish him according to the Hudud. While in secular ethical system they create their law or use their own decision or judgment. The cases or the crime that happen was handle at the different levels of court by barristers, professional lawyers and judges (Javed, n.d.). To handle the crime happen they liable on the proof and conformation.

Besides that, the differences between Islamic and Secular Ethical Systems also in supreme authority (Javed, n.d.). For the Islamic people their supreme authority is Allah and they need to follow whatever the command from Him. His command was stated in the al-Quran and as a Muslim they need to know about it. This is because if they do not follow it they will get punishment in their afterlife. For example the God has command them to threat well an orphanage and do not used them for their benefits. While in secular system they do not believe in existing of God. Their supreme authority always a morality or human being and using on trial and error approaches and if it do not acceptable or no longer appropriate they will replaced it. Their supreme authority were based on pressure from the government or demand from majority of their society.

Lastly, society is also the differences between Islamic and secular ethical system (Javed, n.d.). In the Islam they are taught or they have a guideline to be ethical in the society. Muslim people also was bound their daily life with Islamic teachings and principles because they are involve or bounding in adoration of Allah. For example even they live in different ethnicity, race and culture they must respect each other and cannot take advantage even though they difference in everything. While if in the society of the secular ethical system they do not have or have a less ethical. They also just form to be more ethical. They also do not have a guideline and just form it through human beings, logic and moral intuition when they are in the society. Normally they was living or their society among their same race and ethnicity. 

As a conclusion there are differences between Islamic and Secular Ethical System which is in the way of life, in judiciary, in supreme authority and society. Every religion or believing have their own well and benefits. It is depend on the human how they want to manage their daily life and how they want to behave in their surroundings. The most important is they need to act or life without discriminate other people for own benefits or goods.

 (Week 8) – Ethics and culture – compare cultural absolutism and cultural relativism

Cultural relativism means there is no absolute truths which it can be different from person to person and also in society. Cultural relativism tells that the society not only strict to one rules and there is no universal rules that apply for all human. It is the only practical which can be apply for society today since there is many change in societies from before. In cultural absolutism the rules are no easily changes according to culture and what is wrong cannot be doubted by human which they had no choice to follow it. (UNDERWATERRAVEN, 2013)

Cultural relativism, people are respecting other people’s societies and believe in tolerance which means they not only strict with their own believe and also open towards others practical and culture. This respect was to produce peace and harmony among society. Like in Malaysia, there are many ethnics whom their believed also different but others ethnics accept other culture and also celebrated other culture’s festival which it can brings harmonious among them. While for Cultural absolutism morality is based on universal values and absolute rather than on individual or group preferences. This means people had no choice to choose but they must follow it in their life. It can said as God divine which they must follow it because its universal and other rules or culture cannot be accept. (UNDERWATERRAVEN, 2013)

Besides, cultural relativism allows there to be variety in different cultures. It means, not only strict to one rule in one culture. Which means people can have variety believed, ethics, moral and culture in their life. There is not overriding standard to compare cultures. Its means no culture is better than another because of what they believe. Example, the Hindu culture is to celebrate the deepavali festival and the Hindu cannot claim that their culture to celebrate deepavali is better than other cultures as other people have their own festival that they celebrate. While in cultural absolutism, moral are allow to be evaluated critically. Its means, they can questioned the moral or culture if people did not follow it. Example, if that person is stealing, it is absolutely wrong even the person stealing to give foods to him or her children. It is not changed based on the situation and if that person will escape from punishment.

Besides, cultural relativism is not fixed.  As the cultural relativism is change and it is depends on the situation, it show that the moral that was apply was not fixed and can make people confuse with it. It can influence the people to do the bad things as they describe and analyses based on the customs of different societies. So it is impossible for them to condemn corrupt or any other evil.  While in cultural absolutism provides a fixed ethical code that give more clear judgments in situations and where there is needs of for ethical guidance. The absolutism can avoid the confusion that may be happen as they can evaluate other society culture, so the action can be judged whether right or wrong and what act on that judgment. (UNDERWATERRAVEN, 2013)

 In aspect of weaknesses, cultural relativism is not equally value just because there are different moral values. Example, the Nazis believed that they have right in killing all millions of Jews and homosexual. So, the cultural cannot critic or said that it is wrong as even in reality it is wrong as the Nazis believe that all cultures have views equal worth. While in cultural absolutism, sometimes it is wrong to treat people the same circumstances as that arise due to situations. Its means that, something that happens cannot be judged same like others circumstances as it maybe happen from different situation. Like the person stealing the foods because he did not have any money. Besides, it is not easy to make all people follow all the rules because there are many challenges in world. (Absolutism and Relativism)

In conclusion, cultural relativism and absolutism are accepted in all country as it’s have their own pro and con. The cultural absolutism is important to be applying because it is the Divine Command Theory. We know that all religions have their own command theory and they are strictly to follow it as it is from God. The cultural absolutism also needed as we live in countries which are multi ethnic and culture which have their own cultures. We need to accept other culture to keep the peace in our country and also treat people equally.

(Week 9) – Ethics in Administration - State your view on effectiveness of the Twelve Pillars for Malaysian public servants in relation to public servants behavioral reform.

The Twelve Pillars was introduced by Y.Bhg. Ketua Setiausaha Negara Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Ahmad Sarji Bin Abdul Hamid at the 2^nd March 1992 in the seminar of value and ethics at the Hotel Pan Pacific, Kuala Lumpur (Hamid, 2008). The Twelve Pillars that was introduced which are the joy of originating, the improvement of talent, the virtue of patience, the wisdom of economy, the obligation of duty, the influence of examples, the power of kindness, the worth of character, the dignity of simplicity, the pleasure of working, the success of perseverance and the value of time (Hamid, 2008). This Twelve Pillars was introduced for the public servants because it was believe that it will give value or can create their personal for changes.

The effectiveness of twelve pillars for Malaysian public servant is as a guideline for them to do their job and duty. This is because in twelve pillars it was stated that the practice that public servants should do and do not should do. It also was identified in the one of the pillars is the value of time. From this pillars the public servants can reform their behavioral or they can avoid to do negative things while doing their job like they talk for nothing in the workplace, no sense of urgency and do the personal thing at the work place. For example when they practice this pillars they can finish their work before the due date. This can give an effectiveness to the organization. When the workers can finish the job before the due date it can give good reputations to the organization.

Furthermore, help the public servants building more their soft skill and show their creativity also the effectiveness of twelve pillar for Malaysian public servants. In this pillars they was encourage to improve their talents so they can make a changes or can try new thing for their works. To make sure the public servants do this the organization need to provide a place or activity that really test their soft skill and to show their talents. For example give opportunities to the employees to view or to give their opinion to the top management. Before this only the top management can do decision making and the employees has to agree and follow it. So they need to change this culture so that the twelve pillars was really practice in government.

Next, the effectiveness of twelve pillars for Malaysian public servants is they can do value practice and remove the inefficient practice. This can be done by they practice integrity and accountability. This is because from this they can remind themselves and they can implement it in their work and indirectly in their daily life. Integrity and accountability is really important because it can create a good government and it will give a good reputation to the government. For example in the Vision 2020 the government want the public servants preserve justice, have a high in morality and be ethical in society. They can do this to ensure that they can achieve the Vision 2020 (Wawasan 2020, 1996-2008).

Lastly, to stand public servants in reform their behavioral and increase in developing of equity or services also the effectiveness of the twelve pillars for Malaysian public servants. If the public servants practice this they can decrease the negative image that public have on them for this years. As we know many people have a bad expectation towards the public servants because before this their services was not good enough and they was late in the process of finishing their work. For example in the pillars of obligation of duty. From this pillars to guarantee that public can get what they deserve from the public servants and they must do their job with fairness and justice. The public servants can serve the people without thinking of themselves and deliver what was responsible for them. The public servants also can stress on quality rather than just fulfill their job.

As a conclusion the twelve pillars was a good way or approaches for the public servants. This is because they can change their behavioral at the workplace. The organization and the employees need to work together to ensure that the twelve pillars goals can be achieve. As we know to be a good organization it must come from the behavior the employees itself. If the employees do the work with the effectiveness they can get a good reputation in the future. 

(Week 10)- Good Governance – Various challenges in establishing good governance in Malaysia public service

Good governance is means that the government performance is good to the public as the government implements the transparency, accountability, responsive, efficient and efficiency promote participation of the public and follow the rule of law. After that, good governance also when government shows a good leadership which means that the government is fair in the administration. Then, the government also gives the full priority to the citizen such as gives the chance to them to voice out their opinion. The good government also is when the government is cares about the citizen as the government care of the needs or problems of the citizen.

First and foremost, in order to establishing good governance in Malaysian public service, the challenge is conflict interest. The public service in Malaysia has to face the various challenges in establishing the good governance because as to provide the good services to the public, they must practices the principle of good governance. The conflict interest can happen when the government fails to shows the good performance in public service. Therefore, the conflict interest was happen when the public service is unable to exercise the transparency and accountability during performing the job. According to (Anello, 2008) conflicts of interest are often the encouraging force creating unethical behavior. Three types are commonly met in public institutions that tolerate corrupt behavior, namely when a public servant has assigned personal interests in a particular company, practices bias when hiring personnel and obtains post‐employment welfares from a contracted company.

Besides that, the other challenge in establishing good governance in Malaysian public service is corruption. According to (Faruqi, 2011) in every society, most of the country's expenditure has been swallowed by corrupt practices. In Malaysia, the fight against corruption, the declaration of assets of all public officials and politicians, more openness on political contributions and a appearance of transparency and competitiveness in the bidding process are important tasks. Malaysia has been ranked as one of the most corrupt nations and listed as country which is most like to take shortcuts to meet targets when economics times are tough.

After that, globalization is also the challenges in establishing good governance in Malaysian public service. The challenges of globalization in terms of trade, monetary, technology and labour will give a high impact to the government. The borderless of country will make the easy for the foreign labour to enter our country. Furthermore, the foreign companies also easy to enter our market. Then, the employees in the local company need to collaborate with the foreign workers. The differences in social life, languages, work culture and so on will give a challenge to our local company in order to dealing with them. Globalization also effect to our law and regulations especially in terms of trade, migration of foreign worker, SME’s, imports and exports taxes, excise duty, and so on.

In conclusion, there are various challenges in establishing good governance in Malaysian public service such as conflict interest, corruption, globalization and . In order to become good governance, the Malaysian public service has to exercise the principles of good governance such as transparency, accountability, responsive, efficient and efficiency, promote participation of the public and follow the rule of law

(Week 11) – Contemporary Global Challenges to Morality – The importance of the knowledge of ethics in the globalized world.

According to (Fieser, n.d), stated that ethics is a moral philosophy that involves systematizing, defending and recommending concepts of right and wrong actions. It shows that ethics is very important towards individuals.  But, knowledge of ethics also has importance in the globalized world. Which means that knowledge of ethics is are very useful to practice by all the people not only in our country but also around the world.

Firstly, the importance of the knowledge of ethics in the globalized world is to reduce violence. In the globalized world, there is much violence that happens. The causes of violence can be happen influence by the media itself such as through movies, television, games and so on. In addition, violence always happens against women and children in any country. According to (VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN) the examples of violence is sexual violence which always happens towards the women while children are become a victim of abuse. So, to avoid this violence still continues, knowledge of ethics is important to become a good person than bad person. They can think rationally and ethically about what is good and bad manner.

Additionally, the second importance of knowledge of ethics in globalized world is to ensure the survival of society. It means that if only the science technology that concern which means no has moral it will lead to the destruction of humanity. According to (Threeton, n.d), stated that the ethical issues related to the employees by using the technology. Most of them are surf the internet for personal reasons at work during on office time. The employees need to have and understand knowledge of ethics in their heart in order to avoid the unethical behavior. For example, employees should not be able to disclose any confidential information about their company to others company. They should use the technology to good action such as deliver their jobs to the top management or others than that.

Lastly, the importance of knowledge of ethics in the globalized world is to help people to differentiate various ideologies. In the globalized world, people have the knowledge in order to differentiate various ideologies. Hence, we will know what is the right ideologies should follow or practice in our life. For examples, according to (WORLDVIEW), Muslims derive their Islamic ethics from Qur’an and the Hadith. Muslims should refer the Qur’an and Hadith as a guideline to ensure every ideology whether it is good or not to be applying in our life. The good matters of ideologies can be practice in our life but bad things cannot be apply in our life as Muslims.