Essay - Four Repositories of Ethical Values, Religion, Philosophy, Cultural Experience, and...

Four repositories of ethical values, religion, philosophy, cultural experience, and law influence managers. Although different doctrine controls different religions, all of the major religions preach some form of responsibility to society in general. Christian managers read*****g and seeking direction from the Bible exemplifies the use ***** a religious text to ***** ***** managerial thought process. Many passages from the various ***** texts draw a comp*****rison between a shepherd and the shepherd's responsibilities. If each person is considered a shepherd, *****n ***** person h*****s ***** beyond what they do for themselves. In ***** cases a religion teaches that moral responsibility extents ***** the indirect results business activity, such as pollution. In spite of ***** pressures to remain open for business seven days a week, some Chr*****tian-oriented businesses refuse to open on Sundays even though this decision hurts them directly in terms of lost business, but also hurts them because of the loss of prime retail space to companies willing ***** open on Sundays. ***** other examples of ***** respecting a sacred day of the week or a s*****cred time of day exist. However enormous competitive pressure continue to build in the retail business sector to stay open nearly 24 hours a d*****y, 7 days a *****, so-called "*****/*****," and 365 days a year.

The reposi*****ry of philosophy ranges over a wide degree of ***** values. Ancient philosophers, particularly ***** ancient Greeks Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, set ********** a ***** revolving around the concept of a higher morality, an ideal society. Using the mind allowed one to achieve a sense of ***** identified ***** absolute morality. The Greeks and the Romans saw true success in terms of leading a "good life" ra*****r than achieving great financial wealth. Christian concepts of ethical behavior *****minated for a number ***** centuries. The ***** concepts focused on the need ***** ethical behavior on Earth to gain life after death. At ***** end of the Middle Ages marked by the beginning of the Enlightenment, non-religious ***** replaced as the most influential philosophers. Philosophers of the Enlightenment sought to explain ethics through analysis rather than a mandate of God. Another form of secular philosophy evolved from the work of Bentham and the philosophy that any action should be measured based on whe*****r it caused pleasure or pain to society in general. The philosophy *****came known as Utilitarianism. Although an ********** use of Utilitarianism, the philosophy justified industrialization and economic growth benefiting the many even if ***** few had ***** sacrifice everything. A completely ***** approach called "realism" ********** that man possessed ***** ***** evil characteristics. *****doption ***** the realistic philosophy eliminated the possibility of an ideal ethical society. Different versions of realism included a philosophy of ***** *****s justify the me*****ns, a surviv*****l ***** the fittest, and individuals who had supernatural m*****al qualities. ***** fact ***** things that were considered Christian virtues became weaknesses in the thinking of realistic philosophers. *****re is at least one philosophy that fits the desired actions ***** any **********, so a manager can