Ethics

Ethics, according to the American Society for Quality, is “The practice of applying a code of conduct based on moral principles to day-to-day actions to balance what is fair to individuals or organizations and what is right for society.” Morals, on the other hand, are individual and personal beliefs about what is right and wrong (Lewicki, p.181). Evidence of ethical codes of conduct can be traced all the way back to ancient times, the times of the Egyptians and Babylonians. Back then they were no more than caveat emptor (buyer beware) (Cohen, p. 43). Everyone is familiar with the Ten Commandments. A set of laws, codes of ethics you could say, handed down by God. Many religions base their personal morals from these commandments. Although morals can be the basis of ethics, we turn to our society as a whole to tell us what is considered to be ethical.

We take our laws; mix in a bit of religious dogma, common sense, and people’s reactions to our decisions in order to formulate a complete ethical code of conduct in our everyday life. Therefore, it is safe to say that the issue of what constitutes ethical behavior can be as clear as mud in some instances. "We are, after all, a country that both discourages the sale of tobacco, a toxic product, and subsidizes its cultivation. Were you to introduce some other new product that killed off its users at so impressive a rate— some kind of exploding hat, perhaps— one suspects that Congress would take more vigorous steps to discourage its sale", (Cohen, p.43).

What makes ethics such an important part of negotiation? Negotiation is a process that seeks to meet a party’s needs. This includes definite goals, such as asking for a certain selling price for your home, to indefinite or less apparent goals such as inflating the price of your home because you are convinced it was done to you in the past. As Stark has noted, "In short, most of us are involved in negotiations to one degree or another for a good part of any given day. Negotiation should be considered a positive way of structuring the communication process.” (p.11).

What motivates negotiators to behave unethically? Studies have shown that in the simplest terms, unethical behavior is often used to gain power in a settlement. Power can be in the form of knowledge – information that one party has been able to learn unknowingly from the other, or information on a company’s or a person’s financially position may all affect how well a negotiator leverages their position in a deal. Anything or everything that will motivate the opponent favorably toward the negotiator’s objectives constitutes power in negotiation. According to Nierenberg, "Business executives, high government officials and the military, among others, profess to believe in “law and order” yet in dismaying numbers have lost direction. They negotiate for profits, not production, for selfish gains at the