Although ethics are indivisible and not replaceable, many different circumstances affect people's understanding of ethics, and their behavior changes according to this changing understanding. In 2020, at the height of COVID-19, employers and employees faced many challenges in following the ethical standards they were accustomed to (Posner, 2020).
Business Ethics Principles:
There are several different principles for people's understanding of work ethic; they are as follows:
Absolute Work Ethics: Those who hold this principle believe that business ethics are the same globally; what is innately acceptable in one country is, by extension, acceptable in another. As a result, ethical codes can be copied and circulated in absolute universality (Wakin, 1976).
Relative Work Ethics: In this principle, adherents believe that work ethic is relative and changes according to many factors, such as cultural differences, religion, or social norms (UKEssays, 2018).
Emergency Work Ethics: When a business goes through a specific circumstance that makes it challenging to implement the ethical code as it is, it needs to be modified by addition or subtraction to suit the new situation (Sterri & Moen, 2021).
Work Ethics under COVID-19:
Despite the uncertainties in the applicability of work ethics in light of a significant pandemic such as COVID-19, however, according to (Divers, 2021). An extended survey called: "The 2021 Ethics & Compliance Program Effectiveness Report: Meeting the Covid-19 Challenge" included 650 CEOs and at least 1,000 employees, half of them in the United States and the other half globally; the aim of the study was to measure the extent to which these people comply with work ethics during this pandemic, it was found that 80% of the participants admitted that compliance with ethical considerations played a significant role in successfully overcoming this crisis, the boards of directors of these companies effectively supported the employees to bear the effects of this period, this made employees more loyal to the company after the crisis than before.
Conclusion
There is a work ethic that is always absolute. These ethics must be kept intact, even in times of crisis, such as the ethics of equality in dealing with employees and mutual respect, ensuring the quality and efficiency of the work environment and the product and service that result from it. Still, other ethical standards can change with changing circumstances, such as adherence to dates and workplaces under pandemics and the management's commitment to pay all employees' wages and allowances during this period.
References
Divers, S. (2021). How companies are stepping up efforts to build ethical cultures during COVID-19. In World Economic
Forum. Retrieved from https://www. weforum. Org/agenda/2021/05/companies-building-ethical-cultures-covid-19.
Posner, C. (2020). World Economic Forum offers stakeholder principles for the COVID-19 era. Lexology.
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=d92b2c87-da94-4fdb-93d8-b77682364b26&l=8X07TKK
Sterri, A. B., & Moen, O. M. (2021). The ethics of emergencies. Philosophical Studies, 178(8), 2621-2634.
UKEssays. (2018). Absolute and Relative Ethics. Retrieved from
https://www.ukessays.com/essays/commerce/absolute-and-relative-ethics-commerce-essay.php?vref=1
Wakin, M. M. (1976). The ethics of leadership. American Behavioral Scientist, 19(5), 567-588.