They depend on our character. Character, in turn, is formed by a complex network of factors, including our family, our teachers, our friends, and the formal and informal institutions that have nurtured us. If all our value decisions were strictly personal, with little or no effect on other people, we would have little need for public discussion of those values. However, once we take responsibility for other people, we relinquish the privacy we enjoy as individuals. It is reasonable for those people to expect us to explain our decisions.
Public action shapes public values.
Because business managers are accountable to the people they serve, they must be able to analyze and articulate fundamental value principles. Excerpts from Jeremy Bentham's Principles of Morals and Legislation . You will encounter traces of this practice throughout your MBA curriculum. In the Analyzing Values Stream of Module I, we use this concept to introduce the topic of ethics in business. Several moral issues relate to this practice.