Individual Roles and Conflicting Moral Obligations: Examples from Corporate and Professional New Zealand

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the notion of role morality. It attempts to answer the question of how individuals deal with conflicts between role morality and personal convictions. Based upon the answer to this question the paper further attempts to answer the question of how institutions that establish role morality need to proceed in order to ensure that the rules and principles issued by them are actually followed. Finally, the paper takes a look at the situation in professional and corporate societies in New Zealand and the way professional associations and business corporations in New Zealand deal with the fact that obligations under professional and corporate ethics may conflict with the personal convictions of professionals and employees.