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Ethical virtue in business
Ethical practices in business
Business ethics chapter 4
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Recommended: Ethical virtue in business
A significant part of business is ethical, its code values and the trust. Anything illegal is not necessarily ethical, but by law, the expectation of the business is to be fair and ethical, and not abusive and predatory. Any unethical abusive practices may not be illegal, but the harm leaves the consumer stripped of self-respect, wealth, and ruins their life. In some instances, a very narrow line divides the action becoming unethical and fraud instead of ethical and legal.
Companies must act responsibly when they enter global business and behave ethically which lays the legal foundation. Company policies are derived from high standards of individual ethical behavior which from a business aspect satisfies achieving an object of competitive
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Laws are needed and important, but ethics make thing better and does not harm anyway. Being legal is ethical and being ethical cannot be illegal. There is no simple law exist or laws lack charging individual or corporate misconduct, however the guilty pleas and settlement suggest companies ' leaders know the regulation and the difference between right and wrong, but chose to do the wrong thing. Companies doing global business must be responsible to the country they originate and the countries which they operate, laying their legal foundation for ethical behavior. Being irresponsible and unethical could leads to sanctions, particularly corporate bribery, and product safety. Bribery is unethical which affects company performance and erodes the authority of leaders who condones. Consumer will boycott any business that is unethical and exhibits irresponsible behavior towards citizens and society. Ethical behavior will certainly do positively influence on employees and employers, but not being ethical will affect worker morale. With the internet and mobile technology, any bad ethics and behavior and will cost companies a fortune. According to Samii (2011), here are a few reasons why anything legal is not necessarily ethical.
• Consider the moral aspect when referring legal principles and rules
• With many ethical issues, it is practically
Do you agree with Schmeltekopf that business schools are not preparing students well for the for the ethical challenges they will face in the workplace? Why or why not?
For a company to be successful ethically, it must go beyond the notion of simple legal compliance and adopt a values-based organizational culture. A corporate code of ethics can be a very valuable and integral part of a company’s culture but I believe that it is not strong enough to stand alone. Thought and care must go into constructing the code of ethics and the implementation of it. Companies need to infuse ethics and integrity throughout their corporate culture as well as into their definition of success. To be successfully ethical, companies must go beyond the notion of simple legal compliance and adopt a values-based organizational culture.
Explain the connection between the economic model of corporate social responsibility and “free market” or “neoclassical” economic theory.
A good organization cannot run solely on legality, but it must embrace the ethical values as well. Enron façade of being a good organization, hid numerous corruptions, which came out in the long run (Bowen & Heath 2005). The organization has a moral to remain loyal to it stakeholders and stockholders since they are the one that keep the organization afloat by investing their time and money. Ethnical behavior is assimilated form the top to the bottom and vice versa. This should never be a one-way street. For instant with Enron, according to (Bowen & Heath, 2005), Full disclosure was made only at the top management level, on a need to know basis, making difficult or near impossible to figure out ethical issues that
Business ethics simply can be defined as the application of business values in the business practice of a company (Seawell 2010, p. 2). For a multinational company, business ethics is one of the critical aspects need to be taken into account in business decision-making processes. Failure to give attention on ethics may bring consequences on company’s reputation (Meyer & Jebe 2010, p. 159). The company is expected not only to pursue its own profits but also contributing to the environmental and social welfare of the community where it operates (Svensson & Wood 2008, p. 308).
Unlawful behavior in business is that which is prohibited by law, it is illegal or criminal. It is behaviour that breaks the clearly set down rules or laws that govern business. This is easier to detect than unethical behaviour because it is simply weighed against the written down laws. The criminal code outlines the basic requirements of behaviour and any behaviour outside of what is outlined in this code can be considered unlawful. Unethical behaviour is more conscience-based and the line separating black from white is not as easy to identify. Even though businesses can have written guidelines or codes of conduct it is not possible to anticipate all possible unethical behaviour and since people have different values, there remains room for engaging in unethical behaviour. In distinguishing between unlawful and unethical behaviour, a business could gain a bad reputation through its unethical behaviour though technically speaking may not be doing anything to break the law.
An organization needs to adhere to ethics in order to effectively implement its mission, vision, and objectives in a way in which offers a solid foundation to management and their subordinates to properly develop and implement its strategies. By doing so, the organization as a whole is essentially subscribing to one commonality that directs all of the actions of the employees of the organization. Additionally, it assists in preventing such employees from divergence in regard to the proposed strategic guideline. Ethics additionally ensures that a strategic plan is developed in accordance to the interests of the appropriate stakeholders of the organization, both internal and external (Jin & Drozdenko, 2010). Likewise, corporate governance that stems from various regulatory parties makes it necessary for organizations to maintain a high degree of ethical standards; this is done by incorporating ethics within the organization’s strategic plan so as to foster a positive corporate image for the stakeholders and general public (Min-Dong Paul, 2009).
Different people have different views of what’s ethical, and what’s not in business world. Lack of rules and pure enforcement of rules that exist create opportunities for unethical behavior. I think, one has to decide for themselves what is ethical and what is not. An activity approved of by most members of an organization and customary in the industry is probably ethical, but it could be unethical to one or few individuals, because everybody has their own ideas and beliefs about what’s ethical and what’s not.
In conclusion, companies that seek to integrate into global markets usually encounter several problems because of the effect of globalization on business practices. The challenges originating from such integration is attributed to the differences in cultures in various societies across the globe. As evident in Google’s dilemma in China, there is no single set of universal ethics that are applicable to all settings and societies across the globe. Companies such as Google need to develop varying ethical standards that are relevant and appropriate to various nations and cultures in the world. This would enable the companies that are integrating into global markets to avoid ethical issues while maintaining effective business practices.
The term “ethical business” is seen, by many people, as an oxymoron. This is because a business’s main objective is to make as much money as possible. Making the most money possible, however, can often lead to unethical actions. Companies like Enron, WorldCom, and Satyam have been the posterchildren for how corporations’ greed lead to unethical practices. In recent times however, companies have been accused of being unethical based on, not how they manage their finances, but on how they treat the society that they operate in. People have started to realize that the damage companies have been doing to the world around them is more impactful and far worse than any financial fraud that these companies might be engaging in. Events like the BP oil
Many ethical dilemmas are philosophical in nature, an ethical issue can be described as a problem with no clear resolution. In order to solve the issue or dilemma a consensus between the parties involved must be reached. There are several reasons to come to an agreement over an ethical dilemma, it is the basis for all aspects of personal and professional dealings. Each one of us is part of a civilized society and as such it is our responsibility to be rational, honest and loyal in our dealings with others. (Alakavuklar, 2012) states that individuals make decisions for different situations in business life involving various ethical dilemmas. Each time either consciously or unconsciously individuals may follow some ethical approaches
The Facts: Kermit Vandivier works for B.F. Goodrich. His job assignment was to write the qualifying report on the four disk brakes for LTV Aerospace Corporation. LTV purchased aircraft brakes from B.F. Goodrich for the Air Force. Goodrich desperately wanted the contract because it guaranteed a commitment from the Air Force on future brake purchases for the A7D from them, even if they lost money on the initial contract.
Many laws have been put into place to make sure corporations act ethically, so they do not harm people or the environment. Corporations have a social responsibility to follow these laws and various other ethical actions; Johnson & Johnson, considered to be one of the most admirable companies according to Fortune, is one company that included their corporate social responsibilities in their code of ethics. Their code of ethics states that executive officers cannot financially benefit from unethical transactions or that their management must be competent and ethical (Code of Business Conduct, 2015). It is important for corporations to act ethically and hold up to their social responsibility, especially within the workplace; ethics are especially
There are a number of issues that affect international business ethics. They include employment practices, human rights, environmental regulations, corruption, and moral obligation of multinational companies. Employment practice refers to the working conditions an employee must work under. This can be very difficult to gauge, because many times the working conditions of a host nation are inferior to those in an organizations home nation. Many organizations have had to fight with these regulations. A good example of this in the trouble Nike found themselves in during the 1990s. There were a number of news reports released about the working conditions of most of its subcontractors were very poor . The Nike Company was not breaking any laws but it did bring into question the ethics of using a sweatshop. After this incident it left a number of questions for the international marketplace. In recent years many companies have cut ties with organizations that use unsafe and unfair labor practice.
Ethics are the driving force behind good business. Every ethical choice made by a professional can and will have a much different outcome than any unethical choice. Bad ethics can ruin many aspects of a business and as (Gaye-Anderson, 2007) states how quite easily the lives and professional reputation of the employees can even be severally damaged (para. 3). Everything from morale to motivation can be severely affected by poor ethical choices. Customers will take their business elsewhere. Employees will abandon ship. Other, competing businesses reap the benefits of the bad moral choices. Ultimately, the entire business can be brought down by one poor ethical choice.