Ethical Issues in Business

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The textbook defines business ethics as “the accepted principles of right or wrong governing the conduct of business people.” Business ethics also govern the members of a profession and the actions of an organization. Many organizations put into place an ethical strategy which is “a course of action that does not violate accepted principles.” These principles are used to guide organizations and employees to make the right decisions.
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.
The next, major international business issue is human rights. In many nations today basic human rights are not respected. In much of the developed world are basics rights are taken for granted such as freedom of speech, or freedom of movement. It is often questioned by the international business world if we should...

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...ollow them either. It is clear that there are many ethical violations and if a company were to act in a manner that this today they would strongly be looked down upon.
Utilitarian ethics says that the moral worth of actions is determined by their consequences. In other words you actions are based off of the consequences you create and whether or not they are good or bad. However, it can be very hard to measure this. On the other hand Kantian ethics says people should be treated as ends and not as means to the ends for others. Meaning that all people need to have respect for others and treat them like humans. The final theory is justice theory that wants economic goods and services to have a just distribution. This means that everyone gets their fair share no matter what. However, these practices are often hard to implement, and are also difficult to see results.

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