Business Ethics And The Ethical Issues

Every day businesses are faced with making decisions that can have far reaching effects within their organization and the communities in which their business are based. Company Q is one of these businesses. Recent decisions made within this company have demonstrated a trend that would suggest Company Q has a negative attitude toward social responsibility. This attitude can be evidenced by the closing of two stores in high-crime rate areas because they were consistently losing money, offering minimal amounts of health-conscious and organic foods despite high demand, and declining donations of day-old products rather than donating these items to the local area’s food bank due to concerns of fraud and stealing by employees.

Peter Crist is almost always correct. The reality is that if someone lies or covers stuff up, most of the time they will be found out eventually be it in two days or in 20 years. However, the reality is that some people do lie and cover stuff up in professional and personal situations and are never exposed. Sometimes this is because they're in a situation where dishonesty is prized, other times it's because the people around them turn a blind eye to what they see because they don't want to know the truth. Other times, it's because the person engaging in the dishonesty is so crafty and so quick that the trickery and subterfuge is almost inscrutable. However, the fact remains that Crist is correct. Often people are found out because those who are engaging in the trickery have so much hubris and so much arrogance that they engage in bolder and bolder moves, believing that they will never be caught. One example of that from the recent past is of Bernie Madoff. His crime was a simple Ponzi scheme which grew larger and larger in size and scale to the point where he couldn't help but be found out. In this case, the fact that Ms. Jones was found out was somewhat expected: she advanced to such a position of power within the institution that she was almost one of their public figures, which meant that her credentials would be under greater scrutiny.

Business ethics refers to the consideration of moral decisions and responsibilities in the process of operating a business. Business ethics, practiced throughout the deepest layers of a company, become the heart and soul of the company 's culture and can mean the difference between success and failure. Values drive behavior and therefore need to be consciously stated, but they also need to be affirmed by actions. Ethical business environments are created with foundations of integrity, accountability and commitment.

Upon applying utilitarianism theory to Tom’s current situation, Tom would maximise the greatest good and increase the happiness of more people and parties by exaggerating his work experience. The first party that would benefit from this is his parents. As was said in the case study (2014), Tom’s mother had lost her job a few years ago and has remained unemployed since. Tom’s father has also not been doing well financially, as his business has not been doing well as of lately, which would lead to less income for the family. Tom’s parents would be better off financially, as they will no longer need to support Tom if he were to be hired by the accounting firm.

Nowadays, the concern for business ethics is growing rapidly in the business community around the world. Business ethics are focused on the judgment of decisions taken by managers and their behaviors. The issue regarding these judgments is the norms and cultures that shape these judgments. Business ethics are concerned about the issue, how will the issue be solved and how will it move ahead along the transition analysis as well (Carroll, 2014).

Business ethics and corporate morals have been evolving over the years, and continue to do so. These guidelines are constantly molding and vary as businesses become more integrated. Costco Wholesale Corporation, is a very successful multinational business, but has had issues in following along with social responsibility trends that come with advancements in domestic and worldwide partnerships.

When people think about ethics, it is usually about making decisions between good or bad. What is meant by this is that people normally think of doing good deeds, or giving to the disadvantaged as the typical form of ethics. What generally eludes most people, is ethics in the form of selecting between better or best. A great example can be in movies, where a superhero will be required to save one of two people. It is either a loved one, which it would be best for the hero’s personal interests, or a fellow superhero, which will be best in the interest of the people. An ethical choice of this nature is never an easy one to make. Another place where ethical choices are often made, but not regularly heard about is in businesses. The main purpose of a business is to remain profitable and continue operating as efficiently as possible. Ethics tie closely into business decisions because businesses normally have to make choices that might hurt others but will benefit their own company. Although some of these choices are in the best interest of the company, sometimes these decisions are only in the interest of those breaking ethical code.

An oxymoron acts as a form of figurative language that grasps the attention of the reader and puts emphasis on two or more words. In the context of everyday life we hear some “normal” oxymorons such as “jumbo shrimp, passive aggressive, awfully good, The Great Depression,” and of course, “business ethics.” In terms of “business ethics,” the common misconception still remains that the word, “business” and the word, “ethics” should never be adjacent. Primarily, I find this misconception offensive, but also blatantly incorrect. As a rising business employee, I look forward to continually proving this “oxymoron” incorrect by utilizing the skills I learn to further both my knowledge and the knowledge of the world. Similar to the ideals of companies like the Container Store, Starbucks, and Whole Foods, more companies continually turn to “conscious capitalism” in order to better our world. Throughout my short time at BC, I have found that the term “business ethics” remains plausible in this world and I look to enter my career with a focus on business ethics. After furthering my knowledge through articles, excerpts from books, and videos, I have found that the “myth of business ethics” is blatantly false and due to media bias and the misconception of capitalism, average Americans have built a form of disgrace towards businessmen and women in today’s society.

Corporate fraud has grabbed national headlines repeatedly in the last year. Although, Enron and World Com are two of the highest profile cases of corporate scam, ethics in the business world are generally deplorable. One of the most morally reprehensible cases to hit the newspapers in the past several years is that of Robert R. Courtney. His sense of business and personal ethics reflects moral depravity at its darkest moment. What he did was evil on both a business and certainly on a personal level. As a pharmacist, he was entrusted by patients, oncologists, and major drug companies, to fill prescriptions for cancer patients. He defied and denied this trust. Apparently he owed the IRS $600,000, and ironically

In conclusion, in our opinion, there are so many standards and criteria to judge whether a consultants’ behavior is ethical and permissible, and code of conduct can hardly be the only criterion since it is too general to cover every aspect in the real business world. Traditionally, code of conduct is an essential way to prevent unethical behaviors in consulting industry, and we can see in the aforementioned case that it did help the consultants to develop the sense of responsibilities and be aware of what they need to do in their work. However, based on some literature, we found out that although the adoption rate of code of conduct is overwhelming, the issue that whether or not code of conduct can significantly improve business ethics has

The word ‘ethics’ has its origin in the Greek word ‘ethics’ meaning character; norms, ideals or morals prevailing in a group or society. Ethics is concerned with what is right and what is wrong in human behavior judged on the basis of a standard form of conduct/behavior of individuals, as approved by society in a particular field of activity. Ethics may be viewed as the entire body of moral values that society attaches to the actions of human beings. Ethics can also refer to codes or other system for controlling means so that they serve human ends. Ethical standards are often enacted into laws. But ethical behavior is just and fair conduct which goes beyond observing laws and government regulations. It means adhering to moral principles, being guided by particular values, and Behaving in a way people ought to act. The set of principles called ethics may

Corporate Ethics: Principles and values that govern the decisions and actions of the business are called corporate or business ethics. These may be written or unwritten. The basic meaning of ethics is deciding between what is wrong or right (good or bad) and doing what is morally correct. It govers the behavior of each individual and the organization as a whole.

An employee becomes a participant in a "protected activity" (i.e. when an employee decides to confront an employer about illegal activities such as fraud).

Wikipedia, defines ethics as "…a study of values and customs of a person or a group. It covers the analysis and employment of concepts such as right and wrong, good and evil, and responsibility." Ethics is a branch of philosophy that deals with what is considered to be right or wrong. Definitions of ethics have been widely proposed, such as “codes of morals of a particular profession”, “the standards of conduct of a given profession”, “agreement among people to do the right and to avoid wrong”. Ethics is all about rules that dictate human behavior and social interaction (Chryssides & Kaler, 1993). Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines ethics as “the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation”. In more simple words, it is the study of what is right to do in a given situation, and what we supposed to do.

Business ethics is described by studying how terms are associated with ethics used in relation to business. So business ethics invites us to think about what right and wrong consist of in relation to business activity; about the goodness and badness of specific business situations; about the rights, responsibilities, obligations and duties that ought to govern business relationships; about what a fair distribution of the benefits and burdens of business activity might involve; and about what constitutes a virtuous business or a virtuous business person (Fryer, 2015).