Current Ethical Issue in Business
Introduction
Ethics and moral obligation are something that we all encounter at one time or another. Even in a professional setting, all persons should act in a manner that would uphold the good of society. Why is it that good, ethical and moral behavior is not always adhered to? Is it because some people do not understand ethics and what it means to be ethical? To be ethical, one has to decide between right and wrong, determine what is for the betterment of society and act accordingly. Ethics have three basic criteria that must be met obligations, moral ideas, and consequences (Ruggiero, 2004). Businesses have their own code of ethics and the individuals within that business have to determine
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While Mr. Hathaway acknowledges the fact that he took the cars, one has to wonder about his personal ethical beliefs. Did he believe that it was okay to receive gifts for the work that he was supposed to provide and yet supposedly never did? How did the gifts alter the relationship between the car dealership and the university? Did Mr. Hathaway feel that his personal association with the care company is legitimate and appropriate in his position as the athletic director for the university? One has to wonder about Mr. Hathaway's judgment and the reasoning behind his actions.
Mr. Hathaway's ethical behavior seems to be skewed. If he knew upfront that accepting the cars was against the universities policies and the state law of ethics then why did he do it? When interviewed about his decision, Mr. Hathaway has decided to stay out of the controversy. He did state, however, that he planned to end his side of the agreement with the dealership in the coming weeks, to preserve "the university's relations with Monaco. The car dealership spokesperson denied any wrong doing.
Ethical theories. The theories used in this scenario involved the deontological theory. This theory is based on duty. Deontologist base their decisions about what is right on broad, abstract universal principles or values such as honesty, promise keeping, fairness, loyalty, rights, justice, compassion, and respect (Trevino & Nelson, 2004). Mr.
Ethics has been around for a long time. Merriam-Webster defines ethics as rules of behavior based on ideas about what is morally good and bad. It is an area of study that deals with ideas about what is good and bad behavior. Ethics has much to do with feelings and beliefs. If you feel deep down in your heart that something is not right, then it you should not do it. The Bible says, “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin” (James 4:17 English Standard Version). Ethical business procedures include guaranteeing that the main legality is in place. Also, the company observes moral standards in its relationships with the people in its business community, which includes the most important people in their business, who are the customers. This report will discuss ethics in business, ethically transformed organizations; organizations preparation to make ethical decisions, ethical danger signs, and organizations that does business globally.
The author Robert Solomon argues that ethics has to an integral part with regard to business management. He does not believe that business management must include unethical or illegal methods to be able to succeed. Solomon preaches that business management is not as simple as obtaining revenue. “Businesses need to abide by fair policies and their owners have to be ethical in dealing with their customers” (Shaw p. 37). The author acknowledges that while illegal practices in business management could bring positive results at first, eventually the business is bound to fail. This is why Solomon recommended eight important policies that can help businesses in integrating ethics into their operations.
Ethics in business addresses the ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ behaviours of business practises, and how these practices impact the employees, shareholders, the general public and the environment.
closing the stores they could have done community outreach or service projects to help lower the rate of crime. They could have led the establishment of a neighborhood crime watch. They could have set up a mentorship program for teens at risk. There are a multitude of programs they could have implemented, some could probably have been used as a tax write off. If all of these efforts failed then I understand closing the stores. If they had to close the stores they should have made every effort to be sure that the displaced employees were able to find a job in another store or assisted them in being placed in another job. They also need to make every attempt to keep the building they were using occupied or cleaned up until it is occupied. How do these actions contribute to being socially responsible? It shows they care about their community, that even though they may have to shut down a store, they still
Ethics and moral obligations are issues we all encounter at one time or another. In the professional setting, all people should act in a manner that would uphold the good of society. To be ethical, one has to determine their obligations, moral ideas, and moral philosophy (Boatright, p. 19, 2009). The case analysis involving Jacob Franklin was a perfect example of how an individual can face the dilemma of doing what is right or wrong. Businesses have their own code of ethics, and the employees within the business have to determine whether or not they will follow the company’s code of conduct. I will discuss several ethical issues in the case analysis including; failure to report information, remaining silent regarding faulty equipment,
Being a business major, most of our class are either learning the ethics and being civil in business from being managers to CEO’s, or tips on how to look at financial statements and balance sheets all day without being bored. However, it also shows us the civility and incivility side of business through some courses which revolve around managing. My concentration is management, and most of the classes I have taken show how being a manager can either go civil or uncivil, depending on how you lead your company and employees. One of these classes, fundamentals of management, taught by Dr. Nadia Novotorova, has shown a lot on how civility and incivility can change the way your company works in numerous ways.
In Peter Singer’s essay “The Singer Solution to World Poverty”, published on September 5th, 1999 in The New York Times Magazine, Singer claims that the solution to world poverty is for Americans to donate excess income to aid organizations. His article consists of a gathering of exaggerated situations which he uses to engage readers, while also adequately supporting an argument of moral duty by comparing the hypothetical scenarios to Americans who do not donate. Singer exhibits an appeal to pathos to a substantial amount throughout his article. The provided situations set an outline for the reader to feel certain, appealing emotions.
an action can't be right if the people who are made happy by it are outnumbered by the people who are made unhappy by it.
Ethical standards in business are important for every leader to know and understand. The book Ethics 101: What Every Leader Needs to Know by: John C. Maxwell discusses ethics in the world today. When people make unethical choices, the reason they do because of three main pitfalls. People do what is most convenient to them, people tend to do what they must do to win, and people rationalize their choices with relativism. In this summary, Maxwell’s definition of business ethics will be framed, examples of ethical standards and guidelines, the meaning and contrast of ethical thinking and ethical behavior, and how to avoid these major pitfalls to live an ethical life. The
Ethical behavior is behavior that a person considers to be appropriate. A person’s moral principals are shaped from birth, and developed overtime throughout the person’s life. There are many factors that can influence what a person believes whats is right, or what is wrong. Some factors are a person’s family, religious beliefs, culture, and experiences. In business it is of great importance for an employee to understand how to act ethically to prevent a company from being sued, and receiving criticism from the public while bringing in profits for the company. (Mallor, Barnes, Bowers, & Langvardt, 2010) Business ethics is when ethical behavior is applied in an business environment, or by a business. There are many
The purpose of this paper is to analyze and evaluate a civil court case between Steven J. Hooper v. David Yoder and the role ethical principles played in the case. I would like to address these important points in this paper:
This Research paper reports on the ethics of BMW through its history starting from 1916 to present time of 2013. It shows the progression of BMW’s ethical dilemmas of having prisoners of war and concentration camp workers, allegation of bribery, to its racial discrimination. And the changes that where implemented that led them to be on Ethisphere Institute's top 100 list of the World's Most Ethical Companies for 2009. Such changes such as new management, changing conduct codes, improving environmental awareness, and ethics programs to insure no reoccurring incidents.
This incident would serve as the initial event that jumpstarted the public’s concern for exactly what was going on with many Toyota models. In this paper, we will explore the ethical issue that was present in this case, whether or not Toyota acted ethically in its handling of the unintended acceleration of its vehicles. In order to do this, we will examine the situation in the light of the six-step Hosmer’s moral reasoning process. This will include, among other aspects, an examination of the event in consideration of shareholder, stakeholder, and virtue theory. In addition to that, the authors will apply the Total Integrity Management model to Toyota’s actions in order to examine the moral integrity of the company as it pertains to trust. To conclude the paper, the authors will provide a normative statement regarding the actions of Toyota. To
In their personal and professional lives, people can and, unfortunately, sometimes do go against their moral and ethical standards. Ethical standards are what it means to be a good person, the social rules that govern our behavior. Ethics in business is essentially the study of what constitutes the right and wrong or the good or bad behavior in the workplace environment. A business is an organization whose objective is to provide goods or services for profit. The organization has a group of people that work together to achieve a common purpose. The moral challenges that these men and women face each day along with a whole range of problems that could occur, are why ethics plays such an important
Ethics is the branch of philosophy that deals with the principles correlated to human behavior concerning the rightness and wrongness of specific conduct, and to the good and bad that influences and ends those actions (Ditonary.com, 2011). In other words, ethics is the choice people effect in regards to a decision they need to achieve. Without ethics directing the choice an individual makes, moral preferences of what should or should not be done becomes irrelevant. While ethical decisions are made every day there are two different regions in which these choices are made.