Ethical Challenges in Business: a Historical Event Worth Examination

Ethics is the guiding force in any respectable organization. With a moral compass, especially in the leadership of organization, a company can become compromised and fall into a quagmire of legal issues, a tarnished reputation, and devaluation of company stock if it is a publically traded company. In pursuit of examine my own ethical lens I will analyze the ethical traits of an admired leader, my own traits as exhibited in the Ethical Lens Inventory, and how I make a decision concerning a particular ethical dilemma.

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.

The movie, Erin Brockovich, is based on a true story revolves around a file clerk named, Erin Brockovich, who represented the community of Hinkley against the electric corporation Pacific Gas and Electric Company, PG&E. PG&E faced disputes of ethical dilemmas and groundwater contamination lawsuits after Erin uncovered and exposed its unethical business practices. PG&E operated a compressor plant in Hinkley and hexavalent chromium, which could cause severe medical issues, was used to cool down the machines used at the plants to prevent corrosion in the machinery. The company failed to take the step of adding liner to the ponds at their plant, which led to groundwater pollution that affected the water near the compressor plant. PG&E was involved in more unethical behaviors followed by this initial breach of ethics, such as deception, bribery, and cover up evidence of chromium use.

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.

Historically, business ethics was of little concern to the majority. However, beginning around the early 1970s, ethical commercial policies and procedures became significantly important. Prior to the 1970s, the term business ethics was seldom a discussion. Most companies simply did not care about the ethics of their business operations, mission or corporate behavior—they were focused totally on the bottom line profits. Conversely, colleges and universities began to offer courses that focused on “Logic,” “Epistemology,” and “Ethics” in the late 1960s and early 1970s. However, most of these courses involved highly theoretical, esoteric concentrations, seldom found in business curriculums. In many cases, these subjects were offered to liberal

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.

Enron, a once thriving Houston-based energy titan, is now reduced to a cautionary adage among Americans to what massive failure corporate greed could lead to. At its core however Enron’s ethical and moral behavior was sound and seemed to be aligned with industry competitors. In an opening statement to the Enron Code of Ethics issued in July 2000, Lay wrote: “As officers and employees of Enron Corp., its subsidiaries, and its affiliated companies, we are responsible

In comparing and contrasting two articles which analyze and evaluate ethics in business, the impact of corporate social responsibility and ethical behavior by corporation and their managers can be understood by the public perception documented in a survey of Hawaiian residents, as well as the argument of negative value to consumers when self-interest and lack of ethics are part of an organization’s business model. The survey results in Choy’s article demonstrate the impression of a decline in corporate ethical behavior over the past twenty years. Both articles use the environment of competition to discuss the characteristics of ethical and moral behavior in the corporate realm. The recommendation based on the evaluation of information in the two articles is for business organizations to employ ethical and moral practices that include the values of society, and use traditional morality in all business dealings. The value of corporate social responsibility will be acknowledged and appreciated by consumers, and both economic and social gains can be achieved.

Often, law is recognized as a tool that ultimately provides justice; however, it also holds the power to silence others. In this film, PG&E ultimately have a greater voice than the plaintiffs despite the mass effect of the actions of the company. The plaintiffs reside in the quaint Californian community of Hinkley where it is discovered that PG&E are responsible for great amounts of industrial groundwater contamination. Accordingly, Michael Asimow and Shannon Mader link Erin Brockovich with the likes of “Class Action” and “A Civil Action” citing that the three films depict the recurring theme of “anti-business slant” .

1. Consequentialist moral theories see the moral rightness or wrongness of actions as a function of their results. If the consequences are sufficiently good, the action is right; if they are sufficiently bad, the action is wrong. However, nonconsequentialist theories see other factors as also relevant to the determination of right and wrong.

2. Ethical Issues in Business. It seems that every day in the news we are hearing of new company that has acted at least unethically and possibly illegally in the operation and financial reporting of their company's business dealings. There are many ethical issues in business. One major issue that we see is over and under reporting net income. Companies like to show that every quarter the net income of the business has an increase or profit. In order to show this they adopt unethical or illegal means in the operation and financial reporting. One such method is the indiscriminate use of stock options for employees that enable companies to take employment costs off balance sheet and inflate earnings. With the recent ethical issues we have

The history of business ethics goes all the way back to the 1960s. In the 60s, there was social unrest. Employers did not show loyalty to the employees and values were cast aside (Bethel, 2016). There were environmental issues, along with drug use and tension between the employee and employer. At that time companies began to establish codes of conduct. This is when companies created values and responsibilities which would be the company’s most important objective. The 70s saw some development of business ethics. This decade, in the beginning, had escalated rates of unemployment, the company suffered through a recession as well as human rights issues. There were forced labors and the wages did not amount to much. By the end of the 1970s, the

In the book, The Corporation Joel Bakan, presents arguments: that corporations are nothing but institutional pathological psychopaths that are “a dangerous possessor of the great power it wields over people and societies.” Their main responsibility is maximizing profit for their stockholders and ignoring the means to achieve this goal. This in results portrays them as “psychopathic.” Bakan argues that: corporations are psychopaths, corporate social responsibility is illegal, and that corporations are able to manipulate anyone, even the government.

All over the world business reputations are hitting a downward spiral, which is a serious concern for business leader because they hire the workers to produce the best possible outcome for their business. Business leaders are concerned about their unethical workplace being the explanation why their business is down the tube. Dr. Barry Morgan from the Archbishop of Wales support calls for an ethical business law. In proportion to the ethical business calling on the BBC, “Dr. Morgan believes an oath for those with the Master of Business Administration (MBA), which lays out a code of principles like the Hippocratic Oath does for doctors, would help with responsible leadership in business” (BBC: News Wales, 2011). It is probably the case that all businesses should sign the oath, this gives consumers to show that they are dedicated to being an ethical business. There are numerous of long run businesses that known to be unethical and they can steer the new business in the unethical direction. By adapting to business ethic terms and look for examples in the business fields that have an ethical or unethical reputation, this will give the opportunity for the business leaders to steer their employees into a healthy environment for their business to go the right direction.

What a valuable employee, Sue definitely took the high road and handled that dilemma with integrity. Each person has many reasons for being ethical. Some reasons can be: inner beliefs, habits, virtue because it is its own reward, personal advantages, it's good business, there is approval, being an ethical person can lead to self-esteem, the admiration of loved ones and the respect of peers. There is also religion because it is believed that good behavior can please or help serve a deity. Ethical actions can fit in with upbringing or training. Ethics starts with the individual employee choosing the right or wrong decision.