Ethics and Values in Business Sustainability

Ethics, ethical values, and social responsibility should all work in unison in a corporate business structure. These key traits are better defined as maintaining overall good business morals, obtaining employees who possess personal ethical values, and finally to behave ethically and with sensitivity toward social, cultural, economic and environmental issues. For a business to better ensure these quality business traits a code of ethics should be adopted by the business. In the cases of Bernie Madoff and Enron, the most well-known financial scandals in history, I feel, gave a major hand in pushing business all across America to have and enforce the code of ethics.

The Cheesecake Factory has been one of the more successful chain restaurants in recent years because they have provided great food and outstanding customer service in a fun atmosphere. The cheesecake factory employs a high standard of general conduct and moral aptitude. As a chief executive officer in today’s society, it is my responsibility to ensure The Cheesecake Factory abides by the laws and ethical duties that are mandated by today’s society. There is a copious amount of benefits to being a chief executive officer, however there is an equal amount of risk as chief executive officers are held liable for almost any action or infraction that their company has induced.

Every business develops a set of ethical principles that they abide by. The business ethical principles intentions: it construct the business certainty in the community , maintain the employees liveried in what the business attempt to have as structural conducts and aid the employees consume principles to make ethical choices that guards the business. In a culture with a diverse assessment structure and augmented judgment visibly by companies with changeable ethics and interests, there appears to be further difficulties on business individuals to make tougher ethical assessments. In our day-to-day performances, we depend on on our ethical principles to monitor us in the correct path and do the correct things. The substance of any efficacious and perpetual business is they segment a mutual ethical matter concentrating on presenting and generating value along with allocating their business values with the citizens they network with on a day-to-day basis.

Business practices, in addition to guidelines on the matter of probable controversial impediments are a component of organizational ethics. This type of ethics is frequently motivated by the law; a copious amount of organizations practice ethics in order to be accepted by the community, not to mention in order to ensure a successful business. Ethical values can have a focal point on organizational concerns which assist the company in adhere to respectable practices within their establishment or corporation.

Effects of products/services and in relationships with stakeholders. That attention to business ethics is critical during times of fundamental change -- times much like those faced now by businesses, both nonprofit and for-profit. In times of fundamental change, values that were previously taken for granted are now strongly questioned. Many of these values are no longer followed. Consequently, there is no clear moral compass to guide leaders through complex dilemmas about what is right or wrong. Attention to ethics in the workplace sensitizes leaders and staff to how they should act. Perhaps most important, attention to ethics in the workplaces helps ensure that

The idea of sustainability has become an increasingly common term in the rhetoric surrounding business ethics, as corporates are gaining broader acknowledgement of this pro-active method which guarantees business long-term viability and integrity by focusing on the triple bottom line. In business, the three aspects of sustainability include social, economic and environment.

Ethics are values and principles that individuals use to govern his decisions and activities. Ethics are about moral judgment of an individual about right and wrong. In an organization, code of ethics refers to set of guiding principles and organizations use these principles in their policies, programs, and decisions for business. Within organizations, decisions are taken by groups or individuals and these decisions are influenced by the culture of the company. Decision making and relevance of ethics may also differ for nonprofit and for profit organizations. In contemporary business environment, organizations must have a clear ethical policy and implement it in proper manner. There are many social, legal and economic outcomes that company has to face in case of any ethical dilemma, so there must be a smart strategy to deal with ethical dilemmas. In this paper, we will address the ethics for nonprofit and profits organizations, ethical dilemmas being faced or faced by each of these companies and the outcomes of these ethical dilemmas. Critique of actions of each of these companies will be provided from the point of view of applicable philosophical theories of organizational ethics.

Ethics involve an individual's moral judgments concerning what is right and/or wrong. Individuals or groups of people are responsible for making decisions in an organization (shaw, 2008). Decisions within the organization are always emanate from the company's culture. However, the decision to act ethically and morally requires an individual judgment. Thus, members of staff are obligated to make decisions that reflect their right course of action (shaw, 2008). This involves rejecting the option that could lead to the greatest short-term gain. The leadership of most organizations stresses the need to adopt ethical behaviors and corporate social responsibility. Ethical dealings can earn the organization various benefits. For instance, it may attract more clients to the business thus boosting sales; employees could be motivated to stay longer in the organization thereby reducing recruitment expenditures. Ethical behaviors could also earn the business a favorable reputation that could attract investors. Categorically, a lack of social responsibility or unethical behavior may hurt the firm's reputation and scare away investors. Sales and profits could fall in the process.

Today’s business world presents numerous ethical issues. In today’s world above board/moral ethics in organizations do not often materialize intuitively. Organization must strive to provide employees with a clear understanding of the overall company vision. This will aid employees in practicing the code of ethics, policies and procedures in the workplace. Companies must be unwavering in continuously delivering the uppermost ethics of provision in which customers, applicants and employees are entitled to under fair business practices. One major core value is to uphold responsible and fair business practices.

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

How do ethical values shape behavior in organizations? According to Saleem (2014), ethical values and behaviors of an organization are made up of organizations institutionalized philosophies along with the moral ideologies of its members. In addition, the codes of ethics help to enhance the moral reasoning of employees while shaping their behaviors towards morally questioning unethical situations. Organizational leaders are encouraged to build cultures of trust with leadership who establish concerning goals employees pursue y setting examples for others to follow (Crosbie, 2008). The leaders whom are able to build training and development throughout their organization helps design and build relationships characterized by collaborative behaviors those results in mutually beneficial outcomes (Crosbie, 2008).

Ethics ensure that a company achieves its mission, vision, goals, and objectives in such a manner that they give a company a sense of direction and framework. Ethics ensure guidelines are creating that bind the entire organization into one common thread, govern the action of the organizational employees, and avoid deviation from the desired strategic path. Five ways a company can ensure ethics is including in their strategic planning are

Business ethics, social, and environmental guidelines frame the expectations of an organization's stakeholders including customers, employees, and regulatory bodies. An organization's ethical guidelines encompass how the organization and its employees embody ethical principles in their dealings, with each other, and other stakeholders. Therefore, Ferrell, Fraedrich, and Farrell (2008) have defined Business ethics as "The principles and standards that guide behavior in the world of business" (p.6). In many situations, individuals must incorporate their personal ethics to match those of the organization's ethical culture. For this reason, business ethics theory indicates that an organization's ethics are evident in its organizational mission and vision (Hummels & Timmer, 2004). This is because the mission and vision determine organizational structure and culture, and thereby organizational and individual behavior.

Business ethics and values are closely related, their effect and application in business activities correlate and they make one to ask very important questions that may or may not guide an individual in an organisation to make an ethical decision.

“As a branch of ethics the field of business ethics is interested in how judgments of right and wrong, good and bad, moral obligation and responsibility, rights and duties, and the like, are made and justified” (Gill, David). As a descriptive enterprise, business ethics is an analytical exercise in understanding and explaining how people and businesses make their ethical judgments and decisions. If your business does not carry the proper ethics it cannot thrive. It takes the necessary steps within the business management to enforce these ethics upon their business. The field of business ethics is interested in more than just social and environmental responsibilities but those are certainly critical component areas.