Business Ethics Milton Friedman

What is ethically responsible management? How can a corporation, given its economic mission, be managed with appropriate attention to ethical concerns? These are central questions in the field of business ethics. There are two approaches to answering such questions. The first one is Milton Friedman’s shareholder theory of management and the second one is Edwards Freeman’s “Stakeholder” theory of management, two different views about the purpose and aims of a business.

Corporations are encouraged to conduct their activities in an ethically responsible manner, however neither the corporate world nor academia has produced a single – all encompassing definition of corporate social responsibility (CSR). The basic problem is that there are too many self-serving definitions that often lean toward the specific interests of the entities involved (Van Marrewijk, 2003). There has even been a quantitative study conducted on the many definitions of the term (Dahlsrud, 2006).

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.

Many believe that business entities should have an ethical duty to be socially responsible, to work towards increasing its positive effects on society while decreasing its negative effects. Many organizations look for opportunities to be socially responsible while also creating shareholder wealth.

Both key elements have an interactive relationship that helps in building profitable businesses, as well as a well-rounded community. Ethics refers to set of beliefs about right and wrong, good and bad. Therefore, Good ethical practice help build our business, as well as help our staff members to make ethical decisions. The decision of each official can affect the entire organization. Whereas, most people come from different background and culture which also plays a vital role in shaping their ethics. Business ethics involves the application of the issues in the workplace. While much unethical behavior is illegal, one important role of business ethics is to manage behavior that cannot be covered by government laws. The universal ethical standards, which involve respect, responsibility, and citizenship, are rules that apply to people and should be held high within the workplace. Social responsibility is the obligation of a business to contribute to society. The cheesecake restaurant social responsibility affects the environment, customers, investors, and our employees. (Bruning, 2014)

The primary purpose of ethics and social responsibility is imperative to the way we do business and live amongst society. Ethics most commonly know as the rights and wrongs are principles and standards that establish what is know as acceptable conduct within an organization. Organizations have moral and legal duties to implement ethics when developing a strategic plan while considering stakeholders and consumers, they do not want to be lied to or cheated into buying a false product. Unethical companies will use aggressive sales tactics and mischievous ways, of doing business to sell, promote and profit from vulnerable consumers. Unethical organizations believe in these tactics

The University of Miami case was one of the biggest financial scandals in the past year. Former UM Football Booster, Nevin Shapiro, orchestrated a $930 million Ponzi scheme, with which numerous NCAA rules were violated. Shapiro allegedly provided cash, goods, prostitutes, assorted favors and on one occasion, an abortion to University of Miami football players. This paper will examine the various legal and ethical implications involved in this case, including an analysis of the university’s social responsibility, and an overview of the scandal in terms of three ethical theories: utilitarianism, Kant’s

The notion of ethics deals with people’s behaviors within a company. Social responsibility involves a company’s moral obligations and the manner in which the organization makes its decisions. Although ethics and social responsibility are similar on a conceptual basis, each has its own unique characteristics that express their differences and its independence of the other. Ethics and social responsibility have to be present and coincide with one another for a business to be ethically sound.

To understand the importance of ethics and values in business sustainability we have to understand the meaning of both ethics and values within a business. Ethics are defined as principles in which are moral that help guide business on how to act ‘ethically’ as well as an individual’s actions and behaviour to do tasks, assignments and work within a business organisation with integrity, determination and the drive to achieve predetermined goals, for example According to Anthony R Vonsee “ We Believe integrity is more than compliance with applicable laws and regulations around the world.” Similarly to ethics, Values are referred ones attitude or behaviour to

Ethics are values that guide personal thoughts and actions in knowing right from wrong. Personal conduct and behavior is based on how the individual views unethical behavior. Social responsibility is the company, management, and employees working and conducting themselves by following rules of society.

In conclusion, utilitarianism proposes that an individual should at all times calculate the benefits that would come from his/her engaging in any action to ascertain the importance and benefits of the end result and therefore one should engage in that which leads to the achievement of maximum or the greatest pleasure and for the highest number of times. According to Bentham therefore, there are definite rules and codes that define an propose ways in which an individual must try to do in each and every action he engages in and every situation to ensure that such action benefits a maximum number of people. Bentham proposed the hedonic calculus that should be adopted and used by all people in the society before they are able to make a decision on the utility associated with every particular action.

In his paper, The Social Responsibilities of Business is to Increase its Profits (Friedman, 1970), Milton Friedman discusses social responsibility and what he feels it means in the business arena. He goes on to say “A corporation is an artificial person” (Friedman, 1970) and since this is not a real person, cannot have any responsibilities. While a corporation or business has a leader or board of directors, Friedman states these individuals cannot make decisions on social responsibility without eating into the profits of the company, the employee’s wages, or even the price that the customer has to pay for the item.

Ethics are to do with what is right and what is wrong. Ethics plays an increasingly important role in business. A business is part of society and just as society requires a certain standard of behaviour from individuals; it also expects businesses to abide similar standards. Business ethics is therefore the application of ethical values to business behaviour. It applies to all aspects of business conduct from boardroom strategies and how companies treat their suppliers to sales techniques and accounting practices. Ethics goes beyond the legal requirements for a company and is therefore a matter

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

“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.