The Importance of Ethics and Values in Business Sustainability

We’ve had a lot of discussion about ethics, values and morals this week and have drawn some lines between the meaning of each that applies to our personal and professional lives. Our values help guide us in our understanding of right and wrong, basically what we believe to be acceptable action in any situation we’re presented with. Morals are types of values that deal more with good and bad, the foundation for our behavior and decisions (The Definition of Morality, 2014). Ethics use shared morals and values in a system of accepted rules that a specific group of people agree to abide by. For example, most physicians agree to abide by the Code of Medical Ethics established by the American Medical Association since it is considered to be the most comprehensive code available (AMA's Code of Ethics, 2015).

This essay will analyse the strengths, limitations and challenges of ethical and socially responsible business practice. The purpose of this essay is to identify the advantages and limitations of following business ethics and act socially responsible in business operations. In order to help me analyse those further I will use the case study from food industry - McDonald’s corporation.

John Mackey, founder of Whole Foods once said "Business social responsibility should not be coerced; it is a voluntary decision that the entrepreneurial leadership of every company must make on its own." (Mackey, 2005) In today’s society it is increasingly common for businesses to actively identify and become directly involved in the country and the global social issues and needs. It is now common

1. A value is personal principle. Values are beliefs chosen by oneself that helps to shape the individual into who they are. An ethic is a system of principles having to do with ones morals.

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.

Businesses today face a plethora of ethical duties such as upholding corporate governance, maintaining stakeholder relationships, and presenting an image of social responsibility. In review of Company Q’s (Q) current ethics culture, its image in regards to social responsibility is not equivalent to that of its competitors. In a growing market faced with increasingly challenging competition, there are several areas that Q can and needs to address to bring the company to a level of social responsibility that exceeds stakeholder expectations. First, attention Q needs to address market demands for additional locations to better

The expectation that businesses behave responsibly and positively contribute to society all while pursuing their economic goals is one that holds firm through all generations. Stakeholders, both market and nonmarket, expect businesses to be socially responsible. Many companies have responded to this by including this growing expectation as part of their overall business operations. There are companies in existence today whose sole purpose is to socially benefit society alongside businesses who simply combine social benefits with their economic goals as their company mission. These changes in societal expectations and thus company purpose we’ve seen in the business community over time often blurs the line of what it means to be socially

Ethics is defined as a system of moral principles or the rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of human actions or a particular group. Ethics and values are sometimes used interchangeably, but the main goal is to make sure that one is using a moral compass to help guide in the decision making process. One individual who figures prominently when it comes to ethics is the veritable Martha Stewart. Ms. Stewart had to step down from her own company because of

Values and ethics are one of the most important characteristic of an individual. They basically define who we are and what we believe. There are many factors that determine our values and ethics. Culture, religion, and many other factors affect our beliefs. Many times are values and ethics can clash with different people who hold different views and beliefs. This doesn't mean our values or ethics are wrong it just means we think differently than others. Most people have a good sense of ethics and values. Knowing between right and wrong is a good foundation to practicing good ethics and morals.

However, today, the focus on stakeholder’s (apart from the shareholders, these are customers, suppliers and employees) expectations has also grown radically. Accordingly, ethical behaviours such as meeting stakeholders’ expectation objectives, environmental objectives and corporate social responsibility, which is accountability to the society and social responsibility, have resultantly become very important. Failure to comply with ethical behaviours can causes a business to damage its brand value and its reputation, which in turn could lead to reduced profits or even losses (Carroll and Buchholtz, 2014).

Ethics refer to the values that guide a person, organization or society - - the difference between right and wrong, fairness and unfairness, honesty and dishonesty.

Values relate to principles and attitudes that provide direction to everyday living. Values also refer to beliefs or standards considered desirable by a culture, group or individual (AASW). Similar to values, but slightly different, ethics means a system of beliefs held about what constitutes moral judgement and right conduct, they are moral principles (rules, guides) (AASW). So an ethical dilemma is then when a person is faced with a choice between two equally conflicting moral principles and it is not clear cut which choice will be the right one (AASW). Finally, ‘a code of ethics’ is an explicit statement of the values,

Ethics is defined as moral principles of conduct, which people usually agree with. Unlike in law there is no punishment involved in ethical values, if you don't follow according with the standards. There are many things that influence ethical behaviour. These can be personal reflection, religious beliefs, culture, experiences and family influences. If broadly speaking, ethics is the science or study of the morality of how humans act through the medium of natural reason.

Ethics are moral principles or values that govern the conduct of an individual or a group.It is not a burden to bear, but a prudent and effective guide which furthers life and success. Ethics are important not only in business but in academics and society as well because it is an essential part of the foundation on which a civilized society is built.

This research is compiled to explain how good ethical practices and good values in business can yield sustainability within the business and the society as a whole and in order to do this the concept of ethical business practice and values have to be understood.