Ethical Issues in Business and the Importance of Ethics
12. Dec, 2009 
View Comments
In the past, various companies only thought that ethical issues in business are only a term used to define administrative rules and regulations that everyone must adhere or a standard that must be followed. However today, top level management and small business owners have now realized that it is more than that.
Big and small companies are now slowly realizing the importance of ethics in business that is crucial for them to succeed. A successful company must learn that confidence and respect of its customers are vital to its business.
- Do you have Business Ethics?
Business people are now held accountable for their own actions, as more and more people are now demanding that they meet their social duty not just for their country but most especially to their customers, which are considered as their life and blood. An unsatisfied customer can definitely hurt any company, something that no one would want to happen.
So how does one business determine what is ethically unacceptable and acceptable behavior? Where do business owner, chief executives and employees get their standards or guidelines for ethics? Is there a definition for business ethics that can really set an honest and fair business practices?
This is the dilemma that many employees and business owners are facing every day. Everyone will somehow and someday is faced with a decision that involves ethical behavior.
Since, there is no clear definition of business ethics then it would be really hard if all you have are guidelines that the company had set for you.
Fairness and honesty are big issues, a very complex dilemma especially if this will somehow hurt the business. Since ethics are moral issues, thus making a decision that will have negative effect on the company is going to be tough for the person who will be making the decision. An individual can make either a right or wrong decision, depending on how it will affect his life and work status. In view of the fact that ethics are moral issues your beliefs and values will definitely be tested.
A business will react accordingly to its moral guidelines and principles if the owners and executives do not lose sight on the essential value of fairness. However, if they choose to use legality and profitability as their measurement in determining what is right from wrong then business ethics will surely becomes irrelevant.
A discussion of ethics is actually a subjective issue. Everyone will always have their own concept of righteousness; therefore a one definition of business ethics can be difficult. Moral standards are created by home environment, religious beliefs and traditions and thus making ethics hard to define, but not impossible to make.
Ethical Issues in Business and the Importance of Ethics
Please Like this post or leave a comment below! Subscribe to our RSS feed so future articles can delivered to your feed reader or mail. Also, we invite you to Join CFA Fan Network on Facebook. Thank you for visiting!
If you this post, you may also like these:
Meet the Author
Like the saying when you make rules, people love to break them but still, it is better to have rules than to have no rules. Thanks for stopping by Cathy!
I agree with you as Ethics really is with the individual and his/her perception of life but not forgetting “minimum acceptable standard” which is really where ethics begins.
Yes! indeed Business ethics has no clear definition except the rules and guidelines of the company, that every employees loves to break… honesty is hard to follow if no one will check on you, so does it mean your unethical already or just being honest only.
Business ethics are no where clearly defined.There are guidelines and rules to run a company but very few people follow them.Ethics are in general within an individual.If an individual is true and honest to himself,it automatically transpires into his fellow employees.
<http://www.businessmantra.net/the-role-of-busin...>