what is Business Ethics?
Business ethics is the study of appropriate business policies and practices regarding potentially controversial subjects including corporate governance, insider trading, bribery, discrimination, corporate social responsibility, and fiduciary responsibilities. The law often guides business ethics, but at other times business ethics provide a basic guideline that businesses can choose to follow to gain public approval.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Business ethics refers to implementing appropriate business policies and practices with regard to arguably controversial subjects.
Some issues that come up in a discussion of ethics include corporate governance, insider trading, bribery, discrimination, social responsibility, and fiduciary responsibilities.
The law usually sets the tone for business ethics, providing a basic guideline that businesses can choose to follow to gain public approval.
what is Ethical issue?
An ethical issue brings systems of morality and principles into conflict. Unlike most conflicts that can be disputed with facts and objective truths, ethical issues are more subjective and open to opinions and interpretation.
Some Examples of Ethical Issues in Business:
Discrimination in the Workplace
Unsafe Working Conditions
Whistleblowing or Social Media Rants
Ethics in Accounting Practices
Nondisclosure and Corporate Espionage
Resolving Ethical Dilemmas and Making Ethical Decisions
Perhaps too often, business ethics is portrayed as a matter of resolving conflicts in which one option appears to be the clear choice. For example, case studies are often presented in which an employee is faced with whether or not to lie, steal, cheat, abuse another, break terms of a contract, etc. However, ethical dilemmas faced by managers are often more real-to-life and highly complex with no clear guidelines, whether in law or often in religion.
As noted earlier in this document, Doug Wallace, Twin Cities-based consultant, explains that one knows when they have a significant ethical conflict when there is presence of a) significant value conflicts among differing interests, b) real alternatives that are equality justifiable, and c) significant consequences on "stakeholders" in the situation. An ethical dilemma exists when one is faced with having to make a choice among these alternatives.
