Business Ethics

QUESTION  1

The term “business ethics” represents a combination of two very familiar words, namely “business” and “ethics”. The word “business” is usually used to mean any organization whose objective is to provide goods or services for profit. The word “ethics” refers to what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues. “Ethics” also means the continuous effort of studying our own moral beliefs and our moral conduct, striving to ensure that we, and the institutions we help to shape, live up to standards that are reasonable and solidly-based.Ethics provide a guideline for desirable business behavior affecting all the people in organizations. It is a framework providing guidance for conduct of all the stakeholders in the company. Ethics also provides a perspective of the business world through the eyes of common people. Business ethics is the study of proper business policies and practices regarding potentially controversial issues, sch as corporate governance, insider training, bribery, discrimination, corporate social responsibility and fiduciary responsibilities. Law often guides business ethics, while other times business ethics provide a basic framework that businesses may choose to follow to gain public acceptance. In another word, business ethics can be defined as written and unwritten codes of principle and values that govern decisions and actions within a company. In the business world, the organization’s culture sets standards for determining the difference between good and bad decision making and behavior. Business ethics is something that an individual carries in him but is also coordinated and adjusted to the ethical standards that are common in a society. Business ethics comprise the ethical codes of individuals which they inherited, and acknowledged in the early stages of life, adjusted in the different periods of development of themselves and of the society as a whole and the ethical standards they face when they meet with the organizational codes, rules, tradition, culture and climate. Business ethics is mostly concerned with ethical behavior of employees as they represent stakeholders who are mostly affected by ethical principles in the organization. That is the reason why most of the cases of unethical behavior are connected to the abuse of workers.

Business ethics knowledge is important that can assist employee in future in terms of:

1. Integrity

Definition of integrity, it’s defined as a concept of consistency of         actions, values, methods, measures, principles, expectations, and                 outcomes. In ethics, integrity is regarded as the honesty and                 truthfulness or accuracy of one’s actions. Integrity stems from the Latin         word ‘integer’ which means whole and complete. in ethics, integrity is         regarded by many as the honesty and truthfulness or accuracy of         one's actions. Integrity can stand in opposition to hypocrisy, in that         judging with the standards of integrity involves regarding internal         consistency as a virtue, and suggests that parties holding within         themselves apparently conflicting values should account for the         discrepancy or alter their beliefs. So integrity requires an inner sense         of ‘wholeness’ and consistency of character. When employee are in         integrity, people should be able to visibly see it through actions, words,         decisions, methods, and outcomes.The success of an organization is         built off of the trust of customers, employees and the general public.         The best way to gain that trust is to demonstrate ethics and integrity in         business practices. The integrity of a business         affects all customer         groups and every area of business operations.         Which is why it is         important to incorporate ethics and integrity into the core fabric of the         organization. It is important for business employee to live a lifestyle of         honesty, integrity and high ethical standards because what these         leaders do can harm the reputation of the organization. Employee can         provide high health and safety standards in working environments at         all sites and facilities and take appropriate steps to prevent accidents         and injuries, engage in negotiations in good faith if conflicts arise,         facilitate communication with all employees to address areas of         concern, respect the right of personnel to form and join trade unions of         their choice, avoid discriminatory practices with regards to gender, age,         race and religion.