Ethics Vs Profits

At first, it is necessary to properly grasp the meaning of the word ethics. Ethics is a very wide area of philosophy and is generally divided into several disciplines, some of which are related to our topic: the general study of goodness, the general study of right action and moral psychology. Philosophical dictionaries mostly agree that ethics is basically a study of morality (Audi 2006, 284). In its core, the goal of ethics lies in distinguishing between right and wrong.

With a developed understanding of the philosophical discipline of ethics, we can further look into the type of ethics we are currently interested in - business ethics. The general consensus is that business ethics tries to study correct business policies and practices when it comes to issues which are potentially controversial, for instance corporate governance, bribery, discrimination and corporate social responsibility. While most of these issues are covered by law, the focus of business ethics discipline is to provide a framework for businesses who choose to adopt good business ethics practices, whether it is because of gaining positive public image and public acceptance or because of company policies. (Investopedia)

At first glance, ethics and profits might seem like two contradictory terms. But in reality these two terms actually go hand in hand. This is true even more in our days, as business ethics and associated concepts such as corporate social responsibility and concern for environment have been shown as an effective method (or shall we say effective attitude) for improving a company’s public image, which in turn actually increases company’s profitability (due to the fact that consumers have become more concerned with ethics and environment and are more inclined to purchase products from a company that adheres to these standards). In fact lot of business ethics publications address this issue, even our course textbook. Is it even possible for a company to be truly ethical? Logic and common sense dictate that a company will be truly ethical in a win-win scenario. In other words, in a scenario where they will retain their profits while improving/maintaining their public image as an ethical and responsible company.

Another issue regarding the "ethics versus profits" discussion is this: should it ever come to the company having to choose between being ethical and being profitable, is it actually ethical for the company to be ethical instead of profitable and risk losing money? From a certain viewpoint, it could be argued that the company has an ethical obligation to make money, so that they can afford paying their employees. If such a case arises when the employees depend on the job for their and their families’ lives, what situation is "more ethical" for the company? This situation requires the company to select what stakeholders are the most important ones. What stakeholders does the company own the most loyalty to? Towards what stakeholders should the company be more ethical? The shareholders? Customers? Employees? It is always easy to decide what’s best in a "right versus wrong" scenario, but what if the scenario happens to be "right versus right"?