Unethical Business Practices Abstract

Abstract

This paper addresses both ethical and unethical practices in the business environment. It explains the effects of both ethical and unethical practices with an emphasis on the effects of unethical practices. It points out at ethics as a major contributor to the achievements of a company’s long-term goals. It emphasizes on the need for ethical practices in an organization. It emphasizes that though some ethics are enforced by law, they require willingness of individual organization to enforce them in their respective entities. Individual employees should also be willing to engage in ethical practices. It points out at the top management as the main coordinator and foster of ethics within an organization. Basically, unethical practices may lead to heavy losses by a company hence closure due to lack of funds to finance its operations. This is due to the awareness of consumers on the effects of unethical practices on the quality of products produced by an organization. The paper uses examples of both Tyco and Enron to highlight some of the problems that might arise in an organization due to unethical practice.

Introduction

Businesses are set with an aim of profit maximization. Since all businesses work towards maximizing profit, some may use alternatives both legal and unlawful methods to maximize on profit. For this reason, moral standards of behaviors have to be set to ensure fairness in competition and carrying out of business practices. In business the environment, there are external and internal factors. Companies have influence over internal factors while the external factors are influenced by technological change, consumers’ preferences, culture or legislations by law. Ethics are legal factors which are aimed at controlling operations of organizations by providing a fair environment for competition or avoiding unnecessary monopolies. The business world consists