Legal and Ethical Issues Related to Previous Work Environment

Every corporation must have stated policies regarding workplace standards of behavior and practices. Ethics within the business sector are those principles which direct consumer product quality, fairness and truth in advertising.

When businesses fail to adhere to standards of fairness, and truth and consumers, and ultimately the economy suffers. In no other industry has the failure to exercise ethical practices been more far reaching than those who have and were affected by predatory mortgage lenders. With that being said, we will expound on the importance of ethics and what happens in its absence.

I understand that we are in a capitalistic society. “Capitalism is a social system based on the recognition of individual rights, including property rights, in which all property is privately owned” (Capitalism.org 2009). Only in America does everyone have the opportunity to work hard, study, and become entrepreneurs. Nonetheless, the issue is, all too often our freedom is taken for granted.

For the most part, in the absence of ethics, and sound moral judgment, typically, legal matters surface. Such is the case with the Enron scandal. “Shareholders lost tens of billions of dollars”. Enron has since become a popular symbol of willful corporate fraud and corruption. This scandal was named as one of the largest scandals in history” (Einstein Law, 2008).

Other cases involving fraud was in the mortgage banking arena. The mortgage crisis began as a result of fraud and subprime loans. Consequently, this has caused an economic down turn that will affect us for many years. As a result, jobs were lost, companies closed down, and foreclosures are at a record high.

To combat the rapid increase of unethical behavior in the mortgage banking business, formal ethics programs have been implemented. In fact, “results of a recent national study provide solid data that those leaders who want to establish a practice of positive workplace ethics within their organization...