Business Ethics

RUNNING HEAD: BUSINESS ETHICS PERSPECTIVE

Business Ethics Perspective

Rocio Plata

University of Phoenix

Business Ethics Perspective

Ethics has played a significant role in the way companies conduct business today. Ethics alone means the values and moral precepts that govern a person’s behavior when choosing right from wrong. By coupling ethics with business the result is a set of standards that govern business practices; these standards are believed to be of good moral character by society in general. There are various types of ethical issues that are common in all businesses. This paper will discuss some ethical issues such as discrimination, conflict of interest, and inaccurate financial reporting.

Discrimination can be both subtle and obvious, it can occur in organizations of all sizes and in communities all over the world. It occurs amongst people who are not accepting of others with different personal characteristics, race, gender, national origin or religion. For example, an organization that has a predominantly male business environment where women tend to primarily hold more office and clerical positions rather than operational positions. One would ask if there exists any disparate effect on women since the organization primarily hires men for their operational positions. There are several criteria that need to be researched to see if the company’s composition (male vs. female employees) was attained in an ethical manner. How many females applied and were suitable candidates for an operational position? If they were suitable candidates available, where they hired? Where they offered pay that was equal to that of their counterpart for the same position? Depending on how an organization answers these questions will provide an insight into the ethics governing the hiring practices of the organization.

Conflicts of interest are another area where ethics plays an integral role in assuring that organizations carefully handle conflicts of interest...