Business Ethics Issues

Business Ethics Issues Paper

Carrie McGhee-Blum

MGT216

June 20, 2010

Lisa Rusyniak

Business Ethics Issues

Business ethics demand that a company examines its behavior towards the outside world (Cuizon, 2009). In today’s business world, many companies make legal, but unethical decisions, as well as illegal, but ethical decisions. These decisions not only affect the employees of the company, but also affect the community surrounding the business. How ethical standards of a company are portrayed and practiced depends on each individual’s sense of morals and knowledge of right or wrong. If an employee of the company does not have the same ethical belief, they will portray that message to the outside community. This paper will define business ethics, as well as explain three ethical issues within today’s business environment that affect the community and organization.

What is Business Ethics?

Business ethics is a form of applied ethics that scrutinize ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that occur in a business environment. In the more conscientious marketplaces of the 21st century, the demand for more ethical business processes and actions is mounting (Cuizon, 2009). Because of this demand, companies quickly outline their ethics and standards to potential and new employees. The company may also have annual refresher meetings on their standards, as well as terminate an employee for not adhering to their ethical standards.

Three Ethical Issues within Today’s Business Ethics and Affects on the Community

For every company, there are universal values. These values include “honesty, integrity, promise-keeping, fidelity, fairness, caring for others, respect for others, responsible citizenship, pursuit of excellence and accountability” (Maniam & Teetz, 2005). Along with universal values, there are other ethical decisions such as laying employees off, job placement, and if the company participates in or directly helps the...