Ethical and Moral Issues in Business

Ethical and Moral Issues in Business

John Parlich

MGT/216

May 16, 2011

John Lombardi

Ethical and Moral Issues in Business

Business in the 21st century has become extremely competitive. The profit margins are reduced to such a thin line that the slightest edge can determine whether a company survives in the black, or is reduced into a puddle of red ink. Where is the line between ethical and moral issues?

When discussing ethical and moral issues, there is dispute about what each is and the effect on people in normal day-to-day living. Ethical issues involve the range of personal, group, and community politics at the level of values: not just what can be achieved, or how to achieve, but what should be sought, in the scope of social harmony and fairness. Ethical issues are issues or arguments that question moral values and vary according to changes in the social code and daily morality. Examples include; gay marriage, stem cell research, abortion, and capital punishment.

A majority of people describe ethics and morals as the same, or try to use one to define the other. Ethics is a code of conduct from within, usually meant to be related to activity, often in politics and business. Morals are guidelines for living that come from outside sources like, religious views. These are issues that can either help or harm someone by involving a difference of beliefs and not a matter of preferences, such as cheating on a spouse or failing to observe the law.

Most theories of moral decision-making posit moral behavior as the culmination of a multistage process-a process that begins with moral awareness or the identification of the moral issue (Ferrell & Gresham, 1985; Hunt & Vitell, 1986; Jones, 1991; Rest, 1986; Trevino, 1986).

As with the debate between ethical and moral issues, there is also personal ethics and business ethics that have dramatic affects in the working world. The word ethics is used loosely, so it is critical to understand...