Ethical and Moral Issues in Business

Running head: ETHICAL AND MORAL ISSUES IN BUSINESS

Ethical and Moral Issues in Business

Although ethical and moral issues are more commonly referred to in individual aspects, they are very much so taken into consideration in the professional businesses world. It was not until the mid to late 1900s that businesses in the US started to implement ethics policies in their organizational structures (De George, 2010). Businesses started to take into account social responsibility in order to sustain long-term loyalty from the global market. Successful organizations that are able to sustain long term business generally practice good ethical and moral behaviors. Ethics and morals have overlapping aspects, however, there are basic differences between the two.

Morals are personal beliefs that make ones characters. For example, an individual with good morals, to current societies standards, is not the type that would intentionally do harm to others. Ethics is a code or standard driven by morals. For example, businesses have a code of ethics that is to be followed by each employee. Some aspects include being honest, fair, and obeying laws. If an employee fails to comply with the code of ethics, depending on the extent of damage, the employee may be terminated.

Sometimes personal ethics can conflict with business ethics. When this happens, one has to decide which side to take, the business or personal. For example, a police officer may feel that a certain law is unjust but has to enforce it in order to keep his or her job. Similarly, doctors deal with unexpected pregnancies and have to perform abortions. Some doctors may be against the procedure of aborting a baby, however, they will perform the task and side with the business.

Recently at the company I work for, there was an incident involving unethical behaviors. The unethical behaviors made by the executive vice president gave off a negative impression to a mass of valued customers. Using company money for...