Ethical Corporations

Ethical Corporations

John Powell

IFSM 304

Fall 2013

December 14, 2014

Professor Samuel O. Magambo

Ethical Corporations

Can corporations be ethical? This question can be very tough, if not impossible to answer. Many people doubt that business and ethics can and must coexist for a company to realize success. All companies have a code of ethics, but it seems that just a few of these companies truly go by them. The continuation of unethical behavior can decrease productivity, make it difficult for the employees to trust each other or their supervisors, cause a company to have a bad reputation and create an unfair advantage. I will apply the decision making frameworks to IT-related ethical issues and apply the best approach or approaches to ethical decision making in order to answer this question.

While all companies have a code of ethics, more and more companies and individuals find excuses for their unethical behavior, which puts those who continue to believe in ethics in a difficult situation, in which the latter group has to compete against those who have little or no principles. Unfortunately, ethical people often lose in their fight against those, who would do anything to get what they want or to make a profit. As a matter of fact, in today's world, it seems to have become more the rule than the exception for ethical people to fail in their career and their business life simply because they have to compete with more people who are willing to do just about anything to get ahead. Almost every day companies and their employees are faced with situations in which they have to make a decision and choose between something ethical and another that is unethical and almost always appears to be more rewarding or more profitable. Being hung up on profit and the urge to succeed most people sadly choose the unethical in order to realize their immediate goals. There are many examples of unethical decisions that are made in the business world. Two examples come to...