Business Ethics

Business Ethics

Graduate certificate of Business (Management)

MBM 507

Organizational Functions and Dynamics

Prepared For: Jo Jensen

Subject Code: MBM 507

By: Dennis Kovacevic

Student Number: 7465548

Due Date: 1st May 2011

Word Count: 960

What is Business Ethics?

According to Robbins (Pg.174) Ethics are interpreted as the “rules and principals that define right and wrong conduct.” While this sounds straightforward on the surface, if we ask ourselves what right and wrong conduct is, it would be different depending who you ask. Things like race, gender, nationality, age, religion and industry all affect what we interpret to be right and wrong and this is where business ethics can become confusing. Business ethics are largely dependant on what social expectations are at the time within the environment of operation. For example, a company operating in Australia would generally have a different policy on sustainability than a similar company operating somewhere like China.

A companies ethical principals can generally be used as a guide when making decisions within or on behalf of a company. They should form a specific framework to consider the impact of decisions on areas that may be affected. For some companies all decisions will be based on returning maximum profits regardless of the social or environmental impacts, however for ethical companies profits will be important but so will things like reputation and integrity. For most businesses their ethics mark the point where they are not willing to cross to earn more money and in today’s society this is an expectation not just from employees but governments and the general public also.

Why are business ethics important to the community?

Ethics are the “behaviours that tell people how to act in ways that meet the standard of our values” and “values define what we think is right, good, fair and just.” (Swinburne University of Technology)

Wether or not a business is run ethically is a reflection on...