Ethical and Moral Issues in Business

What are Ethical Issues and what are Moral Issues?

Moral issues are faced by everyone day in and day out and are more or less an issue of right and wrong while ethical behavior is a matter of following agreed-upon definitions of acceptable standards of conduct. Morality is more of a universal concept and standard while ethics might be better thought of as unique to a culture whether a peoples or a corporate culture. The two terms are not mutually exclusive – something can be moral but unethical and it also theoretically possible for something to be immoral but technically ethical. Many ethical and trust-worthy business people are morally bankrupt as far as their personal lives are concerned. One would think that after a couple thousand years of philosophy and religion that these matters would be settled.

Defining and differentiating between ethics and morals, both in business and in personal life, is a slippery slope – like many facets of philosophy it is yet to be settled and likely won’t be anytime soon. This discussion of moral relativism will always be with us. What might be acceptable in American culture might be taboo, or at least frowned upon, in another culture. What happens when something seems immoral on a personal level but is socially accepted and considered ethical as good business practice?

Differences between Personal Ethics and Business Ethics

In this depressed world economy it has finally come true that there is no such thing as business ethics – your competitors are going to “do it to you” and you had better do it to them first if you want your company to thrive. It often seems that there is no room in the workplace for personal ethics. One has to be willing to “play ball” whether a mid-level vice-president or a procurement agent of government contracts. Personal ethics, it could be argued, should be reserved for friends and family and can only breed conflict when applied at work.

More and more it seems that morals, as well as personal...