Ethics in Business

Ethics in Business Homework, 09/06/12

1- Why is the ownership of corporations different from that of other forms of prosperity? What implications does this have for the nature of shareholder right?

Corporate ownership is much more complex, because it involves the creation of a legal identity separate from those of its owners. While an individual may own all the shares of a corporation, he or she is not personally responsible for it. That is because a corporation is, strictly defined, a legal entity that is "immortal" (does not terminate upon the owner's death), which can enter into and dissolve contracts, incur debts, sue or be sued, own property and sell it, as any individual may do.

2- Define corporate governance. What are the main ethical problems that arise in the area of corporate governance?

Corporate governance is a group of principles and performance rules that lead the way of doing business of the company and the relation with its stakeholders.

By corporate governance leadership goes beyond management, since it also includes the concepts of encouragement, help and service to others with the purpose of carrying out the organizational mission through ethically correct work. By relating all the above to ethics, we can provide an initial approach to the study of relationships between culture and ethics that consists in analyzing how the cultural model of a specific society can make firms located in diverse geographical areas and created according to different socio-economic postulates, share similar ethical beliefs.

3- “Executive pay is not an ethical issue – it’s just a question of paying people a market rate.” Critically evaluate this statement using examples from contemporary business practice.

I didn’t understand this sentence .

4- In this chapter, we have mentioned a number of times the financial crises of the late 2000s. In your view what are the main reasons from an ethical perspective for the occurrence of this crisis? Also, what...