Business Ethics Today

Business Ethics Today

by

Jack Yilmaz

Business ethics is defined as a written and an unwritten code of principles and values that are governed by the organization and the actions within a company. Organizations or companies have set a culture inside their structure that sets a solid foundation of what a good and bad decision would be, given a particular situation. In businesses around the world today there are a set of these principles, and they are set for the employees as guidelines of doing business.

Several years ago, sociologist Raymond Baumhart asked business people, "What do ethics mean to you?" the following is a few of their responses:

"Ethics has to do with what my feelings tell me is right or wrong."

"Ethics has to do with my religious beliefs."

"Being ethical is doing what the law requires."

"Ethics consists of the standards of behavior our society accepts."

"I don't know what the word means."

Baumhart's first response was like many people they tend to equate ethics with their feelings. Being ethical is not a matter of following one's feelings; a person that follows his or her feelings may reject or deny doing what is right. In reality, a person’s feelings will more often than not more and frequently deviate from what is ethical, and right.

Ethics should not be identified with religion. Many of today’s religions stand and preach high ethical and moral standards. If ethics were to be confined to religion, then this would be easy to say that ethics only applies to religious people. On the other hand ethics applies to the behaviors of the atheist as well as to that of the saint. Religion can and does set higher than most ethical standards. This then will state that ethics, cannot be confined to religion nor can it be deemed as the same as religion.

Ethics in of itself, addresses questions of ourselves and morality, this encompasses the concept of doing good, bad, right, and wrong. That is to say that being ethical...