Business Ethics

Business ethics are the guidelines for acceptable behavior by organizations in day-to-day operations. Ethics tells businesses how they should act toward each other, employees, and the public. Following pressures from consumers for more principled and conscientious business practices, many corporations are deciding to volunteer publicly their dedication to ethical business by devising codes of conduct and standard operating principles. By doing this, they must interpret into actions the concepts of personal and corporate responsibility, corporate giving, and corporate governance, and whistle blowing. “Good” business therefore demands an organizational culture that combines a degree of ethical sensitivity with organizational systems which effective in handling ethical issues (Business Ethics, 2001). Three ethical issues that plague today’s business environment are discrimination, harassment, and conflict of interest issues.

Discrimination

Discrimination in the workplace is any unreasonable experience in which an employee endures because of his or her age, sex, religion, disability, or any other protected characteristic. Discrimination is manifested in the forms of compensation, promotions, job evaluations, and hiring. An example of discrimination would be not hiring a qualified candidate for a particular position because of their age, sex, religion, or other characteristic. The U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is responsible for enforcing federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an employee because of the person's race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information (Commission). Protection is also offered for discrimination against a person if they complained about discrimination or filed a charge of discrimination or was a part of a discrimination lawsuit or investigation. EEOC laws cover employers with at least 15 employees (20 employees in age...