Why Are Business Ethics Important? Essay Example

Business is considered as an  inherently vicious sphere of activity, so there are not many people who treat the issue of business ethics seriously. However, it does exist – as Crane and Matten (2007) suppose, business ethics is very similar to that of the poker game. Despite the fact that the specificity of a game supposes pretence and lies, there are still many ethical regulations that strictly govern the process of playing. There is no way to development and business improvement without business ethics because it governs such concepts as prestige, public image and reputation, respect towards stakeholders etc. All executives have to keep in mind that the organization in which they work is not an isolated organism, and they have to be accountable and honest towards all stakeholders who take an active part in the life of a business structure.

Doing business without considerations of business ethics turns out simply impossible. The process of implementing ethics in the business process is properly discussed by Weiss (2008) as looks as follows:

“Learning to think, reason, and act ethically can enable us to first be aware of and recognize a potential ethical problem. Then we can evaluate values, assumptions, and judgments regarding the problem before we act… Acting accountably and responsibly is still a choice” (Weiss, 2008, p. 9).

The current situation many businesses face with bribing is an evil of the modern times – the temptation to win a competitive ground in the market segment is too high, and executives of other companies decide to get involved in bribing to provoke inducement to buy their products. However, such indecent practices prosper only because of the dual values and different approaches to ethics (Peterson & Ferrell, 2005). People’s personal moral codes are too different to sustain the common ground of ethical rules that have not been composed by anyone, sealed and signed by the global business community, thus remaining the matter of personal choice. In case the individual has low moral principles, he or she will not resist the will to earn some additional money, even though publicity of such an affair will kill his or her reputation.  Such individuals simply do not see the ethical content in a case of bribing and perceive it as only the matter of their personal choice, which is totally unacceptable from the point of view of social responsibility.

Corporate social responsibility is a relatively new term coined in the response to the growing publicity of business. Too many stakeholders, including customers, are actively involved in doing business, to let them remain isolated from the decision-making mechanism and business ethics. All decisions directly relate to all participants of the business process, so it goes without saying that each customer and each employee have the right to know where their funds have been allocated and how they will be distributed in future. Thus, corporate responsibility becomes a powerful tool for employee motivation and the creation of strong binding relationships of businesses with governments, communities and customers, giving an opportunity for further development and advancement (Hopkins, 2007).

As one can see from the facts enumerated in the present discussion, both business ethics and corporate responsibility are becoming the modern drives for development in the near future. With the outbreak of a series of international business scandals the general public has become less trusting and forgiving. Business is nothing without its customers, so the task of utmost priority for every top executive is to strengthen the company’s reputation through decent, ethical and responsible behavior. Everyone should act in such a way that he or she could be accountable for each action at any moment of time – this is the secret for the business success and the positive feedback from stakeholders.

References

Crane, A., & Matten, D. (2007). Business ethics: managing corporate citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization (2^nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Hopkins, M. (2007). Corporate social responsibility and international development: is business the solution?London: Earthscan.

Peterson, R.A, & Ferrell, O.C. (2005). Business ethics: new challenges for business schools and corporate leaders. New York: M.E. Sharpe.

Weiss, J.W. (2008). Business Ethics: A Stakeholder and Issues Management Approach (5^th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western College Pub.