Business Ethics and Issues Essay

EthicsEthics is a section of philosophy which seeks to find answers about the incorrupt concepts desire bad, good, evil, proficient, wrong, etceteratera harmonise to OEC (2011) ethic is defined as a moral philosophy which is refer with what is right or wrong, good or bad, fair or unfair, amenable or ir responsible for(p), obligatory or permissible, praiseworthy or blameworthy. galore(postnominal) scholars get associated it with the various feelings and emotions desire guilt, indignation, empathy etc. The morals deals in the fashion of doing things and with the generalized matters cogitate to the public policies and the personalized issues. It is found on the companionable practices and laws, religious matters and conscience. These favorable practices give strength to this branch of philosophy. It seems to be very(prenominal) general matter but cod to its connection to various social issues, it is of hug drug termed to be very complex and difficult to employ. W ith the passage of time, nigh an(prenominal) companies get hold of started giving brilliance to the corporate morals and their responsibility towards the gild and communities. Today, umpteen patronagees give way gained lot of reputation and recognition by beingness in demarcation and come withing the morals when conducting their channel activities while many others go for lost their reputation only because of bad melodic phrase practices. To many, bloodline organisation is an economic activity to maximize their profits and the main focus for them down this activity is notes. at that place is nothing wrong with the m maviny itself but the some line of workes acquire money and gain profits matters most and their manner raises some(prenominal) questions connect to the honorable behavior. clientele EthicsBusiness ethics strives to witness whether or not a specific lineage practice is morally and ethically acceptable. The Ameri butt Heritage Dictionary has defined business ethics as the philosophy of human conduct with the emphasis on find out right and wrong. It specifies the rules or standards governing the conduct of the members of a profession (Ferrell et al, 2009).It is undeniable for the entrepreneurs to follow good business ethics forevery part of their business. There be several global entities, that offer brands to the public for general and specialized use, are engaged in the bad business practices and many of them invite been fined by the connect authorities which accounts for millions. The companies are fined imputable to their failure to deposit to the business ethics and ethical laws. The main problem with these companies is the amount of money they generate is much higher than the fines imposed on them. This outweighs the opportunity be associated in their business and they happily pays off all the fines. It is therefore prerequisite for the authorities to force business ethics over all the business entities a nd their business units. Business ethics can remove the minor issues like the lower wage rates, work force exploitation as thoroughly as the big issues like the children in sweat shops making sneakers or footballs for the large companies. The above discussed implications explain some of the important facts related to the business ethics. The importance of ethical business practices is forced by many local, regional and state train political sympathiess to the companies. grandness of Business EthicsBeing a good person or a person of values, in ones own opinion, being a person of good ethical and moral values is not enough in the todays business scenarios and it is not helpful to handle the issues related to the ethics that may a emanation in the organizations. It is very important for the companies to understand and recognize the race between the decision related to ethics and the legal aspects of business organizations.The importance of business ethics was first recognized, dur ing the 1960s, when the social issues in business rise to large extent in the American societies. There were increased issues related to the public safety, and ecological problems related to the pollution, waste heed system, disposing the toxic wastes etc. in these societies. The then president of America, bath F. Kennedy, gave a special capacity to the general public and the companies to safeguard the consumer rights of safety, the right to be informed and right to choose, which is widely k nown as consumer bill of rights. In the late nineties, business ethics became an emerging field in the societies. Lot of emphasis on this field was placed by the theologians and philosophers who suggested that some of the principles of ethics are relevant to business activities. This gave rise to the academic and research writings about incarnate Social Responsibility of a friendship (Ferrell et al, 2009).The importance of ethical practices can be recognized by considering the fact there is an international union Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations (FSGO) which was complete in late 90s to set the standards and rule of conduct for the companies working in the business environments. There are ten basis guidelines for the organizations specified by FSGO which must(prenominal) be followed by the companies in order to remain ethical in the business (Ethics Resource vegetable marrow, 2005). respectable Issues in BusinessDue to increased emphasis on the business ethics over last three decades, this field is suffering and is affect by the lack of proper speakions and is struck, just like Alice in the wonderland, in the issues like logic, reasons etc. Much of the research emphasis is given on the two basis approaches to understand the relationship between ethics and the business practices. These approaches used by the researchers are termed as normative approach and existential approach (Donaldson and Dunfee, 1994). The past conception of the companies about the e thical issues in business was related to the administration of rules, regulations in the organizations and making sure that the people are complying with these rules or adhere to the standards set by the organizations to stay ethical. This conception is now nowhere implemented, today, people from the top management level and the business owners have understood that this concept of ethical issues in business is far passe-partout than handling the rules and regulations and their effective implementation. There are wide reachs of issues related to the business ethics currently observed by the market analysts. According to the online news report published by UK Energy Saving Website (2011), today, there is wide range of areas listed under the head of ethical issues in business. These issues can be of vary nature ranging from professional ethics which may include the moral duties of engineers, doctors, and architects, lawyers as well as the employee right issues. The issues related t o employee rights may further be divided into various categories like issues related to wages, safe working environment, non-discriminatory policies etc. The functionalareas of business like selling, management, accounts etc. also reported to have ethical business issues.Due to the varying natures of these issues, it is difficult to conclude whether or not any company or a supply ambit partner is adhering to the ethical principles. In the current business environment, the issues like fairness, justice and honesty are the main issues that are posing complex quandary to the businesses. Any wrong or biased decision can have a profound impact on the goodwill of the company as well as its market position. To deal with such issues, many companies follow the ethical guidelines so that they do not lose sight on the essential value of fairness. However, if they choose to use legality and profitability as their measurement in determining what is right from wrong then business ethics will s urely become irrelevant (CFA, 2009). Business endure Ethics merchandising EthicsMarketing is among the most crucial functions of a business in an organization. The function of this business unit is to provide arrest about the four basic aspects of a business- Product, Price, Place and Promotion. It provides interface to the management related not only to the customers but the other related parties like media, investors, distribution system, supply range partners, legal framework, as well as others. The importance of merchandising ethics is vital to the organization due to the various(a) nature of stakeholders associated with this business function (Ferrell, 2007). While Ethic deals in the last and study of what is right, wrong, good, evil etc., for merchandising managers, workplace ethics deals with the rules, regulations, principles for governing the enactment of conduct of the members of an organization (Ferrell, 2005). Therefore, ethical marketing can be defined as practic es that emphasize transparent, trustworthy, and responsible personal and organizational marketing policies and actions that expose integrity as well as fairness to consumers and other stakeholders based on normative perspective (Murphy et al, 2005). The concept of marketing ethic emphasizes on the practices and standards that are deemed acceptable in the marketing conduct. These operative standards are normally determined by the stakeholders and the organization as a whole which is responsible for the marketing related activities. Themarketing team is required to adhere to these standards and key sure that these prescribed standards are in fit with the societal take and expectations. According to Ferrell (2005) the ethical marketing practices are most significant in establishing and retaining long term relationship, and development of customer trust. The nature of marketing is very diverse which in turn started large numbers of ethical issues incurred by the businesses today. Key Issues in Marketing EthicsAs the 21st one C started, the companies and business started to give more importance to the business ethics due to the various scandals emerge early this century related to Enron, Tyco, and Sunbeam etc. most of the business scandals were related to the accounting frauds or supply chain of mountains management. During this phase, the journal of marketing consisted of wide range of articles that were associated not only to ethics but especially to the issues related to business ethics (Klein, Smith and John, 2004). The marketing ethical issues are defined by the stakeholders and the company and therefore these issues must be resolved in the timely manner to improve the level of trust and build long term relationships with these people. Murphy et al (2005) suggested that due to the nature of marketing issues, the marketers are sometimes need to deal with the choices that are subjective and moral in nature requiring them make decision regarding the moral sta ndards. Due to these ethical standards, the companies and their stakeholders must conform to the moral principles. Many companies have started fair trade system to operate ethically with their supply chain partners. For example, the star bucks has started the fair trade system to engage with their farmers by religious offering right prices and maintaining business relations as well as direct purchasing options (Starbucks, 2011). When applying ethics to the marketing practices some factors are important to be considered. First, the marketers should understand the objectives of the company. Second, they must balance the marketing practices with the objectives of the company. The balancing may incriminate compromise at any point of business or tradeoffs (Ferrell, 2007). about of the marketing ethics are related to the fairness, justice and honesty as well as conflict of interest, fraud, discrimination and privacy etc. talking about the global business practices, many countries trade departments have establishedregulatory groups like better business bureau etc that mainly deals with the issues related to the ethical marketing. The governments have also developed trade commissions that forces laws related to the consumer protection. These government regulated bodies includes Federal Trade Commission, Food and Drug Administration etc. these organizations strives to help the consumer in identifying fraud, deception and public safety. These and many other related agencies focus on identifying the major issues that are of ethical concern for the marketers. Examples of these issues includes the converse practices adopted for marketing, wrong advertising, hidden pricing, wrong information presentation in the internal and external communication system, misleading ads, etc. to deceive the customers (Ferrell, 2007 Leclair, Ferrell and Fraedrich, 1998).A lot of progress is been made in the field of ethical marketing based on research and theory. In order to obtain vivid results various codes of conducts have been developed by the organizations like American Marketing Association, Marketing Research Association etc. which has elevated the marketing practices. Moreover, many organizations have developed code of ethics which helps them address various marketing practices related ethical risk areas.ReferencesCFA (2009) Ethical Issues in Business and the wideness of Ethics, retrieved on July 29, 2011 from http//cfagbata.com/ethical-issues-in-business-and-the-importance-of-ethics/ Donaldson, T. and Dunfee, T. W. (1994) Toward a unified conception of business ethics endogenetic social contracts theory, The Academy of charge Review, Vol. 19, No. 2, pp.252-284 Ethics Resource Center (2005) Federal Sentencing Guidelines for the organization, ethics org, retrieved on July 29, 2011 from http//www.ethics.org/resource/federal-sentencing-guidelinesFerrell, O.C. (2005). A Framework for consciousness Organizational Ethics. In Business Ethics New Challenges for Business Schools and incarnate Leaders. R.A. Peterson and O.C. Ferrell, (eds.) Armonk, New York M.E. Sharpe, 3-17.Ferrell, O. C. (2007) nature and scope of marketing ethics. In G. Gundlach, L. Block & W. Wilkie (Eds), Explorations of marketing in society, Mason, OH Texere/ Thomson South Western Ferrell, O. C., Fraedrich, J. and Ferrell, L. (2009) Business Ethics Ethical ratiocination Making and Cases, 7th edition, USA South Western Cengage Learning Klein, J.G., N.C. and John A. Smith. (2004). Why We Boycott Consumer Motivations for Boycott Participation. Journal of Marketing, 68 (3) 92-110. LeClair, D.T., O.C. Ferrell, and J.P. Fraedrich. (1998). Integrity Management A Guide to Managing Legal and Ethical Issues in the Workplace. Tampa, Florida University of Tampa Press. Murphy, P.E., G.R. Laczniak, N.E. Bowie, and T.A. Klein. (2005). Ethical Marketing, pep pill Saddle River, New Jersey Pearson Prentice-Hall.OEC (2011) Defining Ethics and Morality, OEC org, retrieved on July 29, 2 011 from http//www.onlineethics.org/ culture/precollege/scienceclass/sectone/chapt2.aspx UK Energy Saving (2011) Ethical Issues in Business, retrieved on July 29, 2011 from http//www.uk-energy-saving.com/ethical-issues-in-business.html Starbucks (2011) Fair Trade, retrieved on July 29, 2011 from http//www.starbucks.com/aboutus/StarbucksAndFairTrade.pdfFurther Reading1. Business Ethics Caseshttp//www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/focusareas/cases.cfm?fam=BUSI 2. Performance approximation casehttp//www.scu.edu/ethics/dialogue/candc/cases/performance.html 3. Applied Ethics Resourceshttp//www.ethicsweb.ca/resources/business/topics.html4. Business Ethicshttp//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_ethics5. Cutting-edge issues in business ethics continental challenges to usance http//books.google.com/books?id=RsBfMI6di8gC&pg=PA87v=onepage&q&f=false 6. A companion to business ethicshttp//books.google.com/books?id=PDXVnfyKHBIC&pg=PA178v=onepage&q&f=false 7. Harvard Business Reviews Business Ethicshtt p//www.businessweek.com/managing/company/business_ethics/ 8. Business Ethics and Stakeholder Analysishttp//www53.homepage.villanova.edu/james.borden/vsb1001/Goodpaster.pdf 9. Ethical Decision Makinghttp//www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/10. Importance of Ethics in Businesshttp//www.accountantnextdoor.com/importance-of-business-ethics-importance-of-ethics-in-business-investment/ 11. The Critical Importance of Business Ethics For Effective Leadership http//www.businessexpertwebinars.com/content/view/471/29/12. Business Ethics Manualhttp//www.trade.gov/goodgovernance/adobe/bem_manual.pdf