BUSINESS ETHICS

Business ethics:
Business ethics (also corporate ethics) is a form of applied ethics or professional ethics that
examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that arise in a business environment,
including fields like medical ethics. Business ethics represents the practices that any individual or
group exhibits within an organization that can negatively or positively affect the businesses core
values. It applies to all aspects of business conduct and is relevant to the conduct of individuals and
entire organizations.
Business ethics has both normative and descriptive dimensions. As a corporate practice and a career
specialization, the field is primarily normative. Academics attempting to understand business
behaviour employ descriptive methods. The range and quantity of business ethical issues reflect the
interaction of profit-maximizing behaviour with non-economic concerns. Interest in business ethics
accelerated dramatically during the 1980s and 1990s, both within major corporations and within
academia. For example, today most major corporations promote their commitment to non-
economic values under headings such as ethics codes and social responsibility charters. Adam Smith
said, "People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the
conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise
prices. Governments use laws and regulations to point business behaviour in what they perceive to
be beneficial directions. Ethics implicitly regulates areas and details of behaviour that lie beyond
governmental control. The emergence of large corporations with limited relationships and sensitivity
to the communities in which they operate accelerated the development of formal ethics regimes

Role Of Ethics in Decision Making In Business Envoronment

An understanding of the definition of business ethics and ethics in decision making is
important in today's business environment. Once you've gained that understanding, it is
necessary to consider the impact of ethical decision making and problem solving on your
business.

The importance of ethics to business is because the values that you use to build and
manage your company need to be rooted in ethical decisions and strategies.

Recently, there has been a lot of media attention given to ethics in decision making;
particularly in the workplace. Consumers and society as a whole want to see more corporate
accountability. Additionally, we want business to more actively think about not only how a
company treats employees, but also how a company's code of ethics extends to all of its
stakeholders, such as customers, suppliers, and community.

From the time a business begins its operations to the time it delivers a service or product,
there are a lot of choices to be reviewed, problems to be solved and decisions to be made.
The manner in which those choices, problems and decisions are handled speaks volumes
about the business' ethics.
As a small business owner or manager, it is your responsibility to ensure that your
organization follows ethical practices and behaviours; and to ensure that your vision,
mission, and value statement are ethically aligned and understood by all your employees,
suppliers and other stakeholders. For Example:- All ethical questions are focused on making
a decision. So how does one go about framing that choice? Initially, of course, a person (or
the organization) has to recognize that an ethical issue exists. The issue could be a legal one,
or more of a judgment call, but in both cases the question of 'what is in the greatest good'
for all stakeholders must be asked (and answered).

In determining right versus wrong, we have to remember that those terms are subjective.
That's where understanding the definition of ethics, and relying on a corporate code of
ethics, can be very helpful. The code is the baseline by which a person, group, or
organization can measure the facts of a case (including whether a determination can be
made impartially). It is also important to develop an organization's value statement to
reflect your ethical values as well; this will help employees understand your commitment
and direction.

When analysis and evaluation begins, the rights of the individual and group, the equality of
treatment, and the steps taken to remedy the issue or situation in a way that best serves
the organization's vision or identity must all come into play. By examining each of these
elements, a decision that's cohesive, consistent and appropriate will begin to form. Finally,
that decision must be implemented (otherwise you're spinning your wheels).