Difference Between Business Ethics and Social

Responsibility

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Activities | Difference Between Business Ethics and
Social Responsibility

Business Ethics vs Social Responsibility

Businesses aim to gain maximum profits for their
owners and shareholders. However, this does not
mean they can do whatever it takes to get that
maximum profitability. They can’t do crooked things
just to get their desired profit. This is where
business ethics and social responsibility comes into
the picture. There are many confusions between these
two terms and they tend to get used interchangeably.
Social responsibility is easy to understand, but the
word ‘ethics’ causes much confusion. A
company policy must be followed to benefit the
community. This is coined as the corporate social
responsibility. However, when one talks about
business ethics, it becomes a very different thing,
because ethics is based on conscience.

There is a significant difference between social

responsibility and business ethics; and the best way to
differentiate the two is by defining both of them.

Before defining business ethics, it is best to

understand the meaning of ethics first. Ethics means
moral character and comes from the Greek word
ethos. Ethical behavior is an aspect concerning the
good and right. Ethics is focused on the good and bad,
the right and wrong. Using it in business means the
company must follow the right behavior to benefit the
good of everybody, including the shareholders,
stakeholders, and even the community. Even though
making a profit is the most important thing in
business, if making money is the only concern of a
certain business, then it is capitalism in its worst.
Businesses should have good business ethics to
benefit the entire community or society. This is the
main goal of business ethics. That the business
activities should not harm the people. Instead, it
should benefit them. Businesses that do not have good
business ethics are penalized by the law, however,
these sanctions are nothing compared to the immoral
things that other businesses are capable of doing and
have actually done.
‘No man is an island,’ which means human beings are
social beings. The behavior that man must display
must be according to the acceptable norms of the
community or society. Comparing this scenario to
business, businesses must still perform its social
obligations by performing activities that are according
to the norms of society or community. Even if
businesses are more concerned on making profits for
the company, it should still have a social
responsibility towards its community. This is the main
meaning of social responsibility. It is more of an
obligation or a duty towards the people that the
business affects. One of the main examples for this is,
reducing the pollution in the company, especially if
that certain business is the one creating all the
pollution.

SUMMARY:

1.

There are good things for society that are not good for
business and this is where social responsibility comes
in. There are also good things in business that are not
good for society and this is where business ethics
comes in.
2.
Social responsibility is more of a policy or an
obligation to the community, while business ethics is
more of a conscience.
3.
Business is focused on profits but with social
responsibility. It is still obliged to perform beneficial
activities for society, while business ethics should
make a positive move for society.
4.
With out social responsibility, the community will not
benefit, however, without business ethics, business
is capitalism at its worst.

Read more: Difference Between Business Ethics and

Social Responsibility | Difference
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Please Help answer this question
1.What is the corporate ethics brand, or what makes up an ethics brand?
2.How do companies relate internal conduct with external relations?
3.What are the main differences between business ethics and corporate
social responsibility not only in conceptual terms but also in terms of
specific programs offered?
4.What is privatization of ethics?
5.Why is a culture of compliance needed?
Answered by Expert Tutors 
Corporate ethics brand is a collection of what makes the brand of an
organization or a company recognized in terms of ethics. The brand is the
general perception and perspective about a company, what has been sold
into the people about the company. Therefore, the corporate ethics brand
will be the perception based on the ethics, how the company deals and
handles cases, complaints, compensations and so on, hence the brand is
built based on the values, ethics, norms and so on.
Internal conduct of the companies is how the internal people in the
company relate to each while the external relations is how the company
relates to the outside people, for instance the customers and other
stakeholders. In this case, the company tends to balance both whereby the
internal conduct is based on regulations, ethics and so on while the outside
is based on the limited restrictions but just the normal way of interacting,
this happens for the companies not to lose the external people like
customers by when it tends to build more restrictions of relating.
In the third section of this case, business ethics are basically the best
practice of conduct, how employees should relate to one another and also
with the management, hence in a simple way, they are the guidelines to be
followed while at the workplace. On the other hand, the corporate social
responsibility is the general responsibility of the company or the
organization to improve the living standards of the communities and
employees through programmes and projects that build capacities and
enhances or meet the survival needs of the communities. For instance
building a school for the community children and a marketing center for the
community to do business and so on, all these are very important aspects.
In the fourth case, when ethics are privatized, it means they been put into
specific areas, this would mean in the communication industry, different
and general ethics are there, hence this would mean that different
industries have got different ethics, however, the general ethics would still
stand out in all industries of development in the world.
Compliance culture is whereby norms, ethics, best practices and so on
forms of regulations to be complied with or adhered to. Therefore, this kind
of culture is truly needed to ensure laws and rules are not broken at the
workplace. The culture is also needed to guide on relationships in terms of
boundaries and limits,as well, the culture is key in promoting an effectively
developed system of compliance hence easy running of operations without
compromises.
Step-by-step explanation
In general, it is important to understand that all companies in the world,
registered companies and organizations, have a system of ethics, and
ethics are very significant in an organization structure in that they tend to
serve or function as a guide to many things including moral living on daily
basis, enhances a rightful living through the principles, rules, norms and
values contained in the ethics, hence ethics are very important. Therefore,
to ensure that all these are followed to the latter, adding a culture form of
system is also important to enhance and ensure maximum adherence and
effectiveness in the ethical system.