Topic: Emerging

Business Ethical Issues

Learning Objectives

 How to recognize ethical issue

 Identify ethical issues that you might face in business
 List of ethical Issues in workplace / Business
Ask your Self the following Questions when you enter
the business world.

Q1: Is it Ok to accept a pair of sports tickets from a supplier?

Q2: Can I buy office supplies from my brother-in-law?
Q3: Is it Ok to use company resources for my personal works?
Q4: If I find out that a friend is about to be fired, can I warn her?
Q5: What do I do if I discover that a co-worker is committing fraud?
The situations in the above questions
basically reflects ethical issues which
will discussed later own………
Recognizing An Ethical Issue( Ethical
Awareness)
The first step in understanding business ethics is to develop ethical issue
awareness.
Awareness arises because of conflicts among individuals, personal moral
philosophies and values, the values of culture and organization in which
they work, and those of society in which they live.
Failure to acknowledge ethical issues put corporations at great risk,
particularly in industries where business is perceived as a game that
must be won at all cost.
What is An Ethical Issue?

 An ethical issue is a situation or a problem that requires thought,

discussion, or investigation in order to make a decision.
Causes Of Ethical Issues In Business

 Greed
 No experience
 Deficient of education
 Circle of influence
 Poor organizational culture
 Lack of control
 Lack of integrity
 Unclear policies
Foundational Values for Identifying
Business Ethics Issues
Honesty ,fairness , and integrity are the core values that hold business together,
Honesty:
Honesty refers to the truthfulness or trustworthiness. Issues related to honesty
also arise because business is sometimes regarded as “ game” governed by its
own rules rather than those of society.

Dishonesty:
Dishonesty is a lack of integrity , and an unwillingness to tell the truth.
Lying, cheating, and stealing actions are usually associated with dishonest
conduct.
Fairness

Fairness is the quality of being just, equitable , and impartial.

In business ,equality is about the distribution of benefits and resources. This
distributions could be applied to stakeholders of the greater society .
Integrity

Integrity is one of the most important element of virtue

Integrity is the quality of being whole, sound, honest , and having strong moral
values.
In organizations , it means uncompromising adherence to ethical values.
When you act with integrity ,you are the same person in all scenarios.
List OF ethical Issues in the Workplace/
Business
1. Abusive/ Intimidating behaviours
2. Lying
3. Discrimination
4. Bribery
5. Sexual harassment
6. Corporate intelligence
7. Consumer Fraud
8. Environmental issues
9. Intellectual property rights
10. Privacy issues
Abusive/ Intimidating Behaviours

Abusive behavior can take many forms.

It can include being violent and aggressive, making threats , controlling someone
behavior, putting them down, verbally abusing them, physical threats, false
accusations, insults, harshness, ignoring someone, etc.
Abusive behavior can be divided into two categories:
Verbal Abuse: It includes insults, aggressive yelling/ shouting , offensive
language, or other derogatory statements.
Physical Abuse:
It includes unwanted touching, hitting, kicking, pushing, and threatening
gestures etc.
Bullying

 Bullying is the common example of abusive behavior in the workplace.

 Workplace bullying is harmful, targeted behavior that frightens, humiliates,
or degrades the recipient. It causes physical or emotional harm.
 It might be offensive, humiliating, mocking , or intimidating.
 It tend to be directed at one person or few people.
Examples of bullying include
 Targeted practical jokes
 Gossips, threats, humiliation, and other verbal abuse
 Making negative comments about a person's lifestyle, family, or culture
 Blaming a person for problems they did not cause.
Lying

Lying relates to distorting the truth . A lie become illegal or unethical in business
if has negative or damaging impacts on others.
Types of lies: There are three major types of lies.
Joking : joking without malice.
Lies of Commission: if someone tells you something that is not a fact than we
call this a lie of commission. Tis type of lie is telling something that is simply not
true. E.g puffery Advertisements in business
Lies of Omission: Another type of lie is one where you leave an important part of
information, hence the name of lie omission. I this lie someone omits an
important detail from a statement. E.g ,intentionally you are not informing about
the problems, defects, issues related to your product.
Discrimination

Discrimination is the unjust, unfair, or prejudicial treatments of the people and

groups based on different characteristics such as gender, age, race , disability
etc.
Forms of Discrimination:
Gender discrimination : Gender discrimination is when people are treated
differently because of their gender.
Age discrimination: It occurs when employees are treated less favorably because
of their age.
Racial discrimination : It occurs when people are treated differently because of
their race or color.
Disability discrimination: It is when a person with a disability is treated less
favorably than a person without disability.
Bribery

Bribery refers to the offering, giving, or receiving of any item of value as a means
of influencing the actions of an individual holding a public, private, or legal duty.
Bribe is the money or gift bestowed to influence the recipient conduct/ decision.
When a government official accepts a bribe, it is usually from a business that
seeks some favor- perhaps a chance to influence legislation that affects it.
Giving bribes to legislators or public officials ,then is a business ethical issue.
Example: The business smugglers usually offers bribes to import or export
something in violations of the custom laws.
Sexual Harassment

 Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination.

 Sexual harassment can be defined as any repeated, unwanted behavior of
sexual nature perpetrated upon an individual by another.
 It may be verbal, visual, written, or physical and can occur between people of
different genders or those of same gender.
Corporate Intelligence

Corporate intelligence is the collection and analysis of information on markets,

technologies, customers, and competitors, as well as socioeconomic and external
political trends.
Corporate intelligence( CI) involves an in-depth discovery of information from
corporate records, court documents, regulatory filings, and press releases as well
as any other background information about a company or its executives.
CI is not ethical issue if the information is obtained legally. However there are
number of illegal techniques used to collect information.
Tools of CI

Hacking: Hacking is one of the top methods for obtaining trade secrets.
1. System hacking: system hacking assumes that the attacker already has access
to a user account.
2. Remote hacking: Remote hacking involve remotely trying to penetrate a
computer system through internet.
3. Physical hacking : Physical hacking requires that an agent personally enter a
facility.
Social Engineering

It is another popular method of obtaining valuable corporate information. Social

engineering is tricking or fooling individuals into revealing their passwords or
other valuable information.
1. Shoulder surfing: Shoulder surfing is when someone looks over an employee
shoulder to obtain a password.
2. Password guessing: It is self explanatory.
Dumpster Diving

It is a messy but very successful to acquire trade secrets. Once trash is discarded
into a public street or alley , it is considered fair game.
Consumer Fraud

Consumer fraud occurs when consumers attempt to deceive businesses for their
own gain.
There are many different ways of engaging in consumer fraud, like stealing from
stores, price tag switching, or lying to obtain discounts.
Environmental Issues

Environmental Ethics: In business sense, environmental ethics is concerned with

a company’s responsibility to protect the environment in which it operates.

Impact Of Business And Industry on Environment

Air Emissions: Industry is a major source of air pollution. Since the operations of
factories results in the emission of pollutants includes harmful gases such as
carbon dioxide, sulfur oxides ,nitrogen oxides etc. These pollutants can harm
both public and health. They damage environment by contributing to global
phenomena such as climate change and ozone layer depletion.
Water pollution: Many companies discharge their waste and toxic chemicals into
rivers, and oceans which kill the fishes and other aquatic plants and animals.
Continue…..

Land Pollution: Leakage from the fuel and energy industries , as well as
industries involving hazardous materials are the main source of land
contamination. Many companies dump their garbage and other waste into open
places.
Hazardous Materials: Example nuclear power plants ,because if their nuclear
materials are not properly disposed , they cause many harmful health diseases
like cancer.
Noise Pollution: Frequent or prolonged exposure to loud noise is not good for
health.
Intellectual Property Rights

Intellectual property includes the intangible assets you create for your business
such as name, symbols, color, designs, and automated processes. And just like
tangible processions, your intellectual property needs to be monitored and
protected.
Intellectual property rights involve the legal protection of intellectual
property( IP), such as name, symbol, designs ,etc
Examples of Intellectual property

Trade Marks: Trade marks are the names, phrases, and symbols that
differentiate your brand from other industry.
Examples: Words, symbols, names, colors or sounds that identify where your
good and services come from.
Popular Trade Marks
Patent

A patent is a type of limited –duration protection that can be used to protect

inventions( or discoveries) that are new and useful such as a new process,
machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter. Patents will give you
the right to prevent others from making, using, or selling your invention.
Example of patent
Copy Rights

A copy right is a type of intellectual property protection that protects the

original work of authorships, which might include literary works, music, art and
more. Today copy rights also protect computer software and architecture.
Copy right protections are automatic ,once you create something its yours.
Example of copyrights
Privacy Issues

Many privacy issues come into play in the business world.

Some issues that managers should consider involve monitoring employees and
consumer privacy.
Employers are justifiably concerned about threats to and in the workplace, such
as theft of property, breaches of data security, identity theft, viewing of
pornography, inappropriate and/or offensive behavior, violence, drug use, and
others. They seek to minimize these risks, and that often requires monitoring
employees at work.
Continue……

 Employers might also be concerned about the productivity loss resulting from
employees using office technology for personal matters while on the job. At
the same time, however, organizations must balance the valid business
interests of the company with employees’ reasonable expectations of privacy.
 Monitored workstations, cameras, microphones, and other electronic
monitoring devices permit employers to oversee virtually every aspect of
employees’ at-work behavior.

 Electronic monitoring often captures data from cameras, computers, and

listening devices. This information can then be used against employees
accused of violating company policy, raising privacy concerns.
Consumer privacy( Customer privacy)

Consumer privacy, also known as customer privacy, involves the handling and
protection of the sensitive personal information provided by customers in the
course of everyday transactions.
 Personal information, when misused or inadequately protected, can result in 
identity theft, financial fraud and other problems that collectively cost
people, businesses and governments millions of dollars per year.
 Common consumer privacy features offered by corporations and government
agencies include: 
 verification of transactions by email or telephone;
 Biometric identification technology.