Business Ethics

This article discusses the importance of business ethics in the workplace, including ethical issues, dilemmas, and moral universalism vs. relativism. It also explores a case study involving job creation in Iceland and the ethical implications of paying low wages. References to relevant literature are included.

Running Head: BUSINESS ETHICS 1
BUSINESS ETHICS
Institutional Affiliation
Name

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Business Ethics
Business ethics involves all moral principles that guide how businesses should behave.
The same moral principles apply to individuals and determine their actions to business. Acting
ethically implies differentiating between wrong and right and later making the right decision.
Ideally, an unethical business practice can easily be identified. For instance, the company must
not exploit workers or use child labor. They also not use unlawful processes or copyrighted
materials. Consequently, the precise moral compass does not exist that could help leaders
through difficult decisions about what is wrong or right. However, ethics within the workplace
prepare staff and leaders on how they ought to behave. Most importantly, attention to ethics
within the workstations assists ensure that when managers and leaders struggle in times of
confusion and crises, they need to retain a resilient moral compass.
An ethical issue occurs where there is a conflict of wrong (unethical) or right (moral).It is
also a situation that forces alternatives on a particular entity while seeking ethical behavior.
Businesses must encounter these ethical issues regardless of their sizes. Therefore, companies
must come up with ethics and codes of conduct that individuals should abide by and practice
within an organization. Fundamental ethical issues include endorsing behavior built on integrity
as well trust(Bowie, 2017). However, more complicated problems include empathetic decision
making, accommodating diversity, governance consistent and compliance with a corporation's
core values.
Creation of job opportunities in Iceland is an ethical issue. Josh realizes that the country
is very poor and by relocating some of the business, he is going to secure jobs for many people.
As a result, the increase of the employment in Iceland will decrease poverty thus improving their

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living standards. Regardless of him paying the workers low wages, at the same time is going to
help the society improve their living. Josh is honest, and besides, he loves Iceland. He has the
desire to help youths in Iceland by creating job opportunities. In fact, Josh is socially responsible
since he is determined towards assisting Iceland society. Regardless of them receiving low
wages, Josh is going to earn credits for creating employment to the young people, by moving the
distribution center in Iceland. He was indeed honest with himself, and he is already yearning to
help others. Josh is a responsible man and being ethical as a manager of the company (Kaynak et
al., 2015). Creating employment in Iceland is the primary ethical issue in this scenario and can
be considered as the best decision in the society.
Josh's employment practices are unethical: In the given case, Josh's employment practices
are unethical. To avoid paying higher wages, Josh plan to structure the packaging & distribution
unit in Iceland to cut expenses of the company is a non-ethical issue. His decision of employing
individuals at low wages is against business ethics. He does not comply with the codes of the
business regardless of him being the employer. First, he does not recognize that irrespective of
the location all people are the same. He is practicing unfairness about salaries. Wanting people to
work part-time and not full time will help him cuts costs but will also inconvenience some
people (Braswell et al., 2107). Besides, the workers in Iceland are paid differently from others
working in other countries. This indeed an unethical as these people will use the same energy
same hours to carry out a similar task. Trying to take advantage of others for the same of the
company is unacceptable in the society (Carroll et al., 2104). Everyone needs fair treatment thus
enabling competence in the business. On the other hand, paying employees' low wages does not
give them satisfaction. One of the key determinants of dissatisfaction or satisfaction with
reimbursement is how workers feel their compensation package compares to the rest. If a person

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realizes he or she does similar work as another, who is waged higher, will lead to bitterness and
eventually to detachment. He fails to understand that better payment will motivate the employees
and increase production. However, unfairness regarding payments is also unethical behavior and
can lead to penalty or closure of the business. The decision that Josh did was unethical. Taking
advantage of Iceland people through job creation at the same time paying them poorly is a way
of exploitation. In fact, ethical decision making should focus on protecting customers and
employees' rights. In this scenario, Josh ought to make sure that all business processes are just
and fair. He should have sheltered the common good while ensuring individual beliefs and
values of workers are secured (Ferrell et al., 2015). In fact, leaders at firms who go against the
laws by engaging in unethical practices that affect the society could face criminal charges.
An ethical dilemma arises whereby an individual has difficulty in decision making
between two conceivable moral imperatives, and none of them is unambiguously preferable or
acceptable. The complexity appears whereby there is a situational conflict and by obeying one
side it would result in disobeying another (Hrenyk et al., 2016).In Josh case, the dilemma arises
whereby Iceland people are complaining about improper payment. At first, Josh decided to
relocate some businesses to that country as a way of creating jobs by good faith. At the same
time, people are complaining of poor wages, yet he feels it was a way of helping them. Josh
faces the ethical dilemma whereby he doesn't know whether to increase the salaries or to relocate
the businesses once more. He also knows that increasing the costs for unskilled labor will
significantly affect the company financially. On the other hand, he knows that if people protest
against low wages, the company may be forced to pay more than expected (Greenwood et al.,
2018). However, Josh thinks that it's not fair that other countries the salaries are lower than
Iceland. The leader is still in the dilemma since he does not know whether to increase the wages

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on not. Ideally, adding the payments will have gone against Josh will and relocation will have
been meaningless.
Moral universalism and relativism are forms of meta-ethical views. The two theories try
to explain the motive behind ethical attitudes, properties, judgments, and boundaries. Moral
universalism is perceived as an ideal world. On the other hand, Moral relativism gives
individuals a realistic view of why various cultures can interpret similar actions differently.
Relativism concept explains that all opinions are equally useful. The viewpoints are relative, and
no one should impose theirs on others. The main point is that people need to respect the views of
others without coercing them. Universalism, on the other hand, is a meta-ethical concept and
morality that applies to everyone ( Li et., 2018). The morality and ethics apply universally
regardless of peoples' race, culture, sex, nationality, religion, sexuality, and other distinguishing
issues.
In this scenario, there is both moral universalism and moral relativism. Moral relativism
appears where Josh felt it's good to relocate the distributor center to Iceland as a way of creating
jobs in the country and paying them low wages. He views it as a good idea that would help the
nation rise through job creation. On the other hand, creating jobs and paying low wages is
perceived as the wrong thing by everyone since it's a way of exploiting people which is moral
universalism (Shaw et al., 2015). Every culture will indeed view the idea of creating jobs and
paying low wages as wrong as individuals will also be incompetent.
An individual should not be deceived deliberately, and in fact, no one has the right to do
so. Besides, has no right to be enforced to violate his conscience. An individual has the right to
expect other people to live up to their pledges and act in abidance to the law. Similarly, an

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employer in the workstation should expect the workers to comply with the corporation's policy,
and that is his right.

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References
Bowie, N. E. (2017). Business ethics: A Kantian perspective. Cambridge University Press.
Carroll, A., &Buchholtz, A. (2014). Business and Society: Ethics, sustainability, and stakeholder
management. Nelson Education.
Ferrell, O. C., &Fraedrich, J. (2015). Business ethics: Ethical decision making & cases. Nelson
Education.
Greenwood, M., & Freeman, R. E. (2018).Deepening Ethical Analysis in Business
Ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 1-4.
Hrenyk, J., Szymanski, M., Kar, A., & Fitzsimmons, S. R. (2016). Understanding Multicultural
Individuals as Ethical Global Leaders.In Advances in Global Leadership (pp. 57-78).
Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Kaynak, R., Sert, T., Sert, G., &Akyuz, B. (2015). Supply chain unethical behaviors and
continuity of relationship: Using the PLS approach for testing moderation effects of inter-
organizational justice. International Journal of Production Economics, 162, 83-91.
Li, F., Chao, M. C. H., Chen, N. Y. F., & Zhang, S. (2018). Moral judgment in a business
setting: The role of managers’ moral foundation, ideology, and level of moral
development. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 35(1), 121-143.
Shaw, W. H. (2016). Business ethics: A textbook with cases. Nelson Education.
Shaw, W. H., & Barry, V. (2015). Moral issues in business.Cengage Learning.

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Braswell, M. C., McCarthy, B. R., & McCarthy, B. J. (2017). Justice, crime, and ethics.Taylor &
Francis.