Business Ethics in Leadership and Management

BUSINESS ETHICS London Business
Growth Hub

Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................1
Theories......................................................................................................................................1
Principles....................................................................................................................................2
Ethics in leadership and management........................................................................................4
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................4
References:.................................................................................................................................5
Introduction
Business ethics is concerned with properly studying the policies and practices of business that
relate to the potentially controversial issues like bribery, corporate governance, insider
trading, discrimination, CSR and fiduciary responsibilities. Ethics related to the decision
making regarding the right and wrong of business conduct. For e.g. when a person takes a
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bribe from the parties in business and earns money from an illegal source, this practice is
regarded as unethical in a business context. If a company is investing money in the good
cause of the society and fulfilling its social responsibility, then this is regarded as an ethical
business conduct.
Theories
There are some theories related to business ethics that helps in the decision making when any
dilemma about ethical or unethical behaviour occurs in the minds of business people. These
theories define some critical viewpoints from which one seeks guidance while making any
decisions. Different points are emphasised in each theory which guides different decision-
making style or different rule related to the decision. It tells how an individual can predict the
outcome and how one can follow his/her duty to reach an ethically correct decision. The
people should realise that everyone cannot make decisions in the same way because each has
his mind set and perception. Also, the same information and same kind of rules cannot be
employed in every situation. In short, a particular set of standards cannot be used in every
situation, and one cannot adhere to what is written. Suppose it is written in the rule book that
‘one cannot take a bribe in the office', this does not mean that one can take bribe outside the
office premises, but different people will understand this rule in a different way. So, one
general rule should be made that ‘acceptance and grant of the bribe are unacceptable'. There
must be some understanding of a common set of goals that are required to be taken by the
decision makers to become successful.
Principles
There are some principles of business ethics that should be known to all (Edward Freeman,
Rusconi, Signori & Strudler, 2012):
1. Beneficence- It guides that an individual should take the decision that is right and
good. When a person does ‘good’, it makes an ethical perspective and the solution to
any ethical dilemma pops up automatically. It also guides the decision maker that he
should generate the ratio of good to bad in largest number that is possible. If the
business and its people are striving to get the greatest amount of good, the benefits
will also increase from the most of the ‘good’.
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