Business Ethics: Philosophies, Practices and Perspectives

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BUSINESS ETHICS
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Business Ethics
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Business Ethics, Philosophies, Practices and Perspectives.............................................................4
Ethical Dimensions of Business from the Manager’s Perspective..............................................4
Ethical dimensions of a business from the perspective of the individual....................................6
Ethical dimensions of a business from the perspective of the society.........................................6
Corporate Responsibility.................................................................................................................7
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).......................................................................................7
Good Governance........................................................................................................................9
Environmental Accountability...................................................................................................10
Implications of Business Ethics.....................................................................................................11
Improved Brand Image..............................................................................................................11
Better customer perception........................................................................................................12
Competitive Advantage..............................................................................................................12
Conclusions....................................................................................................................................13

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References......................................................................................................................................14
Introduction
In any corporation around the world, from the senior management to workers at all levels,
ethics are reflected in every business. The growth of corporations depends on its sound ethical
code of conduct established in its structures to guide both the management and employees in
their daily activities within the organization. Companies are facing growing demands that, they
look past their interests, as well as prioritize the needs of societies in which they operate.
Businesses have some obligations to the society past generating profits (Goel & Ramanathan,
2014, pp. 49). The concepts of ethical behavior and corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the
contemporary company environment have come to consideration in CSR in both developing and
developed nations due to the growing sense of corporate scandals, such as Enron, General
Motors (GM) and WorldCom. Business ethics deals with the internal values, which are thye
ingredients of the corporate culture that influences decisions on CSR where external environment
is an important consideration. Whilst business ethics comprises the moral standards and
principles that guide the behavior of businesses, CSR is an integrative management idea that
establishes responsible behavior within a corporation, competencies along with values and
interests of stakeholders (Barrett, 2009, pp. 25).
Business ethics has played a central in allowing business to adopt CSR where it brings in
considerable benefits to the organization. The thought that business enterprises have some
obligations to society beyond generating profits for its investors has been in existent for many
decades that partly accounts for the prominence of CSR that has carried on to grow in its

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importance. The primary belief is that businesses have a social and ethical responsibility and the
economic mission of fashioning value for shareholders of the corporate organization. The paper
will examine the different perspectives of business ethics and the CSR and its impacts on the
society (Ferrell, 2004, pp. 128).
Business Ethics, Philosophies, Practices and Perspectives
Ethics entails codes of values along with standards, which guide the action of an person,
or a group concerning what is right against what is wrong. Thus, ethics set standards as to what is
good or bad in behavior of organization along with decision-making. Business ethics concerns
internal values, which are a part of corporate culture and influences choices regarding social
responsibility in line with external environment (Goel & Ramanathan, 2014, pp. 50). Business
ethics entails applying standards of honesty besides fairness to relationships with clients and
coworkers. They are form of applied morals or expert ethics, which investigates ethical
standards, as well as moral challenges that may originate in a business setting. In addition,
business ethics entails the behavior that a business complies with in its everyday dealings with its
stakeholders-clients, personnel, suppliers, immediate community, and society at large) (Bondy,
Matten & Moon, 2006, pp. 1478). The growth of the business depends on its sound ethical code
of conduct. The reasoning that sustains business ethics as a high-quality business practice is that
moral backgrounds will fashion the appropriate atmosphere that will help to promote the
development of ethical human resource practices.
Ethical Dimensions of Business from the Manager’s Perspective