The Importance of Business Ethics in Business Success

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Added on 2020-02-19

The Importance of Business Ethics in Business Success

Added on 2020-02-19

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Running head: BUSINESS ETHICS Business EthicsName of the Student:Name of the University:Author note:

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1BUSINESS ETHICSIntroduction: The importance of ethics in business can never be overstated. There is no gain stating thefact that organizational success of a company is not merely determined by the financialstatements. Rather, the organizational culture or the management philosophy plays an integralrole in determining the long-term sustenance of a company. Hence, the moral vision of acompany should always be taken into serious consideration. There are two principal ethicalphilosophies that are usually applied to the business organizations worldwide- Utilitarianism andDeontology (Carroll and Buchholtz 2014). However, the very philosophy underpinning the twotheories are highly distinct and contradictory to each other. While on the one hand, Utilitarianismdetermines the goodness of an action, based on its ability to produce consequences for thegreatest number of people, Deontology states that the moral goodness of an action is heavilydependent on its intrinsic value. In other words, even if the end result is not desirable, the actionmust be guided by a good motive, and the morality lies in the motive rather than the end result.Any business organization is guided by a set of ethical rules and principles that allow it tosafeguard the company from various unethical principles (Bowie 2017). Hence, accordingly it isimportant to analyze the best ethical practice that the business organizations should adopt intoday’s world. Discussion: Before analyzing which of the two ethical philosophies can help in enhancing theprofitability of a company, it is important to develop an understanding of the two ethical theoriesin the first place. First of all, as far as Utilitarianism is concerned, the ethical theory wasintroduced by J. S Mill and others, who believed that the morality of an action is heavily reliant

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2BUSINESS ETHICSon its ability to maximize the overall utility, and promote maximum welfare (Valentinov 2017).The end should justify the means, and the means will barely matter in case of this ethical theory.Accordingly, as per Utilitarianism, even if a pharmaceutical company is well-aware of the fact,that its drug is producing considerable side-effects for a group of people, it will still continuewith its production, as the major group of consumers will be able to cure disease without anyside-effect. Thus, this particular theory takes up a consequentialist approach and intends toachieve maximum welfare. On the other hand, Deontologist view states that even if the ultimateend of an action is morally desirable, an action may still not be morally just. An action isethically correct if the doer has a moral purpose behind it, and as such even if the outcome is notdesirable, the action should be encouraged, on ground of morality (Vadastreanu et al. 2015). Inthis connection, it would be interesting to draw the example of a Marijuana drug seller EddyLepp, who produced a distinct drug made from Marijuana that had soothing effects on the nauseaproblems of the Cancer patients. However, the action was also breaking the law of NorthCalifornia, as marijuana was regarded as an addictive drug. Yet since the drug was introducedwith the purpose of relieving the Cancer patients, the non-compliance of Lepp with theregulatory framework of the government of the country would be seen as a moral alternative(Swenson 2016). However, the question still remains that if an organization decides to adhere tomoral values, which ethical philosophy should it choose. While discussing about the best moral course of action, it is important to consider thefactors which would encourage an organization behave in a morally just way. First of all, once anorganization decides to act morally, it can ensure easily value the priorities of the stakeholders-especially the consumers and the employees, which in turn would ensure greater goodwill andhigher profitability. A morally strong decision helps an organization enhance its brand

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The Importance of Business Ethics in Business Success