Should Ethics Be the Main Priority? An Amazon Case Study Analysis

This report examines the significance of business ethics, using Amazon as a case study to analyze whether ethics should be the primary focus of an organization. The study explores the ethical considerations within Amazon, including tax avoidance, employee treatment, and working conditions, contrasting them with ethical practices implemented by competitors like Tesco. The report delves into the perspectives of Amazon's CEO, employees, and consumers, assessing their views on the importance of ethics. It concludes that ethics are fundamental for establishing trust, maintaining a positive work environment, and ensuring consumer loyalty. The report provides several recommendations, including the CEO acting as a role model, promoting ethical training, avoiding unethical practices, and complying with corporate social responsibility to foster a strong ethical culture within the organization.

Question Using your case study as an
example discuss whether ethics should
be the main priority of an
organisation.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This study has been carried to analyse that, business ethics is useful to carry out the
business operations by complying with the values. The CEO of the Amazon must comply with
the legal code of conduct to carry out business operations in an ethical and reliable manner.
Encouraging ethics within the organization is useful in enabling the management to treat all the
employees with equal set of opportunities. This study has evaluated that, maintaining that sort of
the ethical value in the organization used to help the company in building a good relationship
with the consumer in the market. Effective recommendations are maintaining proper
communication, complying with ethical laws, carrying out charitable events and complying with
corporate social responsibility is effective recommendation to carry out business operations in
ethical manner.

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
ANALYSIS......................................................................................................................................4
Aim of the report and map sentence. .........................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
RECOMMENDATION...................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Business ethics is considered to be as an appropriate business practice and policy in
relation to the regard with arguably controversial event. It is a set of moral rules which helps in
governing how operations of the business are made and how people have been treated (Alwagfi,
Aljawarneh and Alomari, 2020.). Ethical behaviour within the business is of utmost importance
which tends to bring significant degree of benefits to the business. The ethics within the business
is prominent because it is useful in boosting up the profits and sales of the company. It is useful
in reducing labour turnover and it also increases the productivity of the business (Importance of
Workplace Ethics, 2020). Amazon company is leading online retail company across the United
Kingdom. The unethical business practice such as tax avoidance, not properly treating the
employees, paying below acceptable wage rate has lead to the poor reputation of the Jeff Bezos.
The workers within the company has high pressure and long shift hours to target for the number
of items. The Amazon drivers faces problems related with the unreasonable delivery targets
which has to be completed within due time. This has eventually lead to ill health and injuries. In
Berlin, 2018 the Jeff Bezos has received the Axel Springer award for social responsibility and
innovation. On the contrary, at the time when Jeff Bezos has been making the acceptance speech
and the workers of his company were protesting because of unfair work conditions outside the
venue. Tesco is one of the biggest competitors of Amazon. It tends to implement range of ethical
business practice at the time of carrying business operations. Tesco comply with the ethical
trading programme and is useful in buying and selling of the products in a responsible manner.
The key aim of the study is to analyse if the ethics are the key priority of the organization.
Furthermore, this study also provides recommendation which is useful in promoting ethics
within the organization.
ANALYSIS
Aim of the report and map sentence.
The key aim of the study is to analyse if the ethics are the key priority of the organization. It also
provides recommendation which is useful in promoting ethics within the organization. Business
ethics demonstrates that, the company must comply with the business practice and policy in
relation to the regard with arguably controversial event. It is significant set of moral rules which
is useful in governing how operations of the business have been carried out and how people
within the organization have been treated.

Amazon and ethics
Amazon is a tax avoider. The company has been generating high revenues but paying low
amount of corporation tax within United Kingdom. The key ethical issues which are associated
with the Amazon company mainly includes change in climate conditions, right of workers, use of
the controversial technologies, anti- social finance, arms and military supply, supply chain
management, habitats and resources, etc. The Amazon company has no set of specific policies
which is useful in working in a reasonably manner. Making charitable donations is useful in
carrying out corporate social responsibility. The employees of the Amazon has been protesting
against the poor working environment of the company. The wages paid to the employees are
much low. Here the Amazon's logistics employees earns below $2200 every month during two
consecutive years. The employees of the company states that, Amazon has chaotic work
conditions which leads to high degree of stress and lack of occupational safety within the
organization.
Jeff Bezos of Amazon thinks ethics is the key priority of the organization.
The Jeff Bezos tends to state that, ethics is considered to be of key priority within the
company by improving the operations of the business in United Kingdom. The misconduct and
unethical practice such as tax avoidance, not properly treating the employees, paying below
acceptable wage rate has been carried out within the organization must be avoided (Fotaki,
2020). Ethics are of utmost significant importance which helps in carrying out the operations of
the business with utmost degree of accuracy and efficiency. Ethics are referred to as the key
priority which helps in determining the sense of right and wrong doing within the organisation. It
is useful in establishing specific set of principles, rules and values which is useful in carrying out
the operations of the business significantly. The CEO of the company must always comply with
the legal code of conducts according to which the business operations will be carried out. The
CEO of the company must focus on developing positive ambience and strengthening the bond
within the employer and employee. Understanding the needs and want of the customers leads to
carrying out business in ethical manner.
Employees of Amazon thinks ethics is the key priority of the organization.
Employees of the organisation must always carry out the business in a lawful and ethical
manner. The Amazon company tends to strongly discourage behaviour which is not in the best

interest of the employees. Workplace ethics plays one of the key integral role which is useful in
increasing the teamwork and productivity of the employees (Rhodes, 2016). Ethics is of key
significant importance for the organization because it is useful in aligning the key values of the
business concern with that of the workers. Ethics within the organization is useful in developing
strong alignment between the values and business across United Kingdom. Encouraging ethics
within the organization is useful in enabling the management to treat all the employees with
equal set of opportunities and leads to secure and better future. Ethics within the organization is
of key priority because it helps in boosting up the motivation level of the employees where they
have been aligned with the values of themselves and that of the organization.
For maintaining the ethical value as a key priority in front of the employee, Amazon used
to treat all the employee equal in the organization by maintaining good sort of the Honesty and
loyalty at the time of bring variety of working environment building policy at the workplace.
Also, all the employee are provided with the different authority with the clarity to build good
sort of the trust among the different employee this help the company in maintaining a good sort
of the positive environment in the organization (Arli, 2017). Also, amazon used to care about all
the employee health in the organization, as they used to conduct the variety of the health check-
ups and also maintain good sort of the hygienic in the organization, this help the different
individual in maintaining good sort of the health of the individual at the workplace.
Consumers of Amazon thinks ethics is the key priority of the organization.
Looking in the context of consumer, it has been find out that consumer always want
Amazon to follow the different ethical consideration as it help the consumer in protecting
themselves from the variety of the legal issue which can be seen by them if amazon do not used
to incorporate the different activity with the ethics. For example, if Amazon is not paying the
different tax which is paid by the consumer. They has to face different legal compliance.
Another reason why consumer thinks ethics should be first priority is that all the
consumer in the market generally used to contribute their spending toward the positive cause
(Maheshwari and Fielding, 2018). Whether it can be toward the betterment of society,
Environment or the Economy of their nation. For the same reason Consumer in the market used
to hope that Amazon is following all the ethical consideration in the organization and their
spending is going toward the positive cause only. For example: Following proper ethical

consideration help the government of nation in getting proper contribution from the consumer,
which is invested by them at good causes.
Amazon generally used to follow all the ethical consideration and also urges all the
consumer to follow the same but in the recent past there were some miss issue which was
identified such as non payment of tax etc. but they have overcome the same in the UK.. As
Amazon make sure that health of the consumer never impacted due to product of the company.
As they used to test all the product before offering them to consumer. Maintaining that sort of the
ethical value in the organization used to help the company in building a good relationship with
the consumer in the market. As following the ethical value in the organization used to help the
company in promoting business value in the UK market and also in the front of the different
consumer in the UK. Keeping ethics as a priority of the company used to help the company in
building and maintaining good sort of trust level among the consumer in the market (Arli and
et.al., 2017).
CONCLUSION
From the conducted study, it has been summarized that, business ethics are basic set of
moral rules and principles which is useful in governing how operations of the business are
carried out and how people have been treated within the organization. Ethics is of key priority
which in company because it determines the sense of right and wrong doing within the
organisation. It has been concluded that, ethics within the organization helps in developing
strong alignment between the values and business. Consumer within the market generally used to
contribute their spending for the positive cause. Effective recommendations are complying with
ethical laws, maintaining proper communication, complying with corporate social responsibility
and carrying out charitable events is effective recommendation to carry out business operations
in ethical manner.
RECOMMENDATION
 In order to promote ethics within the organization, the CEO of the Amazon i.e., Jeff
Bezos must highly focus on playing as a role model. The CEO of the company must act
as a role model which helps the employees of the organization to effectively understand
which behaviour is highly acceptable while working within the organization. The CEO of
the company must effectively reward ethical acts and also punish those who has been

carrying out unethical behaviour within the workplace of United Kingdom(Mukherjee,
Bhattacharjee and Singha, 2016). The CEO of the company must focus on providing the
protective mechanism and communicate ethical expectations within the organisation.
 In order to promote ethics among the employees within the organization, must focus on
promoting ethical behaviour and training which helps in encouraging employees to work
in an ethical and significant manner (Ogbari,and et.al., 2016). The employees must
comply with the code of ethics and code of conduct within the organization. This way it
is useful in cultivating productivity and strong teamwork within the organization.
Providing employees with ethical work behaviour by giving them consistent training
helps in boosting up the motivation among employees. Regularly communicating with
the employees helps in analysing their needs. The wages must be given to the employees
by complying the the legal laws and policies of United Kingdom.
 Avoiding unethical practices like tax avoidance is one of the key significant measure
which helps in carrying out the operations of the business in a legal and sustainable
manner (Kamoche, and et.al., 2019, July). Ethics programs are useful in avoiding range
of criminal acts and helps in managing the values linked with the quality management.
This helps in promoting strong image by carrying out corporate social responsibility for
improving the welfare of the organization. Carrying out charitable events is useful in
improving the reputation of the company in United Kingdom.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Alwagfi, A.A., Aljawarneh, N.M. and Alomari, K.A., 2020. Work ethics and social
responsibility: Actual and aspiration. Journal of Management Research, 12(1), pp.26-
36.
Arli, D and et.al., 2017. Do consumer ethics and consumer religiousness evolve across time?
Insights from Millennials in Indonesia. Young Consumers.
Arli, D., 2017. Does ethics need religion? Evaluating the importance of religiosity in consumer
ethics. Marketing Intelligence & Planning.
Fotaki, M., 2020. Book Review: Disturbing Business Ethics: Emmanuel Levinas and the Politics
of Organization.
Kamoche, K.N and et.al., 2019, July. LEADERSHIP AND ETHICS IN ORGANIZATION in
Africa. In 5TH BIENNIAL CONFERENCE-Nigeria 2020.
Maheshwari, V. and Fielding, J., 2018, June. Importance of Ethics and Sustainability in the
Fashion Industry: An Abstract. In Academy of Marketing Science World Marketing
Congress(pp. 139-140). Springer, Cham.
Mukherjee, S., Bhattacharjee, S. and Singha, S., 2016. Workplace Spirituality: A Paradigm Shift
to Ethics from Business. IOSR Journal of Business and Management, e-ISSN.
Ogbari, M.E and et.al., 2016. Entrepreneurship and business ethics: Implications on corporate
performance. International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, 6(3S), pp.50-58.
Rhodes, C., 2016. Democratic business ethics: Volkswagen’s emissions scandal and the
disruption of corporate sovereignty. Organization Studies, 37(10), pp.1501-1518.
Online
Importance of Workplace Ethics. 2020. [ONLINE]. Available
through:<https://www.managementstudyguide.com/importance-of-workplace-ethics.htm>