The Role of Ethics in a Changing Business Environment

This essay provides a comprehensive overview of business ethics in the context of the ever-changing global business environment and economic challenges. It emphasizes the significance of ethical behaviors, values, and beliefs in both personal and corporate life, highlighting their role in high-performance levels within business and society. The essay discusses how ethical decision-making is crucial for individuals in businesses to navigate competitive markets, with decisions driven by the ethics learned through various exposures such as work, family, and role models. It further explores the impact of company policies, the importance of aligning organizational behavior with personal values, and the need for ethical congruence. The essay also touches upon potential conflicts between personal values and organizational ethics, emphasizing the importance of resolving these conflicts to maintain personal integrity and work-life balance. Additionally, it discusses the influence of moral intensity and sensitivity to ethical issues on an individual's conduct, and the importance of considering various factors when dealing with ethical issues. References from academic literature are included to support the discussion.

BUSINESS ETHICS

1
The ever-changing global business environment and the never-ending economic crisis that has
been engulfing nations worldwide is a critical issue which helps in reflecting on the ethical
behaviours, values and beliefs. Values, as well as beliefs, are part of the day to day life. Humans
have accepted the values and beliefs to be the intrinsic rules that govern our extrinsic behaviour.
Ethics is an aegis for a very complex dimension of both personal as well as corporate life and it
can be helpful in leading to high-performance levels in the context of business as well as society.
In order to survive in the competitive market, individuals in businesses have to take a quick and
immediate decision (Trevino and Nelson, 2016).
The decision that is taken, the choices that made our solely dependent and driven by Ethics of the
businessman. Most of the ethics are learnt by an individual due to their exposure to work,
religion, family, School, professional organisations, role models to name a few. These
experiences are further refined and polished as per the recipient's conscience. Briefly, it can be
stated that the individual experience of the value and belief system actually stems from a
culmination of personal point of view, organisational perception and cultural perspective.
According to Ryan (2018), businesses in the day to day activities often confront ethical decision
making and the results of the decision making are often based on the ground rules or company
policies that have been established by the organisation.
Its efforts to obtain an ethical congruence, the company policy must clearly state the behaviour
and mind said that they value by encouraging appropriate decisions taken by the leader and
worker behaviour. People wish for a predictable organisational behaviour that is somewhere
aligned with the personal, democratic or ethical values of an individual. As stated by Ferrell,
Harrison, Ferrell and Hair (2019), an organisation that is compliant with the Federal, state for
local regulations governing the tasks and undertakings of an individual representing the
organisation believes in the values of integrity, accountability, excellence and respect. Hence, a
good Businessman is one who makes a fair deal, has a responsibility as well as accountability as
an individual, has respect for others, is compliant with the applicable laws and company policies,
regulations, procedures and guidelines.
There is also a chance that personal values may start to the conflict in the context of ethical
decision making within an organisation. In order to move forward, it is important to reconcile
with these conflicts and go forward without compromising personal integrity and work-life
balance. Bicycle conduct of an individual is often influenced by their moral intensity and their
sensitivity to ethical issues. They are also influenced by situations and contexts (Crane and
Matten, 2016). Way to deal with the ethical issues it is necessary to keep in mind the nature of
the issue, options available, consequences of actions and morally or ethically right thing to do.
Ethical problem solving requires making valued judgements however it is quite a difficult
challenge as it may be an ethical dilemma to subordinate the ethical values of an individual.

2
References
Crane, A., and Matten, D. 2016. Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and
sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.
Ferrell, O. C., Harrison, D. E., Ferrell, L., and Hair, J. F. 2019. Business ethics, corporate social
responsibility, and brand attitudes: An exploratory study. Journal of Business Research,
95, 491-501.
Ryan, M. R. 2018. Teaching the common good in business ethics: A case study approach.
Journal of Business Ethics, 147(4), 693-704.
Trevino, L. K., and Nelson, K. A. 2016. Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do
it right. John Wiley & Sons.