Business Ethics in Global Environment: A Comprehensive Report

This report provides a comprehensive overview of business ethics in a global environment. It begins by defining ethics and discussing the evolution of business ethics, highlighting key historical events and their impact. The report then explores various codes of ethics, including professional, corporate, industry, and program codes, and analyzes their roles and applications. It further examines the relationship between businesses and their stakeholders, considering different forms of stakeholder relationships and potential challenges. The report also includes personal reflections on the importance of ethical behavior in business, referencing the Johnson & Johnson Tylenol case as an example of ethical decision-making. Finally, it discusses the implications of ethical practices for business performance, reputation, and compliance with laws and regulations.

Running head: BUSINESS ETHICS IN GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT
Business Ethics in Global Environment
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Executive Summary:
The report here gives a brief overview of the business ethics in global environment. Further,
the report defines ethics and discusses about the background with an elaboration on the need
for implementation of business ethics. The report explains why at all ethics was needed in
business. There is also analyses and evaluation of various codes of ethics in business
environment and the relation that business holds with the stakeholders. The report also gives
personal reflections and implications for business practice in the report.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Background......................................................................................................................................3
Explanation......................................................................................................................................4
Analysis and Evaluation..................................................................................................................5
Personal Reflections and Implications for Business Practice..........................................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
The report here discusses about the business ethics in global environment. The report
here defines ethics as the morality basis on which moral judgments, standards and rules of
conduct not only addressed but also identified for a business. The report also discusses about
the background with an elaboration on the need of the implementation of business ethics.
Then is report also explains why at all ethics was needed in business. There is also analyses
and evaluation various codes of ethics in business environment and the relation business
holds with the stakeholders. There are also a personal reflections and implications for
business practice in the report.
Background
The evolution of business ethics has been a result of myriad changes occurring in
business over time. The common way of determining the actual meaning of an upstanding
citizen, an active participant, a decent individual and an excellent tool for some with good
leadership skills is through Ethics (Ferrell & Fraedrich, 2015). Therefore, ethics defined as
the morality basis on which standards, moral judgments and rules of conduct not only
addressed but also identified. In this regard, business ethics defined as ideals, standards and
values responsible for guiding behavior in a business climate. Thus, in this context, most
organizations define principles that are specific for outlining the pervasive boundaries of
behavior that are absolute and all encompassing. Thus, in business, norms remain based on
principles that gets social acceptance and based on accountability, trust and honor.
The issues faced by workers in the 1920s helped in drawing attention not only
towards the harsh working conditions but also to the child labor laws (Mnookin & Weisberg,
2014). This was a period when capitalism was a concept that played a pivotal role in the
evolvement of the business ethics. During this time, a progressive movement ensured citizens

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with the concept of living wage. The main aim of the movement was to persuade business for
adopting policies that ensured allocation of sufficient income for the workers for fulfill their
need for education, recreation, health and retirement.
Then again, the political and social movements of the 1960s are also responsible for
bringing in major changes in the arena of business ethics (Crane & Matten, 2016). Things
took a different turn in the 1980s when incidents like illegal contract practices, influential
peddling, bribery, financial fraud and deceptive advertising were responsible for shaping the
business ethics during this time.
Explanation
The dawn of the 21st century led to the evolution of new issues that in turn helped in
the evolution of the business ethics that looked after product safety, misconduct financially
on a global platform, cybercrime, protection from intellectual theft of property and issues
involving sustainability of products and organizations (Gunasekaran & Spalanzani, 2012).
Thus, today the ethical issues faced by leaders in a business culture mainly focuses on
a. Protection of the environment
b. Avoid meltdowns like the global giant Enron
c. Corruption against financial institutions
d. Introducing products that does put public health at risk
e. Avoiding discrimination
f. Ensuring that sexual harassment is kept away from work place
g. Protection of intellectual property

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In this context, one can say that ethics and laws are in control of two different domains.
Thus, a law made for protection of public life whereas ethics meant to govern matters utterly
private. Therefore, in other words, laws clearly reflect a set of rules enforced which everyone
follows whereas ethics refers to personal view that is a reflection on how individual makes a
choice for navigation of their life (Becker, 2012).
There was a time when business ethics management focused primarily on the
management of behavior of the employees but now there is an increase in attention for the
development and implementation of tools and techniques that are associated with the
management of social responsibility from a broader perspective (Myers, 2013). These
externally focused components have involved considering the demands of other stakeholders.
The core areas where the management of business ethics might pose relevant include:
 Setting the standards of ethical behavior
 Managing the relations of Stakeholders
 Ethical Performance assessment
Analysis and Evaluation
Codes of ethics are voluntary statements that not only commit industries and
organizations but also professionals to specific actions, values and beliefs that are the reason
behind appropriate ethical behavior in employees (Fu, 2014). There are however, four types
of code of ethics for the corporate. These include professional code of ethics, corporate or
organizational code of ethics, industry code of ethics, and programme or group code of
ethics.
The role that organizational or corporate code of ethics holds includes (Bishop, 2013):

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 These codes of ethics is specific to a single organization
 The code of ethics sometimes called code of conduct or code of principles
 Ensures identification and encouragement of ethical behavior
The roles that Professional Code of Ethics plays include (Matthews, 2012):
 Ensures professional groups with their own guidelines for appropriate behavioral
conduct
 This is applies for people in professionals of medicine, law and accountability
The role that Industry Code of Ethics plays includes (Ford & Richardson, 2013):
 This code of ethics also applies to specific professions and particular industries
 There are many countries where the financial service industry will have its own code
of conduct for the companies operating within the industry.
The role that Program or group code of ethics plays includes (Beeri et al., 2013):
There are certain programs or sub group of organizations who establish code of ethics for
those taking part in their specific programs. For instance, this includes collaboration with
business leaders from Japan, USA and Europe that contributed in the development of code of
ethics globally.
With the rise of the multinational business, many organizations have found that code of
ethics established in the home country may need to be remolded for the international
operations. Thus to make the guidelines for domestic employees relevant and more applicable
in the overseas context three principles should be implemented (Morel, 2015).
 There should be respect for human core values
 There should be respect for local traditions

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 The belief in context on deciding what is right or wrong.
However, three key relationship attributes determine the perceived importance that
stakeholders have. These are as follows:
Power: This refers to the perceived capacity of a stakeholder in influencing the action of the
organization.
Urgency: The level to which stakeholder claims considered for immediate action
Legitimacy: Wherever the stakeholder’s actions considered desirable and appropriate by the
organization
This has been general trend that the relationship that business and their stakeholders is
confrontational in nature (Burchell & Cook, 2013). However, stakeholder’s relationships can
take a different variety of forms that include:
Challenge: This refers to opposition or mutual conflict
One-way support: This relationship based on sponsorship
Sparring partners: This refers to periodic conflict, healthy conflict
Endorsement: This relationship type refers to paid and unpaid public approval such as
labeling
Strategy dialogue: This refers relationship between partners through discussion over long-
term issues
Project dialogue: This refers to discussion between partners for purposes that are specific
Joint venture or alliance: This refers to formal partnership that involves mutual commitment
of resources.

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Task force: This refers to co-operation for achieving a specified task
There have however been problems with collaboration of stakeholders. These include
resource intensity that is not only expensive but also time consuming as compared to the
existing form of business decision-making (Angelstam et al., 2013). There is also culture
clash that defines the different values and goals. Uncontrollability is also one of the key
problems that crops up from stakeholder collaboration. Collaboration with the stakeholders
also leads to cooptation that implies that do the stakeholders collaborate for real commitment
or they do so for fulfilling their own selfish motives, the answer is not quite clear. With the
collaboration of the stakeholders, there lies the problem of accountability in terms of
responsibility, liability and enforcement. Thus, there must be different approaches that a
business must adopt to become more performance oriented. They include assessing the
ethical, social, environmental performance to make the business more sustainable.
Personal Reflections and Implications for Business Practice
According to my viewpoint, the present business world faces a constant challenge of
maintaining a climate that is ethical while maintaining profitability and competitive. Thus, I
believe that maintaining ethical behavior however reflects ways that remains consistent with
business worldviews of moral values and principles. However, I can say that working as
ethical business comes with its own benefits (Trevino & Nelson, 2016). This includes the
ability of the business to not only keep and attract investors but also keep its customers and
employees. In such cases, investors are also at peace of mind knowing that the company they
have invested in promises to work in a responsible manner thereby giving them an assurance
that their money will not go in waste. Moreover, I have seen that employees working for a
company with strong business ethics are more confident that they do not have to work under
conditions that involve any kind of unethical practices. Businesses performing with ethics are

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also in an advantageous condition from the point of view of customers, as they know that
they are buying products and services from a company that knows to source materials in a
responsible manner. In this context, I can draw in the example of Johnson and Johnson and
the Tylenol case. On September 30, 1982, there was death of three people in the Chicago area
from introduction of cyanide into the extra strong Tylenol capsules. However, there remained
link between the death and the capsules that spread like wildfire and thus Johnson and
Johnson notified, as they were the manufacturers of Tylenol (Berg & Robb, 2013).
Therefore, as an immediate course of action Johnson & Johnson ordered for an
immediate recall of the Tylenol bottles. Thus according to me, from, ethical point of view the
company did not want to lose its reputation and thus put public safety as the primary concern.
As a company of refute, they kept the image of the company secondary compared to public
safety. This made the incident a legendary one thereby becoming a future study in textbook
as to how Johnson and Johnson handle tragedy. The decision was not only the most
appropriate one from the ethical point of view but the company also applied skills in handling
the aftermath of tragedy.
Thus, I believe that businesses that operate within ethical guidelines also have lesser
risk for its poor performance. Such businesses also have lesser chances of finding themselves
in breaching of one or multitude of laws that are concerned with required behavior. These
include laws involving payment to regimes that are corrupt or policies related to
environmental practice. I believe that just in case the company held in law breaching cases,
not only fines imposed on the company but also its directors but also individual employees.
Thus, reputation is one of the most important aspects for a company which is also the most
difficult to build once lost. Thus, the company should uphold the promises and try to
maintain them that are an important aspect in maintaining a company’s reputation. Therefore,

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I believe that businesses that do not follow any particular ethical code or carry out any kind
of social responsibility do face wider consequences.
Conclusion
The report concludes by throwing a light on the personal reflections and implications
of business practice from ethical point of view. The management discipline and business
ethics is dependent on the quality management of the company. The managerial principle and
values, which are the basics of the social responsibility values applied and discussed in the
analysis. The cases discussed in the following report are of organizations that conducted their
operation in the ethical way and experience a better position in the global market. In this
context, the perfect example is that of Johnson and Johnson is whose effective handling of the
Tylenol case helped it to maintain its reputation. The corporate social responsibility comes
from the morale of doing business and that dependent on the values and mission that a
company adapts while selling the products or services, known as social implication of
business ethics. There is also analysis and evaluation done based on business ethics. The
report also gives a background information and explanation of the business code of ethics.

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References
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and barriers of transdisciplinary research. Ambio, 42(2), 254-265.
Becker, G. K. (Ed.). (2012). Ethics in business and society: Chinese and western
perspectives. Springer Science & Business Media.
Beeri, I., Dayan, R., Vigoda-Gadot, E., & Werner, S. B. (2013). Advancing ethics in public
organizations: The impact of an ethics program on employees’ perceptions and behaviors
in a regional council. Journal of Business Ethics, 112(1), 59-78.
Berg, D. M., & Robb, S. (2013). Crisis Management and the" paradigm case. Rhetorical and
Critical Approaches to Public Relations II, 93.
Bishop, W. H. (2013). The role of ethics in 21st century organizations. Journal of Business
Ethics, 118(3), 635-637.
Burchell, J., & Cook, J. (2013). Sleeping with the enemy? Strategic transformations in
business–NGO relationships through stakeholder dialogue. Journal of business ethics,
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Crane, A., & Matten, D. (2016). Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and
sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.
Ferrell, O. C., & Fraedrich, J. (2015). Business ethics: Ethical decision making & cases.
Nelson Education.