Business Ethics and Sustainability: Ethical Implications of Services

This essay delves into the increasingly complex ethical challenges faced by businesses and universities due to document falsification, particularly concerning assignment writing services. It examines the practice of students paying for assignment completion and submitting it as their own work, evaluating its ethical implications using MacDonald's four levels of business ethics and various ethical theories such as consequentialism, deontology, and virtue ethics. The essay explores the perspectives of students, businesses, and universities, analyzing the consequences of such practices, including potential penalties for students. It also discusses the role of international students, language support, and the ethical considerations for businesses offering these services, concluding with a critical assessment of the overall impact on academic integrity and the development of students' knowledge and skills.

Running head: BUSINESS ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
Business Ethics and Sustainability
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

1BUSINESS ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
This essay introduces the increasing challenges encountered by the business
organizations and universities due to document falsification. Document falsification is a type of
fraud conducted by the business organizations and students of the universities for fulfilling basic
requirements. At certain instances, business organizations offer assignment writings provided by
the university to the students as their course work in exchange for money. Upon completion of
the assignment, the students then submit the assignment to the university as their own work. Due
to the freelancing offered to the students, the universities are unable to detect the authenticity of
the assignments and mark the course works.
This essay includes critically evaluating the practice of a student paying someone to write
an assignment and submitting it an own work along with analyzing if such services offered by
the organizations are ethical or unethical by using MacDonald's four levels of business ethics.
The discussions in this essay are conducted by using various ethical theories and models
followed by the types of consequences individuals engaged in such practices might suffer.
Some business organizations are offering to write the assignments of the students
provided by the university as their course work. These assignments are a part of the course work
of the degree course that students undertake for graduation. However, some students do not
prefer doing their own assignments. Due to the increasing demand of the students of not doing
their own assignments, provided an opportunity for the business organizations to offer such
services. As commented by Law, Ting & Jerome (2013), falsification of documents is unethical
for business organizations. Therefore, the practice of the students paying someone to write their
assignments to business organizations and submitting it as their own work is unethical. However,
as argued by Yang (2012), if the business organization is legally registered, providing such
services to customers are not considered to be unethical.

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As mentioned by Bowen & Bok (2016), students attend colleges and universities in order
to gain knowledge in the subject of interest that they later use to build up their career. In order to
gain sufficient knowledge about the subjects, students need to gather adequate knowledge that
will be helpful for their professional career in future. Therefore, not doing own assignments is
unethical for the students, as this hampers their course of study and knowledge. According to
Masic (2014), it is unethical for individuals to present someone else’s work as own. In this case,
it is unethical for the students to submit the assignment completed by other business
organizations as own to the university. It is the sole responsibility of the students to attend
universities and use the knowledge gained during the lectures to complete the assignments.
Reports suggest that international students are paying to business organizations or
agencies to get their work edited and proof read in order to obtain high academic grades. The
business organizations and agencies use their experts to go through the assignments given by the
students and complete it accordingly. This has been a raising issue according to the ethical
considerations of the students. Majority of the students taking help of such organizations are
international students in the UK and had English as their second language. This is because the
international students lack sufficient language support services at their universities (Shaw, 2017).
Therefore, based on this viewpoint, undertaking such services to submit correct work by the
students to the universities is not unethical. The students are enforced to undertake such service
due to inappropriate language support from the university. Therefore, if the universities had
provided adequate support in terms of language to the students, they would not have considered
taking such services. As mentioned by Hosny & Fatima (2014), taking such services is unethical
and considered as cheating on the part of the students. However, as criticized by Courtney-Pratt

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et al., (2012), the students undertake such service due to lack of language support from the
universities, hence it cannot be considered as cheating.
Organizations offer services to customers based on the current demands. Therefore, the
growth opportunity of the business largely depends on the present demand and expectations of
the customers (Li & Du, 2012). According to reports, the international students take the help of
business organizations and agencies to complete the assignments on behalf of them. The main
reason for the students of demanding such services is due to the lack of support of the university.
As the demands of such services are increasing, business organizations have found an adequate
opportunity for initiating and continuing business in this field. As commented by Wilson (2012),
it is ethical for the business organizations to serve the customers by fulfilling their demands and
expectations. It is considered unethical if the business organizations are unable to provide service
that fulfills the demands of the customers. Therefore, from the organizational perspectives, the
service provided by the organizations and agencies to write assignments on behalf of the students
is not unethical. This is because the organizations are providing service to fulfill to present
demand of the students.
According to the four levels of business ethics, organizations need to accomplish he
societal ethics, industrial ethics, company ethics and managerial ethics (Weiss, 2012).
Organizations are bound to follow and implement the four levels of business ethics while
conducting the business. The facility or service provided by the organization of writing
assignments for the students for a fee is discussed according to the McDonald’s four levels of
business ethics. According to the societal ethics of McDonald’s, this features assesses the effect
of the business on the society. The service, products, and facilities provided by the business
organization need to have a positive and healthy impact on the society. If the services provided

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by the organizations have any negative impact on the society and its people, it is considered to be
highly unethical. The services provided by the organizations and agencies are writing the
assignments of the students on their behalf are thereby, unethical. According to Graham & Harris
(2013), writing assignments for the students are hampering the knowledge gaining process of the
students thereby, manipulating their future and professional career. It is also teaching the
student's document falsification for scoring satisfactory grades. Business organizations must not
offer services to the students, as it is hampering the knowledge gaining and personal
development process of the students. This is also compromising with the future of the country, as
their youths are completing studies being ignorant. However, as argued by Geisler (2013), it is
not unethical as this is the current demand of the clients and customers. Students are asking
services for writing assignments and proofreading them, as they are lacking sufficient support
from the universities.
From the perspective of the industrial ethics, the services offered by the organizations are
not unethical because this is what the international students mostly demand. According to the
business ethics, organizations must be able to fulfill the demands and expectations of the
customers (Crane & Matten, 2016). In this case, the students demand their assignments be
written and proof read by organizations and agencies on their behalf in order to score high
academic grades. Therefore, it is ethical for the business organizations and agencies to use their
experts and their knowledge to write assignments on the behalf of the students and by offering a
fee.
Each organization has distinct company ethics based on which they conduct business.
Therefore, the success of the business largely depends on the ethics of the companies. According
to the company ethics of MacDonald’s, the organizations need to be trustful, open-minded and

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needs to have clear documents of the business and service provided by them. From the
organizational perspectives, if the companies and agencies have authentic and accurate
documents about the service, it is ethical for them to provide service. Clear documentation is a
significant ethical aspect while conducting a business. Therefore, it is ethical for the
organizations to offer services such as proof reading and writing assignments for the students if
they possess clear and authentic documents (Crane & Matten, 2016).
Based on the individual ethics, the employees of the organizations need to be trustworthy
and provide plagiarism free assignments to the students. Conducting plagiarism is unethical
according to the academic perspectives. Therefore, the experts while writing the assignments of
the students need to provide plagiarism free work. This is considered ethical according to the
individual ethics of the employees of the organizations based on McDonald’s last level of
business ethics (Geisler, 2013).
The service provided by the organizations to write the assignments for the students is
argumentative, as some consist it to be ethical and unethical; the service is discussed in
accordance with various ethical theories. According to Carlson (2013), consequentialism defines
the rightness and wrongness of the act based on the results of the act. Therefore, better the
consequences of the act, better is the suitability of the act. From the perspectives of the
organizations and the students, the service provides to the students by charging certain fees is
ethical. This is because, at the end of the act, both the students and the organizations are
beneficial. By allowing the facility of using the knowledge of the experts to write the assignment
of the students, the organizations are actually helping the students in scoring good grades.
Therefore, it is ethical. On the other hand, the students are able to get a university degree that can

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be used by them to build a professional career. From both the perspective, the results of the act
are beneficial thereby, ethical according to the consequentialism ethical theory.
However, as argued by Gray & Schein (2012), deontology is defined as the system in
which morality is determined by the duty or laws. In the case of deontology, the justification of
the act is judged rather than the outcome of the act. Therefore, according to the concept of
deontology, the service provided by the organizations of writing the assignment by charging fees
is unethical. The students are given to write assignments based on the knowledge they gain by
attending lectures. Therefore, writing up assignments allows the students to impart the
knowledge they gain and use it for future. Therefore, if the students are not doing their
assignments personally, the entire process of knowledge gaining and earning is hampered. In
spite of attending full-time university courses, the students end up on the losing side, as they are
unable to learn. Though the students end up scoring high grades in their academics, they fail to
use the knowledge for future. As a result, the students encounter challenges after finishing their
studies and starting their professional career. Therefore, the students have to struggle in order to
establish them professionally and progress in their career. Virtue ethics also determines the
ethnicity by determining the outcome of the actions (McHugh, 2012). According to virtue ethics,
the service provided by the organizations of writing assignments on behalf of the students is
ultimately hampering them in the end both academically and professionally. The youths of the
country are remaining ignorant in spite of having a university degree and high academic grades.
The students also need to answer questions regarding the inability to perform professionally in
spite of having such high academic grades. Therefore, according to deontology and virtue ethics,
the services provided by the organizations to the students are unethical, as it is having a negative
outcome on the students.

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The students can face huge penalties and consequences if the universities become aware
that the students are not doing the assignments by themselves rather than submitting someone
else's work as their own ((Weiss, 2012). The universities have the right to suspend the students if
they are caught practicing such unethical practices for submitting the course works. It is against
the policies and rules of the universities that the students take the help of external agencies and
organizations for writing their assignments. Once enrolled in the degree course, it is the
responsibility of the students to attend lectures and complete assignments by themselves.
Moreover, if the students keep on continuing such practices, the universities also have the right
to terminate the students from the course. This will adversely affect the career of the students, as
they will be unable to continue their studies in future. The universities also have the right to sue
the organizations that offer such services to the students. This is against the policies and rules of
the universities that students write their assignments by other experts by paying the fees charged
by the organizations (Wlison, 2012).
In this essay, it can be concluded that document falsification is unethical for business
organizations. The services provided by the business organizations to write the assignments of
the students by charging particular amount of fees are unethical. This is because the students are
supposed to complete the assignment by themselves without submitting someone else’s work as
their own. The demand for such services has increased, as the students lack sufficient language
support from their university. Therefore, in spite of being good students, they are unable to score
high grades due to the language barrier. In order to overcome such drawback, students are
looking for help from organizations and agencies to write or proof read their assignments.
McDonald’s four-business ethics level suggests that the service provided by the business
organizations are ethical, as this is what the students are demanding presently. According to

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consequentialism, the service provided by the organization is ethical, as the result is beneficial
for the students, as they are able to score high grades. However, on the other hand, according to
the theories of deontology and virtue ethics, the practices are completely unethical. This is
because the students end up learning nothing throughout the degree course. In future, the
students encounter challenges due to lack of sufficient knowledge professionally.

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