Literature Review on Ethics in Business, SBM3204, Australia

This literature review, focusing on the ethics in business, provides a comprehensive overview of the subject, using the Apple company as a case study. It begins by defining ethics and business ethics, highlighting the importance of ethical behavior in organizations. The review explores the existing literature, emphasizing the ethical challenges faced by Apple, including privacy issues, price-fixing allegations, sustainability concerns, and intellectual property theft. It further examines the importance of ethics for both large and small businesses, discussing how ethical practices build credibility, improve decision-making, and secure long-term gains. The review also covers the benefits of ethical behavior and corporate social responsibility (CSR), emphasizing their role in attracting customers, increasing sales, and protecting businesses from liabilities. The conclusion stresses the significance of ethics in business, even when legislation fails, and highlights how ethics safeguards businesses from negatively impacting society and the environment.

LITERATURE REVIEW ON
ETHICS IN BUSINESS AUSTRALIA

ETHICS IN BUSINESS 1
Introduction
Through this paper the literature review will be conducted on the topic ‘Ethics in Business’ by
using the example of the Apple Company throughout the research. First to start further it’s
important to know about the literal meaning of ethics and then followed with that definition of
the business ethics or the ethics in an organization. In accordance with Rodrigues the study of
universal values like the essential equality of men and women, human or natural rights and all
the other basic concepts and fundamental principles of decent human conduct is known as ethics
or these are those principles which governs the behavior of the person or the conflict between the
right and wrong (Shetkar & Rodrigues, 2015). Ethics in business or also known as the corporate
ethics is a type of applied or professional ethics and are applied to all the aspects of business
conduct and are relevant for all the humans and the entire organization. Many businesses get
collapsed due to the unethical behaviors as it result in loss of credibility amongst the shareholder
and businesses.
Literature Review on Business Ethics
Ethics is thus that complex construction that interprets and understand the things and business in
a very different way, where each individual has its own opinion regarding the constitution of a
good ethical behavior and there is no single definition which can be considered correct for ethics
(Durkheim, 2018)
. In the recent year the business ethics literature has explored in both volume and importance and
because of this sheer volume and diversity of the literature it has raised its value and has
attracted a lot of media action. Trevino & Nelson stated that ethics is concerned with the moral
judgments about right and wrong and the decision taken within the organization may be taken by

ETHICS IN BUSINESS 2
an individual or the group, but the persons making them must be influenced by the culture of the
company (Trevino & Nelson, 2016).
According to Akrani the best example stating the importance of ethics in business is reflected via
the Apple Company whose headquarter is of is situated in Cupertino, California and has
experienced a lot of success and challenges as well as ethical issues in the journey of its business
history just like many other technological industries (Akrani, 2011), The Apple brand serves as
the quality, prestige and innovation for millions of consumers, though there are many companies
who tries to copy the its model but none have been able to discover what it was made by the
Apple. This company had its own principles of ethics which were followed by them on the
regular basis like, it has always tried to display best and appropriate of its conduct to all its
employees and the persons it worked with mostly in all the situations,. It tried to create
innovative and high qualified products and services, it also has reflected integrity, honesty,
respect, confidentiality and compliance in every of its business transaction. Pearson had drafted a
code of conduct for their business which was applied to all its operations including the overseas
ones, it has also formulated some specific policies relating to the corporate governance, conflicts
of interest in the directors and the guidelines on website referring to the question relating to the
questionable conduct of the company. A proper business conduct helpline plan for the workers
were made where the misconduct was reported to the Audit of the Apple and Finance Committee
(Pearson, 2017).
Even though Apple has regularly won the top most place in the world’s most preferable
company, in the recent years it has come across many ethical issues which can have diverse
effect on the success of the company in the future, some of them are as follows Durkheim firstly
raised the Privacy issue where the company’s ability to track its customers have raised due to

ETHICS IN BUSINESS 3
the increase in the growth of internet, social media and mobile devices but this have also made
the tracking of the customer a controversial issue (Durkheim, 2018). Though for Apple
information about its customer can help them to understand the latest trends and the various
other products of the market more efficiently, but this privacy breach has also resulted in
backlash against the company. Second according to Guardian fixing of price where it is an
allegation and a very big ethical issue raised against the Apple Company. In a case against it the
judge ruled that price fixing was done by the company on eBooks, with five other major
publisher of the books. third is the sustainability step i.e. for becoming a bigger company Apple
has taken many steps and in that while reduced the environmental impact of its facilities,
restrictions in the use of manufacture use and recycling of its products were also addressed here
(Guardian, 2016). fourth one is the Rioting which was caused during the sale of iPhone 4s in the
year 2012 in China riots beginning of riots were traced because the population had to wait for
hours and hours outside the store to purchase the phone, it also grew tensions between the buyers
who waited overnights and tried to reach or come in front of the lines. Fifth one is the threats
from other companies i.e. Burgess says that, it creates various types of threat for the other
companies and brings collusions which are highly unethical, it also faces the supply chain
management issues. last one is the Intellectual property i.e. the theft of intellectual property is the
key concern and a big issue faced aggressively by this company Apple is very serious about
keeping its ideas as secret and prevented from other companies (Burgess, 2017)..
In order to startup a business and get success in it, the most important thing needed is the capital
and a brilliant idea and knowledge about the product that to with different and unique ways of
services. Though all the rules and regulations and the policies are followed properly still there
remains several issues which challenges the integrity of the organization while running any kind

ETHICS IN BUSINESS 4
of businesses same goes on with the small organizations or the small business holders. Same
thing was also noticed in the Apple Company Inc. where there were many policies used and
implemented for the betterment of it but still it has faced many problems and has also tried to
overcome them by developing ethical practices within. (Werhane, 2019)
The business ethics has spread over its roots and has reached far beyond the loyalties, morale and
strengths of a management team bond and are directly and indirectly related earning of profit in
both the short and the long term. A company if found not operating ethically then it loses its
investors as they become less inclined to buy the stock or support the operators. Ethical issues in
small scale business organization are ethics is important in business some out of them are as
follows firstly it satisfies the basic human needs i.e. the basic human need is to be fair, honest
and ethical and all the employees would like to work for an organization which practices its
deeds in fair and ethical manner. Secondly it creates credibility i.e. an organization is said to be
driven by ethical norms is mostly given respect in the society and even to those who do not even
have information regarding the works or the business. Thirdly is uniting people and leadership, if
an organization walks on the values it attracts the respect from its employees also. Fourthly it
also improves the decision makings of an organization in the very same way as it does for the
individuals. Fifth one refers that it helps in earning the long term gains as it guides the
organization to earn in the long runs and even when they seem to lose money. Lastly is securing
or protecting the society (Hess & Cottrell, 2016).
Ethics will help the small scale business in the following ways it builds a positive corporate
culture i.e. the morale in the team members increases when the employees feel themselves safe
and protected from retaliation for personal beliefs. These policies include anti-discriminatory
rules, open door policies and equal opportunities for the growth of the employees.it boosts up the

ETHICS IN BUSINESS 5
confidence of the of the consumer (Abend, 2016).The business may lose the confidence of the
customer just because of few bad online reviews, they need to retain the loyalty of the consumer
through the ethical practices that start with fair and honest methods of advertising and continues
throughout the sale. It reduces the financial liabilities of the companies who do not make or
develop ethical policies and standards may undergo financial liabilities, most important out of
them is reduction of sale. It also has potential lawsuits which minimizes the considered as the
second are of financial liability which exist with the potential lawsuits (Bertrand, 2018). There
must not be any kind of discrimination, harassment, acquisitions or disgruntlement amongst the
workers in a business rather there must be consistency in dealing or executing the policies, which
can further reduce the frivolous lawsuits which bankrupts the smaller organizations (Chell et al.,
2016).
The ethical behavior and CSR can bring a huge amount of benefit for the business of all the types
whether small or big. For example it attracts customers, increase in production, boost up sales
and increases profits, it attracts the continuity of the employees for staying connected with the
business for a long time, which reduces the turnover of the labor and cost of recruiting new
employees and it also attracts investors and keeps the share price of the company (Spence, 2016).
Therefore protects the business from takeovers. Unethical behavior or lack of CSR may damage
the reputation of the business and its stakeholders, which may further result in fall of profits.
Thus it can be said that although the organizations breaches the law by providing for false or
misleading advertisement of their products but the hand in hand with ethics and its use as an
essential weapon can stop the business organizations from misleading their customers from all
such unlawful tactics. Problems raised inside and outside the environment of the business
organization depends totally upon the application of the ethical practices among them. Failing in

ETHICS IN BUSINESS 6
following the social responsibility, in study of nature while doing their duties, ethics in the
workplace etc. can hamper the image of a business, which has to be minimized or reduced. This
can be done by following and getting abided by the all the ethical principles and set of norms
formed by the organization (Wickert, 2016).
Conclusion
Ethics thus tries to form a sense of correctness and wrongness in a business institution even in
those situation even when the legislations fail, it is the morals which protects the institution or
the business organization from affecting the society or the environment in a negative way. So
there are millions of ways that can prove the importance of ethics in business, some of them are
that it satisfies the basic human needs i.e. the basic human need is to be fair, honest and ethical
and all the employees would like to work for an organization which practices its deeds in fair and
ethical manner, it creates credibility i.e. an organization is said to be driven by ethical norms is
mostly given respect in the society and even to those who do not even have information
regarding the works or the business, is uniting people and leadership, if an organization walks on
the values it attracts the respect from its employees also etc.

ETHICS IN BUSINESS 7
References
Abend, G., 2016. The Moral Background: An Inquiry into the History of Business Ethics. 1st ed.
Princeton University Press.
Akrani, G., 2011. What are Business Ethics? Meaning Definition Features. [Online] Available
at: https://kalyan-city.blogspot.com/2011/09/what-are-business-ethics-meaning.html [Accessed
28 2019 2019].
Bertrand, C.J., 2018. Media Ethics and Accountability Systems. 1st ed. New York: Routledge.
Burgess, , 2017. Apple means business when protecting intellectual property. [Online] Available
at https://www.csoonline.com/article/3269868/apple-means-business-when-protecting-
intellectual-property.html [Accessed 28 2019 2019].
Chell, E., Spence, L., Perrini, F. & Perrini, J.D., 2016. Journal of business ethics. Social
entrepreneurship and business ethics: Does social equal ethical?, 133(4), pp.619-625.
Durkheim, E., 2018. Professional Ethics and Civic Morals. 1st ed. London: Routledge.
Guardian, T., 2016. Apple to pay $450m settlement over US ebook price fixing. [Online]
Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/07/apple-450-million-
settlement-e-book-price-fixing-supreme-court [Accessed 28 2019 2019].
Hess, W.F. & Cottrell, J.H., 2016. Business Horizons. Fraud risk management: A small business
perspective, 59(1), pp.13-18.
Pearson, R., 2017. Business Ethics as CommunicationEthics.Public Relation Practice and idea
of dialogue in Public relation Theory. 1st ed. Londion: Routledge.
Shetkar, S.S. & Rodrigues, A., 2015. International Journal of Advanced Research in
Management and Social Sciences. Ethical Practices of Business in Environment Issues: a sudy
based on selected industry in Goa, 4(8), pp.149-64.

ETHICS IN BUSINESS 8
Spence, L.J., 2016. Small business social responsibility: Expanding core CSR theory. Business
& Society, 55(1), pp.23-55.
Trevino, L.K. & Nelson, K.A., 2016. Managing Business Ethics: Straight Talk about How to Do
It Right. 1st ed. John Wiley & Sons.
Werhane, P.H., 2019. The normative/descriptive distinction in methodologies of business ethics.
In Systems. Thinking and Moral Imagination, pp.21-25).
Wickert, C., 2016. Political” corporate social responsibility in small-and medium-sized
enterprises. conceptual framework. Business & Society, 55(6), pp.792-824.