Ethics

What is Business Ethics
It is often claimed that the phrase business ethics is an oxymoron, the way that the phrase deafening silence is an oxymoron. The phrase business ethics is said to be an oxymoron, for it is assumed that business is inherently bad, and that to interrelate it with ethics would be absurd. In fact, some would even liken business into a game of poker, where deception and lying were perfectly permissible. However, this is not entirely the casedespite the fact that a lot of businesses have experienced scandals and other forms of negative events, this does not mean that business should be unethical.

According to Andrew Crane  Dirk Matten, business ethics is the study of business situations, activities, and decisions where issues of right and wrong are addressed. A lot of individuals would say that since business ethics is about right and wrong, then laws would definitely say what should and what should be done in a business however, there are a lot of circumstances which the law does not explicitly cover.

For example, the law does not prevent one from cheating on his or her loverbut still, this circumstance is considered unethical. A lot of states do not have laws regarding animal-testing or perhaps the selling of various objects such as landmines, and yet, these issues are ethical issues therefore, it is necessary to state that business ethics and laws are not the same. Perhaps they intersect at some point, but these concepts are not the same at all.

In analysis, it can be said that business ethics is a means for people to know what is right and wrongeven if it is not explicitly stated in the law. Apart from this, it can also be said that ethics is a supplement to the laws since there are certain events and circumstances which the law does not cover, and it is necessary to have a set of guidelines for these events and circumstances.

Ethical Issues
There are a lot of ethical issues in society, but for this paper, what will be discussed are the ethical issues in the hospital setting. One ethical issue in the hospital setting would be malpracticeit is important that the medical practitioners are committed to the highest standards of care for their patients. There are instances wherein there are debates on whom should be able to cure whom and so on, since some individuals practice beyond what they were educated for.

Another ethical issue would be regarding hiring procedures and staff supervision, since it is vital that the hospital organization is able to hire competent individuals and manage these individuals accordingly in order to ensure that the clients or patients of the organization are well cared for.

Apart from these ethical issues, there is also the issue of whether the hospital organization is able to provide its staff and the patients of information regarding their procedures. It is necessary to encourage an atmosphere of transparency in order to ensure that everyone knows how the organization functions.

Business ethics is important because not only is it good for business, but also because the various businesses can greatly influence society. The public believes that such organizations with high influence and power need to function ethically and morally. Apart from this, malpractices in business can cause harm on various communities, individuals, and even the environment.