Ethics

The paper discusses the topic of business ethics. The definition of business ethics is provided. Fairness and honesty, conflicts of interests, and customer confidence are included into the list of the three most important ethical issues in modern business environments.

Throughout the development of corporate relationships in America, companies and businesses always sought to better understand and promote ethical behaviors and ethical compliance. Ethical scandals in the business world once again emphasized an urgent need for businesses to pursue the principles and norms of ethics. Business ethics is often believed to be an oxymoron businesses and organizations are confident that successful business cannot be ethical. Yet, business ethics is one of the major prerequisites for the development of fair, honest, and just corporate relationships it creates conditions necessary for organizations to successfully resolve the existing and emerging ethical dilemmas.

Business is the study of business situations, activities, and decisions where issues of right and wrong are addressed (Crane  Matten, 2007, p. 5). Business ethics involves the study of ethical conflicts and dilemmas in the corporate environments. The study of business ethics is not limited to businesses and corporations, but covers ethical conflicts in pressure groups, non-profit organizations, government organizations, and related organizational environments (Crane  Matten, 2007).

One of the basic questions businesses and organization are trying to answer is in how to distinguish right from wrong and whether laws can facilitate the process of resolving ethical dilemmas. First, the scope of business ethics extends far beyond the boundaries of law. There is considerable overlap between law and ethics, but the former sets only the minimum acceptable standards (Crane  Matten, 2007). Moreover, business ethics is often concerned with the issues which laws do not cover or cannot resolve these are the issues in which no definite consensus about right and wrong can be reached. Second, business ethics provides numerous example and strategies, which businesses could use to decide upon what is right and what is wrong in each particular situation. For example, prescriptive approaches to ethical dilemmas require that businesses concentrate on consequences of their actions or their duties and obligations  both can serve a reliable criterion in judging the ethical righteousness of any business decision (Trevino  Nelson, 2006). Third, the study of business ethics offers an insight into the most important ethical issues and provides businesses with the basic knowledge of how they could address and solve the most difficult ethical dilemmas.

The three most important ethical issues in my community include fairness and honesty, conflicts of interest, and customer confidence. Pride, Hughes and Kapoor (2008) are correct, saying that fairness and honesty are the subjects of the continuous ethical concern in organizations. Fairness and honesty exemplify the two most important standards, which businesses must follow in their relationships with employees, customers, suppliers, and partners. Fairness is of particular importance in human resources, for most corporate policy is constructed to build fairness into the system (Trevino  Nelson, p. 68). It should be followed and supplemented by organizations ability to successfully and timely resolve the conflicts of interests. These occur whenever organizations or employees have to sacrifice or compromise the objectivity of their judgments (Trevino  Nelson, 2006), and when employees or organizations take an advantage of an unethical situation to pursue their narrow self-interests (Pride, Hughes  Kapoor, 2008). Enron is the bright example of how conflicts of interests can become the cause of the major ethical and, consequently, financial and legal problems. Finally, these are the problems with customer confidence that reflect in poorer business performance. These issues affect a broad range of topics within the organization-customer relationship discourse and imply that organizations must be ethical, honest, fair toward their customers, treat them with respect and base their relationships on trust (Trevino  Nelson, 2006). Whether organizations can cope with their ethical dilemmas depends on how well they can learn the basics of business ethics and although business ethics is often treated as an oxymoron, there is obviously much to learn and to use for the benefit of continuous profitability and ethical compliance.