Ethics

Business ethics is the study and assessment if decision making by organizations with accordance to the ethical concepts and moral judgments. These ethical concepts range from honesty to customers, corporate responsibility to the community and the environment at large, protection of employee rights, and organizations responsibility to customer honesty.

Deloitte is one of the largest auditors organizations alongside KPMG, PWC, and EY delivering audit, financial advisory, tax, executive search and selection, enterprise risk services and consulting services.

It is ranked 70th in the Fortune 100 list with a job growth of one percent and a capacity of 29,387 employees in the US only. The organizations corporate mission statement is To help our clients and our people excel while its Vision Statement is To become the standard of excellence. The nature of these corporate statements implies that the organization seeks to not only excel and be the best but also ensure that their clients excel in the process. They do this by having shared values, and mostly important by adhering to business ethics and the code of conduct lay out. Although they have a corporate ethics principals which

Deloitte as an organization is upholds and takes business ethics very seriously. They have an ethics principal, which each member adheres to, and follows. These principal are
Honesty and Integrity  We act with honesty and integrity. Professional Behavior  We operate within the letter and the spirit of applicable laws. Competence  We bring appropriate skills and capabilities to every client assignment. Objectivity  We are objective in forming our professional opinions and the advice we give. Confidentiality  We respect the confidentiality of information. Fair Business Practices  We are committed to fair business practices. Responsibility to Society  We recognize and respect the impact we have on the world around us. Respect and Fair Treatment  We treat all our colleagues with respect, courtesy, and fairness, and Accountability and Decision Making  We lead by example, using our shared values as our foundation.

They also have an ethics and compliance programme, which encompasses lapse and communication mechanisms in place to manage the ethics and compliance activities of Deloitte. The programme details the expected and required behaviors of the employees of Deloitte, and provides details about the Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer of Deloitte, the Integrity Helpline, and the many other resources available to our personnel. All these are provided in detail in the Code of Ethics  Professional Conduct-Personal Integrity, Public Trust Deloitte manual.

Judging from their mission and vision statements, Deloitte treats its customers, stakeholders and clientele with high standard ethical behavior, as they believe that the true character of a professional is measured by their ethical behavior. This can be judged from the numerous articles written about Deloittes treatment of stakeholders such as the publication by the Yale school of management title A good Company in the standing and the way their employees, the business (services) practices and the clientele service standards. It can also be judged by the fact that assessments are conducted every now and then to measure the consistency of the morals and behaviors through performance of employees, and partners. This kind of ethical behavior in Deloitte serves to protect the well-being of the public and contributes to the general interests of the communities we live in, thereby, benefiting all their stakeholders.

In 1995, Deloitte was sued for racial discrimination against black people. The plaintiffs alleged that Deloitte did not base their employment opportunities against them on their experience or educational level but rather on their race. They also alleged that Deloitte discriminated against them in terms of firing, the training, promotion opportunities, pay packages, and general employee terms and conditions. Although I have a college degree in electrical and mechanical engineering and was hired to be an industrial engineer, I have instead been assigned to perform the tasks of a maintenance worker, including fixing light bulbs and emptying trash cans, says plaintiff Anthony Williams, currently employed at the Hermitage, Tenn., Deloitte  Touche office. They told me not to bother wearing a suit. I believe that I have tracked into performing menial tasks because I am black. (allbusiness.com, 1995). This reflected badly on the ethics the company held.

Conclusion
Business ethics is very important to any organization as this details how customers, employees and the community as a large will view as well as trust your organization. The reputation that a company has makes much difference when it comes to shareholders, job applicants and even their business associates. If a company is known to treat their workers badly, not many people will want to work there. In addition, not many sponsors or other businesses will want to be associated with that company.Most organizations today find themselves at crossroads as to whether they should follow ethics, or get away with them altogether to increase profits and as long as they cannot be discovered.
Globalization has made business ethics a worse off issue. Organizations have to strive to respect the ethics laid out by ethical and compliance boards and ensure that they follow them to the letter in order to gain trust of their customers and partners and to provide quality goods and services. In addition, ethics in business organizations have made the work environment a much better place to be because workers are assured of a safe environment where they will not feel violated.