Business Ethics

Business Ethics

Business ethics is a diverse field that cannot be defined with a single definition. This area addresses numerous issues, problems, and dilemmas within the management of businesses. Does this through numerous perspectives and methods. Of course, in order to present the complexities of business ethics, we must explore the types of issues that business professionals are continuously confronted with. To understand one must

know the definition of corporate ethics as well as knowing what the ethics of responsibility are. After defining what ethics are, we then need to see how these are played out within management. This will show the decline and fall of business ethics over time and how whistle blowing has played its part. Business ethics not only portray humans, but also how businesses treat the environment.

The majority of European and U.S. CEO's and higher ranking managers define corporate ethics as a subject that is to be dealt with at three levels; (1) the corporate mission, (2) constituency relations, and (3) policies and practices. The corporate mission is the most easily recognized and widely applicable category. Executives say that the enterprise in which they are engaged in, and the products or services that they market, should serve an essentially ethical purpose and that a companies first ethical responsibilities are defined by the nature of their objectives (Madsen and Shafritz, 1990).

Managers also speak of constituency relations when formulating their company's ethical standards. This usually requires the creation of statements of corporate responsibilities for each individual company. Most of the codes describe the company's commitment toward certain groups rather than...

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Business ethics are complicated, multi-issue problems that are ever changing in our fast-paced world. It is a very complex issue entailing many things from corporate ethics to the ethics of responsibility. Whistle blowing is one result of declining corporate ethics and the decline of ethics has declining corporate ethics and the decline of ethics has led to negative impact on the environment. These complex issues must be addressed or an ever increasing basis in the future.

REFERENCES

Madsen, Peter. Shafritz, Jay, M. (1990). Essentials of Business Ethics.

New York, NY: Author.

The Wall Street Journal. (1989). Dow Jones and Company Inc.

Magnet, Myron. (1988). The Decline and Fall of Business Ethics. Fortune: Time Inc.

Benson, G. C. S. (1982). Business Ethics in America. Lexington MA: D.C. Heath and Company.