BUSINESS ETHICS

Ethics can be defined as the critical, structured examination of how we should behave in
particular, how we should constrains the pursuit to self interest when our actions effect others.

Business Ethics can be defined as the critical, structured examination of how people &
institutions should behave in the world of commerce.

Some of the business ethics

1. Values

Values are the principles or standards of personal behavior. Most values are shaped early in life
by parents, families, friends, teachers and spiritual leaders.

2. Integrity

Integrity means acting unbiased by self-interest and within the framework of ones values and
norms. One of the most generally accepted norms of organizational behavior is that an
individuals private interests or desire to benefit personally should not influence how they carry
out their responsibilities

3. Choices

Ethics is the collection of values, norms, standards and principles that provides a framework for
action. Action requires individuals to make choices.

4. Courage

It takes courage to be ethical in the current cultural environment. Ethical decisions can be
unpopular because of their impact on both the company and other employees.
 5. Behaviors

Integrity or ethical behavior is guided by each of the factors discussed within this lesson
including values, norms, convictions, integrity, choices and courage. None is independent of the
others and each supports the others. They are what define your behaviors as either ethical or
unethical. Together they provide you with the guidelines that define your behavior.

Business ethics is a form of applied ethics or professional ethics that examines ethical
principles and moral or ethical problems that arise in a business environment. It applies to all
aspects of business conduct and is relevant to the conduct of individuals and entire
organizations. Business ethics refers to contemporary standards or sets of values that govern
the actions and behavior of an individual in the business organization.

Ethics are the rules or standards that govern our decisions on a daily basis. Many equate
ethics with conscience or a simplistic sense of right and wrong. Others would say that
ethics is an internal code that governs an individuals conduct, ingrained into each person by
family, faith, tradition, community, laws, and personal mores. Corporations and professional
organizations, particularly licensing boards, generally will have a written Code of Ethics that
governs standards of professional conduct expected of all in the field. It is important to note that
law and ethics are not synonymous, nor are the legal and ethical courses of action in a
given situation necessarily the same. Statutes and regulations passed by legislative bodies and
administrative boards set forth the law. Slavery once was legal in the US, but one certainly
wouldnt say forcibly enslaving humans was an ethical act.