Commercial ethics are some of business practices that respect moral, social and legal issues within business,

society and government that looks for the well being of the society as a whole. One of them could be the stealing of a brand name or similar brand name. Copying the design of a competitor. Evading taxes and legal formalities. Putting a similar business near of a competitor (ex. same street). Producing a significant pollution or making too toxic for people to be in the same area of the business.

When business people speak about business ethics they usually mean one of three things: (1) avoid breaking the criminal law in ones work-related activity; (2) avoid action that may result in civil law suits against the company; and (3) avoid actions that are bad for the company image. Businesses are especially concerned with these three things since they involve loss of money and company reputation. In theory, a business could address these three concerns by assigning corporate attorneys and public relations experts to escort employees on their daily activities. Anytime an employee might stray from the straight and narrow path of acceptable conduct, the experts would guide him back. Obviously this solution would be a financial disaster if carried out in practice since it would cost a business more in attorney and public relations fees than they would save from proper employee conduct. Perhaps reluctantly, businesses turn to philosophers to instruct employees on becoming moral. For over 2,000 years philosophers have systematically addressed the issue of right and wrong conduct. Presumably, then, philosophers can teach employees a basic understanding of morality will keep them out of trouble. However, it is not likely that philosophers can teach anyone to be ethical. The job of teaching morality rests squarely on the shoulders of parents and ones early social environment. By the time philosophers enter the picture, it is too late to change the moral predispositions of an adult. Also, even if philosophers could teach morality, their recommendations are not always the most financially efficient. Although being moral may save a company from some legal and public relations nightmares, morality in business is also costly. A morally responsible company must pay special attention to product safety, environmental impact, truthful advertising, scrupulous marketing, and humane working conditions. This may be more than a tight-budgeted business bargained for. We cannot easily resolve this tension between the ethical interests of the moneyminded businessperson and the ideal-minded philosopher. In most issues of business ethics, ideal moral principles will be checked by economic viability. To understand what is at stake, we will look at three different ways of deriving standards of business ethics.

Business ethics represents all the principles and standards that guide behaviour in the world of business. Therefore, all this set of principles applies in any of the fields of business (marketing, finance) and people inevitably face ethical decisions in their every day working lives. The aim is to make every employee adhere to these standards because obviously, it is more profitable for a company to be ethical in business. But, as ethical issues are linked to decisionmaking, how can all decisions be ethical and above all whose responsibility is it? Therefore, we could wonder if business ethics is a personal responsibility or a group responsibility. We are going to divide this essay into two parts, the thesis and the antithesis, in order to determine whether or not business ethics is a personal responsibility.

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Values are very important as they are the core of our culture. However, people tend to separate ethics in business and in personal life even if both are closely linked. Actually, your principles in business should be the same as in life. But, people often think that business is business and personal life is personal life, so they do not think that business ethics affects ones personal character. People are focused on their interests and as they have different goals from the company, it could leads to unethical decisions. Then, business ethics is a personal responsibility. In addition, we have to consider that in every group, rules and ethical behaviours are established as a reference. A group norm is essential for any human even in companies. This means that, among a company, you will find sub-groups that may have a different notion of business ethics than the company itself. It is people responsibility to define what is ethical in their view of business. For instance, a top-executive would consider unethical to use the company phone for personal use although an employee would think that it is not a big deal if we take into account the phone bill of the organisation. In decentralised organisations, the power is decentralised so the decision-making authority is delegated as down as possible in the hierarchy. Since there are few formal rules and control over the employees, the level of ethics is mainly determined by individuals. That is due to the fact that the notion of leadership is impoverished as every body has power among the organisation. It is more difficult to motivate others, enforce laws in the organization for instance. Leadership influences decision-making but the structure of the organisation plays an important role in leadership. On the other hand, business ethics and social responsibility are closely related. Actually, social responsibility refers to the companys obligation to maximise its positive impact on society and it has to minimize its negative impact as well. Business ethics is one of the dimensions of social responsibility. The company has to respond to what expect the society even if it is not written in the laws. Many companies have strong sense of ethics because nowadays, it is a way to perform in a globalizing economy. Body Shop is an interesting example of how business ethics could become a strategy. In selecting natural ingredients in their products, Body Shop responds to the demand of its customers for instance. Without being ethical, the company would not have been so successful. In addition, in centralized organisations, the power is concentrated in the hands of top level managers. As they have rigid controls such as code of ethics or code of conduct, they tend to be more ethical because each employee has to apply the group norms. Usually, centralised organisations define what is the right behaviour that employees should adopt toward others employees, the suppliers, the community Every thing is defined clearly and if you do not enter the group-norms, you are sanctioned. Also, organizational ethical decisions are often made by committees or formal groups because business ethics is a social responsibility for the business. Moreover, the corporate culture held by the company that is to say the patterns and rules that govern the behaviour of the organisation and its employees (values, believes, customs, rituals),

plays an important role in business ethics. In fact, the corporate culture has an influence on in ethical decision making by members of the organisation because the firm provides rules for behaving. So, it is true that the group influences the individual and provide insight into the correct behaviour that must be adopted by members. In conclusion, if we consider the two organisational structures (centralised and decentralised), business ethics would be more a personal responsibility in decentralised organisations and a group responsibility in centralised organisations. However, business ethics is both a personal and a social responsibility. Individuals have to be ethical in life and in business. Also, the company has to provide rules so the entire group rely on the same values. Also, the impact of ethicalness leaves no other choice to the company than being ethical because they have to take into consideration the outside environment.