Business Ethics
1 like367 views
Business ethics refers to rules, principles, and standards for determining morally right and wrong behavior in business. It involves analyzing the ethical dimensions of producing, distributing, marketing, selling, and consuming goods and services. There are three types of management ethics: moral (conforming to highest ethical standards), amoral (lacking ethical behavior and considerations), and immoral. Promoting ethical behavior in an organization is important as it builds a positive culture, boosts consumer confidence, and helps avoid financial liabilities from unethical practices. Business schools play an important role in equipping future business leaders with an understanding of ethics.
Business Ethics
- 2. Ethics can be simply defined as rules, principles and the standards for discerning what is morally right or wrong. In business terms, it can be understood as the study of ethical dimensions of commercial activities and organisations. This might entail the analysis of ethicality involved in the production, distribution, marketing, sale, and consumption of goods and services Definition of Business Ethics
- 3. 3 Types of Management Ethics Moral Amoral This type of management ethic conforms to highest standard of ethical behaviour. This type of management ethic is completely devoid of ethical behaviour and portray strict opposition to ethical behaviour. Immoral Amoral management ethics is divided into to sub-types – • Deliberate – does not take ethical behaviour into account • Unintentional – Unknowingly breach the ethical considerations of business.
- 4. Importance of Ethics in Business Builds a Positive Corporate Culture Organisations that deploy resources to curate policies and procedures that promote ethical behaviour, build a positive culture for its workforce. In such a culture, employees feel protected from retaliation when sharing their personal beliefs. Boosts Consumer Confidence Consumer loyalty is very fragile & businesses should understand this fact. Couple of bad online reviews or unfair advertisements hinder business growth altogether. In addition, dealing with customer complaints ethically and amicably will help in expanding horizons indefinitely. Averts Financial Liabilities Financial liability starts when a business experiences slowdown in sales, and surprisingly unethical practises are the biggest reason behind this slowdown. If a real estate company’s project requires cutting of forest, its credibility and CSR are hit. Better Decision Making Ethical conduct in the workplace promotes pragmatic decision making, falling in line with ethical guidelines laid out by authorities. Moreover, it increases transparency and accountability when making decisions. It also sensitises staff on how to act ethically in difficult times.
- 5. How to Promote Ethical Behaviour in Organisation Organisations should give lucid explanations to their employees about the kind of behaviour which is expected on their part, either when dealing with fellow employees, management or the clients. Definition of Company Ethics This is something which many organsiations have started adopting. Appreciating and rewarding the behaviour, will not only help in strengthening the behaviour you want, however will also increase efficiency amongst employees. Recognizing the Behaviour Organisations, instead of just stating the policies, should put in efforts to educate their employees about the benefits of ethical behaviour. For this, guest seminars or work shops should be conducted. Building Ethical Skills
- 6. The world at large knows that organisations monitor data movement, on their issued electronic devices, to detect data breaches and illegal passing on of information. However, when does this monitoring transforms into spying? Companies illegally monitor personal data, company email and your browser history. Technology/ Privacy Opinions about Nepotism, which is commonly known as favoritism, did not vary that much in the earlier days. However, it has become a prime topic amongst corporates to discuss and extend their comments upon. Nepotism, is neither entertained nor tolerated as it promotes self-loathing, and gravely hampers productivity. NepotismAccounting Unethical accounting practises is a serious operational issue before organisations. Cooking the books, manipulating the numbers to attract investment ventures has been by far the most prevalent immoral behaviour in corporate world. Ethical Issues Faced by Businesses
- 7. How is LSB Helping in Promoting Ethical Business Behaviour We, at London School of Business, understand that ethics is important for organisational success, and therefore is a fundamental requisite in business education. Almost every C Suite executive out there is a product of a business school. Therefore, it becomes imperative for business schools to include business ethics as an indispensable part of curriculum to entrust a holistic development of students, and to equip future leaders with the rationality to abstain themselves from practicing unethical behaviour. Keeping this in mind, LSB by-default has made business ethics a part of its core business programmes, to help create leaders for a better business world.