The Role of Ethics in Business
Public Health vs. Free Speech
Over the past years, corporate governance and business ethics have gained a great amount of public interest due to its implication in the economic health of organisation. Such cases as Enron, WorldCom, and Oracle just to name a few in recent years have made world headlines outlining the governance of unethical behaviour comprising of corporate fraud, dubious accounting, and abuse of power that shocked the world and rattled the realm of business ethics. As a result, the role of ethics in the pursuit of business has come to the forefront of many of today’s current issues.
Business ethics is the applied study of understanding the application of ethical behaviour and concentrates on the moral standards as they apply to business policies, institutions, social systems, and behavior (Velasquez, 2012). According to Ronald Sims (2003), an organisation’s moral ethics is demonstrated by how it abstains from behaving in a manner contrary to the well-being of society. Moral standards are the kinds of actions and beliefs that are believed to be morally right or wrong or otherwise good or bad. The application of the concept of business ethics is administered by the corporate governance of an organisation (Urlacher, 2008). As business ethics represent an organisation’s principles and values when conducting business; corporate governance is the organisation’s structure on how it implements to govern and protect those associated with the organisation with the actions of those decisions determining the direction of an organisation’s performance (Fernando, 2012).
Corporate governance embodies leadership that governs an organisation’s core values, beliefs, and polices that influence its strategies and decisions. It is the system by which organisations are authoritatively directed and controlled (Colley, Doyle, Logan, Stettinius, 2004). All corporate entities comprising of profit and non-profit orientated companies, public and private,
Over the past years, corporate governance and business ethics have gained a great amount of public interest due to its implication in the economic health of organisation. Such cases as Enron, WorldCom, and Oracle just to name a few in recent years have made world headlines outlining the governance of unethical behaviour comprising of corporate fraud, dubious accounting, and abuse of power that shocked the world and rattled the realm of business ethics. As a result, the role of ethics in the pursuit of business has come to the forefront of many of today’s current issues.
Business ethics is the applied study of understanding the application of ethical behaviour and concentrates on the moral standards as they apply to business policies, institutions, social systems, and behavior (Velasquez, 2012). According to Ronald Sims (2003), an organisation’s moral ethics is demonstrated by how it abstains from behaving in a manner contrary to the well-being of society. Moral standards are the kinds of actions and beliefs that are believed to be morally right or wrong or otherwise good or bad. The application of the concept of business ethics is administered by the corporate governance of an organisation (Urlacher, 2008). As business ethics represent an organisation’s principles and values when conducting business; corporate governance is the organisation’s structure on how it implements to govern and protect those associated with the organisation with the actions of those decisions determining the direction of an organisation’s performance (Fernando, 2012).
Corporate governance embodies leadership that governs an organisation’s core values, beliefs, and polices that influence its strategies and decisions. It is the system by which organisations are authoritatively directed and controlled (Colley, Doyle, Logan, Stettinius, 2004). All corporate entities comprising of profit and non-profit orientated companies, public and private,
References: Colley, J.L.,Doyle, J.L., Logan, G.W., and Stettinius, W. (2004). What is Corporate Governance, Black lick: McGraw-Hill. Fernando, A. C. (2012). Corporate Governance: Principles, Polices and Practices (2nd ed.). India: Pearson Education. Friedman, M Kanika T Bhal, Poonam Sharma (2004). Managerial Ethics: Dilemmas and Decision Making. New Delhi, India: Sage Publications. Mandal, S Sims, R. R. (July 1992). The Challenge of Ethical Behaviour in Organizations. Journal of Business Ethics, 11. Tricker, B. (2012). Corporate Governance: Principles, Policies and Practices (2nd ed.). United Kingdom: OXFORD University Press. Tirole, J. (2001). Corporate Governance. Japan: Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University. Theunissen, M Urlacher, P. V. (2008). New Issues in Corporate Governance. New York: Nova Science Publisher. Velasquez, M Velasquez, M. G. (2012). Business Ethics: Concepts and Cases (7th ed.). US: Pearson Education.