Business

Ethics Issues In today’s competitive and diverse market, businesses find themselves putting their business ethics at risk, just so they can keep up with this fast-paced environment and to make sure their goods and services stay in top of the line. What many of them fail to realize is how much damage this can cause and how huge the impact can be to their business reputation. Many businesses are in just for the money. Making money itself is not the problem; it is the manner in which businesses conduct themselves that brings up the question of ethical behavior. Business ethics can be analyzed in many different levels from how business interact with one another around the world, one-on-one dealing with customers, and how employees interact with each other. The purpose of this paper is to define business ethics and explain three issues within today’s business environmental that affect communities and organizations. Business ethics demand that a company examine its behavior toward the outside world; taking into consideration ethical reasoning, morality and ethics application (Cuizon, 2009). Talk about ethics is a hard task, because it rest on the distinction between right and wrong. Trevino (2006), defines ethical behavior as behavior that is consistent with the principles, norms, and standards of business practice that have been agreed upon by society. Business ethics are developed by the leaders of the organization. "Leaders identify appropriate and inappropriate conduct, and they communicate their expectations to employees through ethics codes, training programs, and other communication channels” (Trevino, 2006, p.15). It is the employees’ responsibilities to follow the organization ethics code and to have a clear understanding of what is expected. Organizations are interested in being ethical because it helps them to keep a good reputation and avoid criminal liability. Another reason is because the leaders of the organization believe it is the right thing to do and they want to be part of a fair and just environment. There are many issues within today’s business environmental that affect communities and organizations. The author will focus on three major issues such as harassment, conflict of interest, customer confidence. According to Trevino (2006), sexual harassment is defined as unwelcome sexual oriented behavior that makes someone feel uncomfortable at work. Three are two known types of sexual harassment: quid pro quo and hostile work. Quid pro quo occurs when sexual favors are required to advance in the company. Hostile work environment means that a worker has been made to feel uncomfortable because unwelcomed actions or comments relating sexuality (Trevino, 2006, pg.72). This type of harassment can have many gray areas because “it’s in the eyes of the beholder”. Harassment (sexual or otherwise) does not take into consideration the intentions of the harasser, but how the victim felt. The reason harassment is unethical is because it is a form of discrimination; its using factors such as sexual favors as a form of advancement instead of the employees’ ability to perform the job. These types of behaviors can cost the company a large amount of money, if the company is aware of the employee’s conduct and do nothing to correct it. A conflict of influence occurs when a person’s judgment or objectivity is compromised (Trevino, 2006, pg. 74). Conflict of interest is always present in a business. Conflict of interest can occur when employees noticed their manager is developing a friendly relationship with another co-worker. Two forms of conflicts of interest are overt bribes and subtle “bribes”. Overt bribes always include something valuable in exchange of a specific product, services, or influence. Subtle bride will be accepting gifts or discounts from vendors or customers. The best way to determine if the gift is bride or not is by making sure its something that is being given to every employee of the company if not, then it will not be acceptable. Conflict of interest is unethical because does not treat everyone by the same standards and erode trust. Customers are the roots of a business without a customer a business cannot be successful. To maintain a strong relationship there should always be trust and confidentiality. “Customer confidence issues include a range of topics such as confidentiality, safety and effectiveness, truth in advertising and special fiduciary responsibilities” (Trevino, 2006, pg.77). Clients trust a firm to protect their personal information and to keep it as confidential as possible (e.g. sharing customer information with 3rd parties). When this promise is broken, customers are less likely to use that business services or products again. The same will happens when there is false advertisement. When an individual buy a product or receive a service, it’s normal for the consumer to expect to work and do the things that were advertised. When a company misleads a consumer, it is consider unethical. For example, it is unethical when a credit card company offers its clients to pay other debts a low interest rate, but fail to tell them that any existing balance on their credit card at much higher interest will not receive any payments until the promotional balance is paid in full. Consumers also put their safety in the business hands. For example, Toyota just recently had to recall some of their vehicles because of problems with the accelerator. At this point Toyota customers are feeling less confident about the company, which can cost a lot of money. References Cuizon, G. (2009). What is business ethics'. Business Management, (1).1. Retreived from http://businessmanagement.suite101.com/article.cfm/what_is_business_ethics Trevino, L. K., & Nelson, K. A. (2006). Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do it right (4th ed). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.