Business Ethics or Corporate Ethics

Question: Discuss about the Business Ethics or Corporate Ethics. Answer: Introduction: This paper contains the discussion on business ethics. Business ethics are also known as corporate ethics, and these are in the form of morals, professional ethics, applied ethics, and ethical problems that are identified in business environment. These ethics are applicable on all the aspects of business conduct and also applied on the individual conduct in the organization. Basically, it is defined as standards and values that regulate the behavior and conduct of an individual in the business organization. There is no exact definition of good ethical practices, and it generally involves making difference between right and wrong and then chooses the right thing. It is easy for anyone to identify those practices in the businesses which are not ethical such as it is ethical for the company to use child labor in their organization, not use unlawfully any material which is copyrighted by other companies, and it is not ethical to engage in bribery (Akrani, 2011). In this essay, we answer two questions which are related to business ethics, and these two questions are: What are ethics and morals, and also the difference between these two terms? How ethical perspectives like, utilitarianism, Rawls Justice as fairness, and are applied on business? Business ethics: According to the Andrew Crane, ethics related to business can be understand as the study of situations of business, decisions made in business, activities related to business where matters related to right and wrong are considered. Ethics are the part of social science, and it deals with the moral principles of individual or social values. These ethical principles are used to determine what is wrong and right. In other words we can say that business ethics means conducting the business in such a way that it gives benefits to the society also (management library, n.d.). On the other hand, morals are defined as the social, culture, and religious values of individual or group which state the difference between right and wrong. They are rules framed by the society which help us in deciding what right thing to do is. Ethics and morals sound similar but they are different from each other, and following are the differences between these two terms: MORALS ETHICS These are the rules or belief set up by society to determine what is right or wrong. Ethics are those principles which help the individual or group to choose between the good and bad. It is basically a reply to the specific situation. These are the general principles which are set up by group of people. It is derived from the Greek word Mos which means custom. It is derived from the word Ethikos which means character. Moral are defined as norms related to social and cultural behavior (Lloyd, 2000). Ethics are norms related to legal and professional standards. It deals with the principles related to right and wrong. It deals with individual conduct, and considers whether it is right or wrong. Morals are not applicable in business organization. Ethics are applicable in business organization(Surbhi, 2015). Morals can be varying from society to society and culture to culture. Ethics are uniform for all business organizations. There is no freedom to choose morals. There is freedom to choose ethics (Sproul, 2015). Ethical perspectives applicable on business: Utilitarianism: it is an ethical theory, and this theory is one of the best theories in ethics. The basic idea behind this theory is that an action is considered right or wrong on the basis of its effects. In other words, whether effect of action is good or bad are considered in this theory. There are two types of Utilitarianism that is Act and rule. Act focus on the effects of the actions of individual. On the other hand Rule states the effects of types of action. The main purpose of this theory is to make the things better by doing the good things in surroundings and avoid the bad things. This theory mainly focuses on the happiness of person and does not consider the morals derived from customs, traditions and beliefs of society (Mill, 2013). Basically it states that an action is right or wrong on the basis of its effect or consequences on maximum people. In other words we can say that an action is ethical if it has more positive consequences on people as compared to negative effects on the people. This theory is derived by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. Therefore, the concept of utilitarianism defined the rule that an action is evaluated on set rules and principles which give benefit to the maximum amount of people (Chonko, n.d.). In business organizations this theory is very useful because whether decision took by company is ethical or not is based on the effect of that decision on the stakeholders of the company. While making decision in the business companies use many ethical standards because in organization people are different and different standards are applicable on them. It may be possible that when organization hires people they have different ethical standards from the people who are already working in t he organization. Difference of ethical standards of individual can be evaluated by checking their approach towards decision making. Usually companies build framework to help their employees in taking ethical decisions (Vitez, n.d.). For example- many companies have practice to provide different price for a product or service to their different customers such as airline industry provide different classes of seats to their customers like economic class, business class, and first class in their airplanes. Customers who opt for first class seats pay higher prices than those customers who opt for economic class or business class. However, in this rule utilitarianism is applicable because higher prices paid by business class customers or first class customers help the airlines to company to reduce their financial burden, and this make room for the customers who opt for economic class. Act utilitarianism is also understand by the help of example that is a pharmaceutical company issue drug which are approved by the government and it has side effects which are already known by the government and public, and this act is ethical because it cure more people and had positive consequences on the people as compared to negative consequences (Future of Working, 2014). Rawls Justice as Fairness- John Rawls is a Harvard philosopher, and he developed the conception of Justice as Fairness in his work that is A Theory of Justice. For developing this conception he used both the theories Kantian and utilitarian, and in this conception he describe the method for evaluation of social and political morals. In this conception of justice he determine the basic structure of society that includes institutions related to political, constitutional, social, and economic, and how these standards work together to form the scheme which helps in social cooperation. Rawls state this theory in a narrow approach and clearly state that this approach is not a complete contract theory. Its main purpose is to show how the cooperative profits resources are distributed to the individuals in the society. This theory is based on two assumptions related to societies that is presence of social cooperation which work for the mutual advantage of everyone and second is distribution of surplus of those resources which are exist (Arneson, 2008; Rawls, 1985). In this theory Rawls does not determine the fair distribution of resources between members of the society when resources are scarce. In other words it does not deal with those situations in which there is scarcity of resources, war, and other barriers related to culture. These are the situations which eliminate the chances of Social Corporation and these situations are not covered by this theory. For determining the process how the basic structure related to this conception is arranged, and this determination is based on the thought of those individuals who are mutually disinterested, rational, and choose principles of justice behind the veil of ignorance. Veil of ignorance is that condition which state that these individuals does not know the basic details about themselves such as personal values, race, gender, income earned by them, etc or about their society in which they survive that is development stage, economic conditions, etc. however, while choosing these principles the part ies share different knowledge related to general conditions, economic status, etc (Kara, 2011). Kantian Deontology- this theory states that an action is ethical it is accepted as a universal law by every individual in the society. This theory is developed by the German philosopher that is Immanuel Kant, and this philosopher believes that set of rules are followed by the morality without any exceptions. Therefore this theory is act on the categorical principles which are imperatives in nature, and instructions given in such a way that one must follow those instructions (Lacewing, n.d.). Kantianism also focuses on respect of individual, and treats other person with due respect. It also states that person should not used as a tool to achieve some target. In other words, there is an obligation on individual or it is their duty to follow set of rules to evaluate their actions and determine whether their actions are ethically right or not. However, this theory is has narrow approach and inadequate, and there is always a doubt whether this theory is appropriate to handle the ethical dilemmas or other problems related to moral values. For example no moral rules or ethical guideline is developed when rights and duties related to people cross their path. This theory is different from utilitarian theories in many ways such as utilitarianism focus on the happiness of individual and sate that action is ethical if its outcome is positive whereas deontology theory states no matter what is the outcome some actions are always unethical. According to this theory morality is the duty of an individual, and it states that it is the moral duty of an individual to do the right things and not doing the wrong things. It also states consequences of action do not state that action is right or wrong; instead action is wrong in itself. The moral duties of an individual are divided into parts firstly, general duties which individual owned towards anyone, and these duties are mostly prohibitions such as dont lie, dont kill but some are positive also such as help other when they need help. Second type of duties is an individual owned to particular person or society. Following are some example of this type of duty promise made to person must be fulfilled, duty to give protection and care to your childrens as parents (Bowie, n.d.). This theory is also applicable in business organizations as individual owned some duty towards its organization and to society also. In businesses there are some decisions which are ethically wrong but their outcomes are positive. According to this theory no matter what are the consequences, some decisions in businesses are not ethical. Therefore, it is important for individual that they take ethical decisions (Seven pillars Institute, n.d.). Conclusion: In this essay we state the importance of business ethics and also define business ethics. First we defined business ethics as standards and values that regulate the behavior and conduct of an individual in the business organization. There is no exact definition of good ethical practices, and it generally involves making difference between right and wrong and then chooses the right thing. We also state the difference between morals and ethics which sound similar. Later, we state three ethical perspectives that is Utilitarianism, and whether effect of the action is good or bad are considered in this theory, Rawls Justice as Fairness which was developed by John Rawls who is a Harvard philosopher, and he developed the conception of Justice as Fairness in his work that is A Theory of Justice, and third one is Kantian Deontology which states that an action is ethical it is accepted as a universal law by every individual in the society. At last we conclude that these three perspectives of e thics are applicable in business organization. References: Akrani, G. (2011). What are Business Ethics? Meaning Definition Features. 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