Business Ethics- The Underlying Principle Behind Every Business OrganizationEthics is a word derived from the Greek word -'ethos'. The word ethics refers to the conduct or character. Ethics are very important in the society. They play an equally important role in business. Here they are called, business ethics. Business ethics can be defined as a type of applied ethics that examine the ethical principles, along with ethical or moral problems, arising inside a business environment. Today, where the market place is conscience focused, there is an increased demand for business ethics. These ethics are demanded both in the form of processes and actions. If put in simple words, a business is all about earning gains on the investment and business ethics is way to make sure that the gains are not earned the a wrong way. Every organization or business is expected to follow some general business ethics. The general business ethics generally overlap with the overall philosophy of the business. The major aim of these ethics is to determine the basic purpose of a company. For an instance if some company follows a purpose of earning the maximum return for its shareholders then it cannot consider the interests and rights of any other party. Any activity of this kind may be considered unethical on the company's part. After it comes corporate social responsibility. It is an umbrella term which covers the ethical rights and duties shared by the company and society. Another thing that comes under business ethics is the issues related to the moral rights and duties shared by the company and the shareholders. Ethical issues concerned with the relation shared by different companies, such as industrial espionage and hostile take-overs, also come under general business ethics. General business ethics also cover leadership issues, political contributions by the company, law reforms and misuse of corporate ethics policies. The business ethics are very important as they make sure that the practices used in the business are well-grounded and focus on the important things. In most of the cases the important thing is to fulfill the customers' needs and wants, without doing any harm to the society. The people running the businesses should be informed and concerned about the interests of the population at large. Thinking about the interests of the human society is very important. Therefore, there should not be any unfair trade practices employed by a company. The business of the company should be concerned with the welfare of the society, not of a group of individuals. Business ethics can not be forced on a company. But they say the will to do something should come from inside. Similarly, when it comes to business ethics, the entrepreneurs have to be responsible enough to make sure that they don't create an ethical problem. |