Study of Business Ethics in an Organization a Case Study
Key Learning Outcomes
By the end of the case, students should be able to:
- Understand the meaning of business ethics and its various concepts such as Code of Conduct, Morality, and CSR among others
- Understand the role of business ethics and how it positively or negatively impacts an organization
- Apply business ethics to real-life organizations
1.0 INTRODUCTION
What is ethics? Ethics are moral principles that govern an organization. The term ethics points out how organizations manage themselves concerning universal moral behaviors and actions. It's about choosing the right action. Ethics are vital to all disciplines of a business such as accounting, human resource management, sales, and marketing, etc. Ethics are vital in the world of businesses because it prescribes the conduct to be followed while doing daily activities.
What is business ethics and why is it important to study? Andrew Crane defines business ethics as the study of how businesses operate, their activities, and decisions where they address the issue of what is right or wrong. A business’s ethics reflect the standard of business used when conducting transactions. They are important because protect the company, enable its growth, save money, and protect people from certain legal repercussions.
What are the sources of business ethics? The three sources of business ethics are: Religion, Culture, and Law therefore organisations are required to be well-versed in the values developed by these sources. Religion is regarded as the earliest foundation of ethics because it provided for the principle of reciprocity towards one another and it is provided for in all regions. Culture on the other hand is a set of essential agreements that members of a society have accepted and adhere to. It is a set of values, ideas, views, preferences, morals, and codes of conduct among others which create a distinction among other groups of people. The law guides the behavior of people in a society. Therefore the law is to be abided by all members and businesses in society. (Kushboo, 2022).
This research is going to study in detail the concept and provide reasons why it is important to society and businesses.