Business Ethics – meaning to prevent fraud, bribery, money laundering, discrimination, and anything else illegal. Plus respect for customers and staff rights.
Questions About Business Ethics
- Q. Why are business ethics necessary?
- A. Without setting out basic minimum standards of behavior people have a tendency to act well below the minimum acceptable. This is especially the case with how a business treats its customers and employees.
- Q. Is there a set of business standards online?
- A. There are many views on this subject. I will outline several schools of thought on the subject below.
Investopedia says: Business ethics is the implementation of policies and procedures regarding topics such as fraud, bribery, discrimination, and corporate governance. There are seven principles of business ethics including accountability, care and respect, honesty, healthy competition, loyalty, transparency, and respect for the rule of law.
Study Smarter says: Business Ethics for Executives – Honesty. Integrity. Promise-Keeping & Trustworthiness. Loyalty.
South University says: Types of Business Ethics
- Personal responsibility. Each person who works for a business, whether on the executive level or the entry level, will be expected to show personal responsibility.
- Corporate responsibility.
- Loyalty.
- Respect.
- Trustworthiness.
- Fairness.
- Community and Environmental Responsibility.
Indeed asks: What are the 10 codes of ethics
- Contribute to society and to human well-being, acknowledging that all people are stakeholders in computing.
- Avoid harm.
- Be honest and trustworthy.
- Be fair and take action not to discriminate.
- Honor confidentiality.
- Perform work only in areas of competence
Google’s Code of Conduct prohibits discrimination based: see more detail
- race
- color
- religion
- veteran status
- national origin
- ancestry
- pregnancy
- sex
- gender identity
- age
- marital status
- disability
- medical condition
- sexual orientation
- any other characteristics that are protected by law
Summary On Business Ethics
You will see from the above, there is a wide divergence of thought on this subject. That does leave room for confusion. We must get more attention to this vital subject leading to a consensus set of standards.
The Wall Street principles at the left are extremely vague and in my view, useless.
On the other hand, Google’s are extremely lengthy, focusing on discrimination in the community. There is not much about Business Ethics there.
What I seek On Business Ethics, is the setting of standards for the treatment of employees. Setting standards for the satisfaction of customers. The setting of standards in making contributions to the societies of the countries in which they operate.
Unless each of the above is complied with, I question whether they have a right to any profit.
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