Business ethics concepts and applications

Business Ethics

A broad definition of ethics in your own words that demonstrates your understanding of ethics in business

Ethics is when you are taking the most morally correct ideas and are applying them as standards for everyone, within society or an organization to follow. In business, these ideas are taken one step further and applied to how they relate, to the way a business will interact with its customers on a daily basis. Where, the actions of executives will determine how profitable an entity will be in the future. As the overall amount of ethics will decide if a company is providing customers, with a service / product that creates value or one that is solely concerned about its bottom line. (De George, 2005)

A description of the history of ethics in business

The history of ethics in business first began to take shape after the 1929 stock market crash. This is when it became apparent that some kind of regulations was: needed for the nation's financial system. As a result, a series of regulations would be created that would regulate how a business reported their profits to shareholders and how frequently (the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934). ("Securities and Exchange Act of 1934," 2010) This would signal the first time that some kind of ethical standards would be applied to business. Then, during the 1960's, the social upheaval in society would mark the increased need for ethics. Where, many businesses schools would begin teaching about social responsibility. At first, this would start out in only a few schools, as there was more of an emphasis on teaching business principals. In 1974, the idea of teaching business ethics would be brought to the forefront, with the first conference on business ethics. As time went by, more and more academics as well as thinkers would continue to provide a variety of academic theories. During the 1980's and 1990's, this would lead to a number of ideas on how a business can act more ethically and it would help many companies enacting ethical principles for their organization. However, during the early 2000's a wide variety of ethics scandals would rock the world of business. This would lead to a new round of calls for increased ethical standards. (De George, 2005)

Name at least three reasons why ethics are important to your job/profession or a job/profession you would like to work in Three reasons why ethics is important would include: it helps improve decision making, allows us to go beyond traditional business theories and it creates a culture of acceptable behavior within an organization. Decision making is improved, because executives can see the impact of their actions. Ethics help managers to choose the outcome that will have greatest impact, resulting in improved decision making. Once this takes place it allows, executives will be able to see what is occurring beyond traditional business theories. Where, ethics will shape how each theory is applied and to what degree. Over the course of time, the consistent application of ethical standards will become a part of the business culture, as these ideas begin to be utilized, by more people on a regular basis. (Crane, 2007, pp. 9 -- 11)