Business ethics, corporate social responsibility, and community relationships

Business Ethics -- Community & Org

Understanding the role of business ethics in the business, community, and organizational environments require an understanding of both conceptual and operational functions and descriptions of this term. Technically, business ethics is defined as "the study of standards which businesses should observe in their dealings, over and above compliance with the law" (London South East, 2009). From this definition, the term 'business ethics' is identified primarily from a business context, and does not state explicitly anything about other sectors or environments that are inevitably affected with the way businesses conduct their daily operations and make their business decisions.

Businesses inevitably affect the lives of the community that it belongs to, most particularly the people who work for them and individuals and groups that benefit from the businesses' services and/or products. Business ethics in the business sector is best reflected in corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs, which enable businesses to impart benefits to the community sans the business transaction. That is, it is in CSR programs that businesses mainly give back to the community, an expression of their gratitude for their support and continuously patronizing their products and/or services. CSR programs, according to Berenbeim (2009) must be integrated with the company's business ethics, and that companies must have their own "corporate ethics brand." This call for a corporate ethics brand stemmed from the fact that while CSR programs are developed to benefit and improve the business's community, it is also primarily a program geared to invest in "public capital" to "enhance the value" of businesses with respect to the community.