Who Is The Bottom Line Of Business Is Profit And Profit Alone?

Shaw, W.H. (2014). Business ethics: A Textbook with cases, (8th ed.). Boston, MA : Cengage.

The author Robert Solomon argues that ethics has to an integral part with regard to business management. He does not believe that business management must include unethical or illegal methods to be able to succeed. Solomon preaches that business management is not as simple as obtaining revenue. “Businesses need to abide by fair policies and their owners have to be ethical in dealing with their customers” (Shaw p. 37). The author acknowledges that while illegal practices in business management could bring positive results at first, eventually the business is bound to fail. This is why Solomon recommended eight important policies that can help businesses in integrating ethics into their operations.

Ethics “is the study of moral principles concerning rightful conduct based on our most deeply held values”. It is prescriptive and normative, categorizing and laying down guidelines for determining what is right and what is wrong; what is good and what is evil; what is fair and what is not. Although there are many points of convergence between ethical norms and the law, however, quite a few instances could be cited where what is legal may not be considered ethical or moral. But, there appears to be a vast overlap between ethical norms and the moral values of the world’s great religions. Where ethical considerations flow into business domain, business ethics comes into being.

Business ethics and values have developed through time and crosswise over orders into a field, which is a standout amongst the most vital subjects in the field of business. For the authentic improvement of business morals, it is vital, to begin with, a meaning of business ethics and values in a worldwide setting (Savage, 2005). The study characterize business ethics and values from an administrative viewpoint as choices about what is correct or wrong (worthy or unsuitable) in the authoritative setting of arranging and actualizing business exercises in a worldwide business condition to profit (Child, 2015). The development

The problem to be investigated is the application of business ethics. In the business world, ethics are extremely important. Ethics are prime elements that help a business to grow and to become more productive. It is by applying proper business ethics that a business can operate in a moral or ethical business environment and managed to conduct all activities in a manner that maximizes profits while not compromising all other non-economic concerns(Schwab, 1996). Businesses have over the years failed to nurture business ethics in order to fulfill shareholders' interests and to have a culture that is oriented towards profit maximization and high performance(Jennings, 2012; Sims & Felton, 2006). This has led business to have gray areas in their activities. Gray areas are those situations or problems that do not fit exactly into any ethical analysis. These are the activities which may be represented to be immoral as a result of lying and false representations on the part of the business.

Running a business is about more than just making money. It requires adequate consideration to a number of issues, of which ethics is most certainly one. As a business grows and becomes more significant, it impacts the lives of people in so many ways. But without a clear understanding of business ethics, a company can lose its business by ruining its reputation and alienating employees, suppliers and the local community around it. With recent expansions in global businesses and the decrease of trade barriers worldwide, the importance of ethics in business has been further underlined.

The relationship between ethics and profit is regarded to be very crucial in the business world. In most of the cases business ethics and profits are considered to be at conflict, where we get to choose one and lose the other. There have been instances of both where a company attains profit by establishing ethical values and a company making profits while employing unethical methods. The ultimate motive of running any business is the maximization of profit, so people tend to forget the ethics which are vital while trying to make profits. Experts believe that it is not always necessary to forgo our basic ethics to attain the goal, though it may seem as a very subjective thing. How ethics can be followed

Boatright, J. (2009). Ethics and the conduct of business (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ : Prentice Hall. ISBN: 9780205667505

By identifying the key problems related to business ethics throughout several organizations, a person would be categorized as an ethnographic researcher. In order to fulfill the needs of this title appropriately, a person must be able to analyze whether the current and past actions are done and performed in an ethical manner and from those performances examine and review the changes that must be made for appropriate future endeavors. One of the major important details within any organization is the ethical concerns that are developed or continued within the company. Ethical concerns give employees, consumers and investors a view and presentation on how the company acts within their moral practices and business ventures. Without appropriate ethics, businesses can crumble under societal scrutiny.

Friedman argues that the only responsibility a business has to society is to act in its own self-interest to create revenue and remain successful in the economic system (158).Created to make a profit by providing a task or service, a business must “use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits” (Friedman 164). A business could use any tactic to gain a profit as long as they remained “within the rules of the game” (Friedman 164). The rules implied that no deception or fraud could take place while the corporation obtained their profit.

By maximizing profits, society benefits the most from the corporation’s actions, so long as they do it without deception or fraud. (Friedman, 1970)

We’re in a new time, a transitional time unlike any we have seen in recent history. As a result of this ethics has had to evolve. In this evolutionary era ethics must be shaped by the people who will are most involved in its making, more particularly me. I guess this leads us to the question what is the ethics that we will carry forth in order to shape this new world view inside of business. To answer this important question I must spilt the concepts into two different categories. The culture of the company, and the things that the company must work to avoid.

Friedman argues that the only responsibility a business has to society is to act in its own self-interest to create revenue and remain successful in the economic system (158).Created to make a profit by providing a task or service, a business must “use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits” (Friedman 164). A business could use any tactic to gain a profit as long as they remained “within the rules of the game” (Friedman 164). The rules implied that no deception or fraud could take place while the corporation obtained their profit.

What is ethics? Ethics can be defined as a set of principles used by an individual to govern his or her decisions in an effort to ensure fairness and equality. Business ethics, as defined by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is the applied ethics discipline that addresses the moral features of commercial activity. The same source also gives a history of business ethics which states that the concept as an academic principle is relatively young-only about forty years old; but in general is as old as trade itself. In this paper, the following aspects of ethics will be discussed: Ethical issues faced in business; recent trends in business ethics; international considerations in business ethics; quantitative techniques and ethics.

Business ethics is the study of formal standards and how the standards are applied to the system and the organization of modern society that is used to produce and distribute goods and services and applied to people who are in the organization. This study concentrates on moral standards as applied in policies, institutions, and business conduct.