MGF5020 – Business Ethics in a Global Environment

Introduction (10%)
To what extent are the purpose and outline of the paper clearly stated? Are the ethical concepts and theories that will be considered, and their relationship to the topic (issue) to be addressed, clearly identified?

Background (20%)
To what extent has relevant literature been selected for review? Does the review clearly show how the evidence is related to the issue discussed?

Explanation (10%)
To what extent have the relevant tenets of the selected ethical theories been clearly explained? Paraphrasing and correct referencing are to be used where appropriate. Using your own words to present this part of the paper is highly encouraged.

Analysis and Evaluation (30%)
To what extent have the previously presented theories been appropriately applied to analyse the issue at stake, to evaluate the different perspectives involved, and to adopt a position based on the examined evidence?

Personal reflections / Implications for business practice (10%)
To what extent has appropriate reference been made to personal experiences (if available)? Have ethical business practices been recommended?  If possible try to be specific about a particular circumstance where you may draw on this approach to guide decision making in business.

Conclusion (10%)
To what extent has an appropriate conclusion been drawn from the whole exercise? Does the conclusion clearly and concisely summarise the main points from the previous sections? In this section, you may want to offer some suggestions that require further research.

Clarity and quality of presentation (10%)
-    To what extent does the report communicate a clear and coherent message?
-    Are the language, grammar and referencing satisfactory?

Introduction

The report here discusses about the business ethics in global environment. The report here defines ethics as the morality basis on which moral judgments, standards and rules of conduct not only addressed but also identified for a business. The report also discusses about the background with an elaboration on the need of the implementation of business ethics. Then is report also explains why at all ethics was needed in business. There is also analyses and evaluation various codes of ethics in business environment and the relation business holds with the stakeholders. There are also a personal reflections and implications for business practice in the report.

Background

The evolution of business ethics has been a result of myriad changes occurring in business over time. The common way of determining the actual meaning of an upstanding citizen, an active participant, a decent individual and an excellent tool for some with good leadership skills is through Ethics (Ferrell & Fraedrich, 2015). Therefore, ethics defined as the morality basis on which standards, moral judgments and rules of conduct not only addressed but also identified. In this regard, business ethics defined as ideals, standards and values responsible for guiding behavior in a business climate. Thus, in this context, most organizations define principles that are specific for outlining the pervasive boundaries of behavior that are absolute and all encompassing. Thus, in business, norms remain based on principles that gets social acceptance and based on accountability, trust and honor.

            The issues faced by workers in the 1920s helped in drawing attention not only towards the harsh working conditions but also to the child labor laws (Mnookin & Weisberg, 2014). This was a period when capitalism was a concept that played a pivotal role in the evolvement of the business ethics. During this time, a progressive movement ensured citizens with the concept of living wage. The main aim of the movement was to persuade business for adopting policies that ensured allocation of sufficient income for the workers for fulfill their need for education, recreation, health and retirement.

Then again, the political and social movements of the 1960s are also responsible for bringing in major changes in the arena of business ethics (Crane & Matten, 2016). Things took a different turn in the 1980s when incidents like illegal contract practices, influential peddling, bribery, financial fraud and deceptive advertising were responsible for shaping the business ethics during this time.

Explanation

The dawn of the 21^st century led to the evolution of new issues that in turn helped in the evolution of the business ethics that looked after product safety, misconduct financially on a global platform, cybercrime, protection from intellectual theft of property and issues involving sustainability of products and organizations (Gunasekaran & Spalanzani, 2012).

Thus, today the ethical issues faced by leaders in a business culture mainly focuses on

a. Protection of the environment

b. Avoid meltdowns like the global giant Enron

c. Corruption against financial institutions

d. Introducing products that does put public health at risk

e. Avoiding discrimination

f. Ensuring that sexual harassment is kept away from work place

g. Protection of intellectual property

In this context, one can say that ethics and laws are in control of two different domains. Thus, a law made for protection of public life whereas ethics meant to govern matters utterly private. Therefore, in other words, laws clearly reflect a set of rules enforced which everyone follows whereas ethics refers to personal view that is a reflection on how individual makes a choice for navigation of their life (Becker, 2012).

There was a time when business ethics management focused primarily on the management of behavior of the employees but now there is an increase in attention for the development and implementation of tools and techniques that are associated with the management of social responsibility from a broader perspective (Myers, 2013). These externally focused components have involved considering the demands of other stakeholders. The core areas where the management of business ethics might pose relevant include:

·         Setting the standards of ethical behavior

·         Managing the relations of Stakeholders

·         Ethical Performance assessment

Analysis and Evaluation

Codes of ethics are voluntary statements that not only commit industries and organizations but also professionals to specific actions, values and beliefs that are the reason behind appropriate ethical behavior in employees (Fu, 2014). There are however, four types of code of ethics for the corporate. These include professional code of ethics, corporate or organizational code of ethics, industry code of ethics, and programme or group code of ethics.

The role that organizational or corporate code of ethics holds includes (Bishop, 2013):

·         These codes of ethics is specific to a single organization

·         The code of ethics sometimes called code of conduct or code of principles

·         Ensures identification and encouragement of ethical behavior

The roles that Professional Code of Ethics plays include (Matthews, 2012):

·         Ensures professional groups with their own guidelines for appropriate behavioral conduct

·         This is applies for people in professionals of medicine, law and accountability

The role that Industry Code of Ethics plays includes (Ford & Richardson, 2013):

·         This code of ethics also applies to specific professions and particular industries

·         There are many countries where the financial service industry will have its own code of conduct for the companies operating within the industry.

The role that Program or group code of ethics plays includes (Beeri et al., 2013):

There are certain programs or sub group of organizations who establish code of ethics for those taking part in their specific programs. For instance, this includes collaboration with business leaders from Japan, USA and Europe that contributed in the development of code of ethics globally.

With the rise of the multinational business, many organizations have found that code of ethics established in the home country may need to be remolded for the international operations. Thus to make the guidelines for domestic employees relevant and more applicable in the overseas context three principles should be implemented (Morel, 2015).