Written by Geetanjali
Business Ethics
An easy guide to understand business
Ethics(beginner friendly)
Every successful business must follow a set of rules and regulations. These set of rules and regulations are what is known as business ethics. In Business world, being professional and doing things the right way go hand in hand .Today, In this article we will explain what are business ethics. Why you need to know business ethics, why business ethics are Important for a business, evolution of business ethics and its types.
What are business ethics?
At the end of the day every business needs a set of rules and regulations in order to run a successful business.These standards are known as business ethics and a policy created around it is known as business ethics policy. The word ethics is associated with differentiating between what is morally wrong and what is right.
So,business ethics in easy words is defined as implementation of appropriate business practices and policies at the workplace. Corporate ethics deals with topics such as discrimination, code of conduct, corruption, social responsibility and legal measures that can be taken when needed. When faced with such circumstances, consulting with business law attorneys can provide valuable guidance and help ensure compliance. This will in turn create a basic level of trust within the business and with their customers as well.
To list a few business ethics, honesty, accountability, respect, loyalty, transparency, and respect of law, are the common business ethics that most successful businesses follow.
Why do we need to know business ethics?
It’s important to have a basic understanding of ethics as business ethics is a key investment in your professional success and is important for a business to run smoothly in the long run for a number of reasons.We’ve mentioned a few reasons :
1. Building Trust:
ethics will help understand how ethical behaviour contributes to building trust among clients, employees and board partners.Trustworthiness will further make relationships among stakeholders more reliable and honest.
2. Ethical decision making:
Business ethics will teach how to approach complex situations and assess these situations from an ethical point commonly faced in the business world.Will also make one differentiate between ethically right from wrong to help make a concise decision.
3. Global Adaptability:
Gaining insights into the cultural and legal contexts will help enhance a businesses professional success by ensuring that the business practices align with global ethical norms.
4. Reputation management:
Ethical business practices establish and manage trustwith various stakeholders which in turn contributes to building a positive public image. Positive reputation built on ethical conduct is often associated with long term success,as clients and partners are more likely to engage with businesses they trust.
Understanding the types of business ethics
There are different types of business ethics and business ethics vary from business to business as per their requirements.We’ve explained some commonly followed business ethics.
- Corporate responsibility:
Corporate responsibility popularly known as corporate social responsibility(CSR) refers to the responsibility of businesses towards their employees, board members, workers and clients.Businesses are responsible for keeping rights of their stakeholders protected.For example: transitioning to a more environment friendly workplace or implementing sustainable business modules will help with environmental protection.
2. Personal responsibility:
Every employee has some personal responsibilities to fulfil that includes everyone from the entry level to the executive level. This includes both the tasks assigned by your manager and the tasks mentioned in the job description.If made any mistake should take responsibility and make improvements.
3. Technology ethics:
It refers to the moral principles and guidelines that monitor the use, development and impact of technology on society , individuals and the environment. It’s important to administer that the technology is being responsibly used for good causes only. In simpler terms technology ethics involves making sure that technology is used in a secure,fair, and transparent way while considering people’s privacy and rights.
4. Trustworthiness:
A business flourishes when clients,businesses and employees all have mutual trust through honesty and transparency.Then only they will be able to rely on each other for their benefit.Clients need to trust businesses with their time and money and business should keep up with their promise that they made while finalising deal.
5. Fairness:
Biasedness is very common and a serious ethical concern.Having preference is not an issue however differentiating on the basis of preference is concerning whether it’s at the workplace or with clients.Fairness includes providing the same quality of goods and services,equal treatment to every client .
These are ethics of modern time but over the course of time business ethics have evolved a lot.
Beginning of the fundamental shift in business ethics was first seen in the 1960’s,for the first time in history businesses emphasised environmental friendliness and also looked ways towards community development.During the 1970’s and 80’s management changed from total authoritarian to collaborative .1990’s saw a greater shift towards environmentalism.
Since the beginning of the 21st century business ethics have shifted more towards the online sphere,as more and more policies are being formed for the protection of consumer data while data mining for targeted marketing.We need ethical policies which will understand this thin line between utilising clients data to its potential while protecting it from cyberattacks.
In Conclusion
this article provided an easy understanding of business ethics in an easy to understand way. It defined that being honest,transparent and accountable in business is like having a moral compass. By following simple rules,being legal and caring about the community,businesses can succeed in a positive way that’s good for everyone.
