Business Ethics - An Oximoron?

The issue of business ethics is constantly brought up to the public's eye when a company practices good or bad business ethics, (an example is the latest BP's oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico). Business ethics is the behavior of a company to the rest of the world as a whole, as well as their single interactions per customer.

Businesses can gain a good or bad reputation, it all depends on their level of capitalism (how much the business is interested in making money, at all costs), and how they conduct themselves to make money brings up ethical behavior. Most people say that businesses should be held responsible for their own ethics as well as ones tied in relationship with other businesses. As a result, major big companies have been fined millions for breaking ethical business laws, money is usually the main factor to whether a company has done wrong.

Companies have to follow anti-trust laws, which state that businesses cannot monopolize, or attempt to monopolize a market. The philosophy behind this law is to prevent stagnate markets and to have a healthy market competition.

Businesses that constantly get fined are soft drink, companies, fast food restaurants, clothing and shoe stores that use sweatshops, and much more. Business ethics can even be applied to how your employees act, why good employees do bad things.

Ethics of finance in a company include their behavior in creative accounting, earnings, financial analysis, insider trade information, securities fraud, bucket shops, forex scams, executive compensation, bribery, kickbacks, facilitation payments and such. Good examples of companies that were discovered practicing accounting scandals are Enron, WorldCom and Stayam.

Ethics of human resource management involves the recruitment process, orientation, performance appraisal, training and development, and healthy and safety issues. The issue revolves treating employees as humans, and not merely as commodities. Employers are not allowed to discriminate against employees, employees have At-will employment, employees have the right to union bust or strike break, employees have the right to privacy in workplace surveillance and drug testing, employers must allow whistle-blowing, and there must be balance of power between employer and employee. Also, an employer must not be hired, fired, promoted, demoted, based on race, age, gender, religion, or any other discriminatory act.

Ethics of production is where business ethics deal with issues of a company to ensure that products and production do not cause harm to employees. The dilemma in this is that there is usually a degree of danger in any production process. It is difficult to define the social perception of acceptable risk. Examples include inherently dangerous product or services such as weapons, alcohol, tobacco, chemical manufacturing, etc.) Relationships between company and environment are constant hot topics as well. New technology is always and ethical issue, such as genetically modified food, phone radiation, health, etc.)

Ethics of property and intellectual rights includes issues such as patent, copyrights and trademark infringement. Employee raiding is the practice of attracting key employees away from the competitor to take advantage of their knowledge or skills.

Mary Singleton regularly writes for AML Stone Source, the leading hot stone massage supplies provider. They carry such products as basalt stones for hot stone massage, as well as many other many other accessories for hot stone therapy.