Explore complete Unit 15 Business Ethics ATHE Level 5 assignment answers, deepen your understanding of CSR, governance and ethical decision-making, and strengthen your coursework with clear, well-structured examples today.
Corporate social responsibility is a discipline that studies the correct behaviour of business entities. This is an important area of analysis since companies are managing issues that put more pressure on executives to formulate goals that align profit-generation motives with public interest responsibilities. Students analyzing these complex ethical frameworks can access cheap assignment help to master theoretical discussions and achieve academic excellence. The global ethical decision-making process can be traced back to philosophical and religious beginnings and has gradually advanced to a theoretical and practical science over the centuries. The theories of business ethics are discussed in this paper. The historical background of these theories is also discussed, and their relevance to the current business environment and practices is analysed, along with the difference between absolute and relative business ethics and the implications of each for the decision-making process.
Business ethics dates back to early civilization when moral and ethical principles regulated business (Kumar et al., 2024). For example, within Aristotle and virtue ethics, great importance was given to the virtue of character, which is the basis for ethics. These early thoughts offered a platform on which actions could be judged based on the actor's character and not the results, as is currently used in today's leadership and management discourse more sharply in organisational ethics issues (Mullins, Holland and Cunneen, 2021).
The Enlightenment period brought some significant changes in ethical theory: utilitarianism and deontology (Stahl, 2021). This theory is more commonly known as Utilitarianism, so named due to arguments such as those of Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, which argue for proportional decision-making based on the measure of ‘pleasure’ produced within society (Mihailov, 2022). This approach has been applied in the business as a cost-benefit analysis, where there are advantages and disadvantages to making decisions to maximise the benefit of the majority. On the other hand, there is deontological ethics, as presented by Immanuel Kant, which means following moral rules and regulations irrespective of consequences (Morrell and Dahlmann, 2022). For instance, truth in advertisement is rated as a responsibility to increase popularity even when it would mean less sales, as the intrinsic sense of ethical responsibility would warrant.
Business ethics as a formal subject area that can be defined and recognized started in the 20th century with theories such as the stakeholder theory and corporate social responsibility. The spotlight of Freeman’s stakeholder theory was that business organisations have responsibilities beyond shareholders to other stakeholders such as employees, customers, suppliers and the community (Awa, Etim and Ogbonda, 2024). This widened the sphere of ethical responsibility in business organizations beyond taking the consequences of organizational actions directly into account of societal welfare. Similarly, the triple bottom line concept, introduced by John Elkington, advocated for evaluating business success through three dimensions: Economic, social, and environmental, which has had a considerable impact (Nogueira, Gomes and Lopes, 2023). This approach helps to stress the importance of corporate managerial decisions from the angle of sustainability and accountability.
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In the last decades, modern business ethics have evolved in line with increased globalization and the tendencies in informatics. These include internal trade regulations for non-sweatshop labour, privacy, and how ESG should factor into investment. Such trends indicate that business ethics is an unsteady process which develops owing to new threats and opportunities (Chen and Kamarudin, 2024).
A common issue central to business ethics is the issue of between absolute and relative ethical systems, which are two philosophical approaches that explain moral systems (DeTienne et al., 2020). The theory of absolute ethics holds that some ethical standards should be regarded as immutable and not relative to cultural, social, or situational factors. Derived from the deontological theories, this approach holds that specific actions are right or wrong and that ethicists must stick to principles (Varkey, 2020). For instance, one is expected to tell the truth, which is an ethic, no matter the repercussions one faces, such as losing a business or being dismissed from a company. Since absolute ethics gives certainty and stability, the business stakeholders who expect the industry to adhere to the ethical standards rely on it.
On the contrary, relative ethics contends that cultural, social, and situational influences people’s ethical practices (Aluko-Arowolo et al., 2022). This attitude is similar to ethical relativism, which is a view that does not recognize the moral customs of one culture to mean the same for another. For example, while business gift-giving or offering could be perceived as bribery in particular cultures, such gestures are perceived as a sign of respect or an extension of business relationships in other cultures. On the same note, relative ethics is flexible businesses can be ready to deal with different cultures or counter atypical conditions (Msoroka and Amundsen, 2019). Further, such an approach saves the possibility of ethical relativism, and decision-making may enormously differ depending on the circumstances.
Despite its significant disadvantages, absolute ethics enables clear decisions in actions since it does not consider the shades which sometimes characterize specific scenarios. On the other hand, relative ethics puts much emphasis on relativity, but it does so at the expense of the absolute nature of ethical principles (Spaak, 2022). In practice, what businesses end up doing is to try to achieve both extremes, where absolute principles form the framework of reference. Still, the contextual elements can inform the relative application of acknowledged principles. For example, a business organization may follow the ethical standards of the international world but implement them according to the regional policies of that country (Gheraia, Saadaoui and Abdelli, 2019).
Such interplay between absolute and relative ethics portrays the difficulties of ethical decision-making in the contemporary business world (Böhm et al., 2022). This paper demonstrates that knowledge of both the theoretical and the practical limitations of both approaches can help organizations build effective, ethical frameworks that are both sound and realistic to protect the interests of all organization’s stakeholders while being ethical.
Risk management is an essential corporate exercise that can complement governance in that it helps instil corporate ethics and standards among organizations and demands responsibility, accountability and transparency (Sheedy and Canestrari‐Soh, 2023).
Hence, governance can be defined as the structures, procedures, and actions deployed in directing and managing organizations. Comprehensive codes protect ethical practices by establishing regulations that become a foundation for building a responsible organizational culture. An excellent example of the subject matter involves the impact of governance at the Enron Corporation (Slomski et al., 2022). After the Enron Scam in 200 came to light due to high-profile corporate fraud, new corporate governance measures, like the ‘Sarbanes Oxley Act’ or ‘SOX’, were promulgated in the USA. The act heightened internal control, introduced the signing of financial statements by the CEOs and CFOs and elaborated on the consequences if the law is infringed (Boyens, 2022). These legislations enhanced the function of accountability in the organizations and minimized chances of other unethical financial behaviour.
Codes of conduct governing corporate businesses, such as the UK Corporate Governance Code, provide clear standards on ethical behaviour by calling for corporations to be answerable to the stakeholders, operate with transparency, and be disposed of with appropriate control systems (Mrabure and Abhulimhen-Iyoha, 2020). Typically, a board of directors, an ethics committee, and compliance officers are appointed to ensure ethical compliance (Kinsha and Worme, 2022). For instance, boards are supposed to define the goals and objectives of organizations in the light of social expectations, and ethics committees examine ethical issues and propose remedies.
PAS 230 aims to communicate information about entities' financial position with the independent assurer. It was developed to meet the demand for the new corporate governance measures that followed the Enron and WorldCom debacles, which required more focus on financial reporting, internal controls and the accountability of top managers (Javaid et al., 2022). The act still needs the organization to conduct vociferous audits and the whistleblower system to detect and prevent unethical conduct.
In addition, effective governance ensures ethical awareness is achieved through codes of conduct, training, and ethical guidelines (Bag et al., 2024). A moral code shall be effectively used as a guide to employees, including the proper behaviours for and repercussions for improper behaviours. Ethoxy provides an ethics training program for every level of the organization so that all employees will be prepared to deal with ethical dilemmas, demonstrating the organization’s ongoing commitment to integrity (Watts, 2020).
Ethical practices across global organizations must be focused worldwide but culturally sensitive (Bobel, Al Hinai and Roslani, 2022). For example, transnational companies, including Unilever, have integrated international business codes of ethics while basing their practices on the cultural differences of their locations (Zaghmout et al., 2024). This balance ensures that ethical consideration is taken in the areas of operation in various operating environments.
Without governance structures and relevant controls, organizations will continually be associated with cases of ethical failure that can result in organizational image loss and financial and legal ramifications (Roszkowska and Melé, 2020). Apart from the issues related to the organization’s protection, the governance framework creates positive perceptions from the stakeholders since it is a critical aspect of enhancing the sustainability of the business in the long run.
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Different types of unethical situations can be regarded in business, mainly corruption, neglect of the negative environmental impact, and working conditions. Such actions are untrustworthy, destroy the confidence of the stakeholders, and often lead to tremendous losses and reputation damage (Nguyen and Hoai, 2023). One famous example of such practice is the VW scandal, when the car manufacturer installed a device to cheat emission standards tests. What followed was billions of dollars lost in fines, and customers’ trust eroded (Kaptein, 2022).
As with many problems, preventing and punishing unethical behaviour must be handled at the primary and secondary levels (Dhirani et al., 2023). Another proper corporate regulation technique is the development of whistleblowing programs, allowing employees to report cases of unethical behaviour of their coworkers without exposing themselves to contract termination (McGrath and Walker, 2022). That is why organizations like Transparency International promote such measures to enhance organizational accountability and limit the effect of corruption.
Another essential solution is ethics training to guarantee that people at all levels of the organization are aware of the company's ethical rules and responsibilities (Veetikazhi and Krishnan, 2019). When covering ethics as a course of action, an organization can avoid complete ethical failures from occurring in the first place. For instance, organizations such as Google organize seminars and workshops to teach their employees the right approach to user data and privacy (Dacin et al., 2022).
Legal requirements for compliance and external auditors also have an essential function in fighting against unethical work. Some policies include independent audits to establish the truth in reporting the company's financial status, and policies such as GDPR that come with severe penalties in case of noncompliance will help prevent unethical behaviour (Dacin et al., 2022).
Cultural change constitutes the most challenging set of solutions to ethical malpractice. Organizational leaders need to lead by example by setting high standards of ethical practices right across the organization (Srivastava, 2023). Ethical heads create an organizational culture that puts ethical standards first and employees who act best.
Conclusion
Ethical practice is an essential aspect of contemporary business operations concerning sustainable business management practices. In this paper, the author has given a brief history of ethical theories to shed light on their usefulness in the organization. The conflict between the absolute and the relative ethical theory brings attention to the fact that ethical action and decision-making are not simple, and the use of governance shows how even large companies require ethical frameworks to hold themselves responsible.
References
Business ethics is not just a question of the right thing to do but is a question of survival, of the growth and prosperity of the organisation in the long run. Ethical practice affects the company’s operations at the strategic level and improves stakeholder relations and the overall company sustainability. On the other hand, consequences of unethical behaviour include legal consequences, damaging public and other stakeholders' perceptions, and loss of business. Evaluating the effect of ethics, reviewing implications of unethical decision making, and critically assessing the impact of ethical business relationships: Real evidence from empirical data.
Ethical factors are of strategic value and are applied to identify the direction of specific business goals, which include profitability, reputation, and employee morale (Kamila and Jasrotia, 2023). Companies that respect ethical standards will likely benefit from stronger customer loyalty and better market positioning. For instance, Patagonia- an outdoor wear company- has made sustainability part of its mission statement. Awareness of the overconsumption problems was raised with the ‘Don’t Buy This Jacket” campaign. These ethical views appealed to environmentally-savvy customers and caused the company to achieve a 30% growth in sales for the year that followed the campaign (Mercader et al., 2021).
Corporations again pursue the sustainability of their financials through ethical practices (George et al., 2021). According to the Ethisphere Institute, organizations awarded the World’s Most Ethical Companies perform better by a margin of 7% than the S&P 500 Return on Equity over five years. These observations show the link between business ethics and profitability.
In addition, ethics determine levels of employee turnover and work output. Ethical organizations get better talent and have a greater rate of employee engagement (Heikkurinen, 2018). A Deloitte report from 2022 reported that 44% of millennials and 49% of Gen Z employees want to work for socially and environmentally responsible organisations (Bocean et al., 2022). Ethical goals converge organisations with the expectations of their various stakeholders, which forms the basis of sustainable development.
These unlawful actions are not just limited to the business; but the beneficiaries of the business are also at the receiving end (Klimczak et al., 2021). A good example is the Volkswagen Group scandal in September 2015, where Volkswagen fitted their vehicles with software that they used to manipulate emissions tests. This unethical decision equalled fines, recalls and settlements to Three billion dollars (Klimczak et al., 2021). Furthermore, it reduced customer confidence and the company’s reputation worldwide; the firm lost 30% of its sales in the US months after the scandal.
Members of the stakeholders, such as employees, customers, investors, and others, also stand to suffer from unethical behaviour (Isebor, 2024). Conducting something unethical in an organization may cause employees to have low morale and productivity in their employers’ organizations. Customers may even switch their loyalty. In the incident with Facebook Cambridge Analytical, where companies were given access to millions of user data on an agreement basis and finally breached the trust, Facebook lost millions of users, and its share value dropped to 19% in 2018. Managers' and shareholders' ecosystems suffer monetary losses and reduced shareholder worth due to unethical strategies that result in lawful punishments and counter-branding (Maeve O’Connell and Anne Marie Ward, 2023).
Such behaviours are also socially destructive in effects and include pollution of the environment as well as skewed economic distribution (Afifa et al., 2024). For example, in the fashion industry, irresponsible sourcing leads to involuntary labour relations and environmental pollution. When pointing out these examples, one can conclude that there is an imperative need to have ethical changes to counter unethical effects.
Ethical business relations also ensure cooperation and trust, some of the core ingredients to achieving long-term business success (Yan et al., 2022). Accounting for business relationships, business-to-business relationships benefit from transparency and fairness, while business-to-consumer relationships benefit from honest communication. The PwC report conducted in 2023 showed that the believability of trust was increasing as customers focused on ethical standards in Brands pne for the purchase (PwC, 2024).
A good example is Starbucks, which has focused on philanthropic sourcing of its products, particularly coffee. C.A.F.E Practices program in the Company increases farmer wages, respects the environment and provides quality coffee (Hamann et al., 2018). This program has enhanced the company’s relations with suppliers and response to the conscience buyers. Therefore, Starbucks realised a sales value increase of 16 % in 2022, which is good evidence of the financial returns that can come from ethical relationships.
Ethical relationships also foster a high level of engagement and hereby assure the organization of high retention rates (Naz et al., 2020). Holding good standards of employment practices like discrimination and payment of workers’ rights, employment provides and encourages workers to be motivated. According to the Gallup survey, organizations with engaged employees have 21% increased profitability, showing the relationship between ethical behaviours and organizational results (Baquero, 2023).
Building and sustaining professional ethical rapport in the workplace is essential for implementing honest, cooperative, and productive relations (Kolomaznik et al., 2024). Organizations undertake various means of promoting ethical practices within the enterprise, its staff, and the public. One is codes of conduct that define the moral norms and standards for the organization’s employees (Babri, Davidson and Helin, 2019). These documents are policy tools for the organization’s employees where they outline expected conduct as well as respond to a range of ethical issues. For instance, the Unilever Code of Business Principles acknowledges integrity, respect and responsibility in employees’ interactions within the organization, providing clear guidelines on how individuals should behave to support an organization’s goals (Babri, Davidson and Helin, 2019).
Ethics training programs also form another crucial strategy that is applied. These programs teach employees how to solve various problems ethically, issues of diversity around the workplace, and conflict-solving (Adams, Meyers and Sekaja, 2019). Large corporations such as Google spend time and money to make their employees aware of the problems of privacy, equity and compliance at the workplace.
Whistle-blowing policies also enhance ethical workplace relationships, which give employees access to safe or anonymous measures to take when reporting unethical practices (Sorn et al., 2023). Most organizations like Pfizer have set up safe reporting channels which guarantee a reporting party anonymity when they provide information against the organization, making it hard for the organization to be complicit (Ghani et al., 2022).
Dealing with ethical workplace relationships when we are in the process of globalization is not easy (D’Cruz et al., 2022). To balance ethical sensitivity and cultural differences, many international corporations need to apply global ethical standards combined with accepting the differences in the behaviour of consumers and business partners.
The first issue is ethical relativism and perceptions around ethnicity. Corporate gift-giving is acceptable in one country but may be legal bribery in another (Pham et al., 2020). To this, organizations adopted global codes of conduct that put into place standard ethical policies with room for local integration. For example, Siemens has developed ethical standards internationally to contend with general principles that fit legal requirements and cultural norms.
Communication plays a significant role in ethical relationships within organisations that operate in the global environment (Antonina et al., 2024). Cultural diversity in the workplace can be managed by ensuring all employees have direct and clear talks with each other.
Conclusion
Ethical workplace relationships are indeed survival and a foundation of any successful and enduring business venture. Policies like code of ethics, employee training and policy on whistleblowing promote a culture of integrity. In global organizations, ethics management combines the international ethical culture with cultural relativity. To achieve this, effective communication must be assimilated with innovative technology.
References
This ethical failure exposed the need for better data protection safeguards and disclosure, and these are necessary virtues in a data-intensive universe.
As a result, the informed consent, people’s data trade, and technology corporations’ overall obligation to safeguard consumers’ data were issues of concern.
Such repercussions assert severe implications, especially concerning ethical violations on data privacy.
Another way to continue the trust rebuilding process is to publish data and updates regarding privacy actions regularly. Third, independent audits with the creation of an independent Chief Ethics Officer would guarantee ethical compliance. Meta should incorporate HR development that targets ethics in decision-making and protecting data and users’ privacy.
Easy and convenient to-use privacy panels and frequent overviews of personal data usage would add to the examples of the company’s adherence to ethical norms.
In order to guard the user information, there has to be a requirement that the ethical code includes provisions on the protection of data from unauthorized access, use of encryption, scheduled assessment for vulnerabilities, and general implementation of security measures. The organizational relations must be defined with responsibilities assigned to all the upper management and employees to meet the standards of ethical performance. The creation of a Chief Ethics Officer and an independent oversight board would improve the company’s governance structure, as well as add more checks and balances. Also, employees must be allowed to report unethical behaviours through an enhanced whistle-blower line that guarantees that no employee will be punished for practising details.
Conclusion
Maintaining such standards will not only rebuild the stakeholders’ confidence in the respective companies but also bring about sustainability as the world transforms through the adoption of digital technology.
References
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