In the twenty-first century, business ethics have become a critical subject in the corporate and business world. In practice, organizational ethics relates to integrating ethical values, morals, behaviors, and policies to all levels of the organization. Notably, there has been an increasing trend of businesses involving selfish and irresponsible activities that ultimately impoverish other parties while profiting the crafty. However, the extent and degree to which companies can integrate the ethical principles rely on dynamic parameters such as globalization and technological evolution. Nonetheless, several factors limit the efficacy of organization ethics; they include unhealthy competition, high expectancy to fast returns and profits, corruption, and disregard for social responsibility. The elevated publicized corruption and the indifference to fundamental ethical principles have necessitated the urgent need for businesses to integrate the principles into their corporate practice. The organizations that adopted the standards from their onset have recognized the advantages of employee job satisfaction to increase in the market share. Ethical failures have adversely affected many businesses, and therefore understanding the roles of business ethics in the business operation is critical to the organization, the government, and the public.
Firstly, business ethics guide the decision-making process within the organization. Over time, several researchers have developed value-based theories and approaches that effectively guide the ethical decision-making steps, which align with the organization’s responsibilities, commitments, and objectives. They include utilitarianism, the rights theory, the common-good theory, and the virtue-based principle (Husick, 2017). The utilitarian theory guides that among the overlapping actions that the market agents can undertake, they should select the activities or alternative that serves the best interests of everyone involved and implicates the least harm to the majority. The rights approach emphasizes the relative capacities of those involved in the decision-making process. Based on their distinction, professional rights, and privileges, each has varying acceptability. As such, the ones with the most influential rights have relatively more precedence over for approach than the juniors or less qualified members. Notably, this theory enhances the effectiveness and outcomes of decision-making processes by ensuring the most talented individuals guide the process. Subsequently, the common good approach advocates that ethical decisions are those that are the most beneficial to all members of the community. As such, the common good theory advocates for the interests of other parties such as the consumers and other external stakeholders. The virtue approach emphasizes the desirable attributes and qualities of the individuals taking part in the decision-making process. The executives can therefore facilitate the talented and competent individuals to enable them to reach their full potential. It is essential that individuals involved in the decision-making process of the organization consider the approaches. They should also effectively apply them to aid in arriving at a more credible decision, which serves for what is most beneficial to the organization, the public, the employees, and the other relevant parties. Overall, business ethics play a vital role in influencing and guiding the decision-making process within the organization to avoid errors and unfounded decisions.
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Secondly, business ethics enhance the creation, implementation and, and nurturing of value-based business. Ethical business culture models the organization's ethical behaviors from the leaders to the lowest rank staff. In practice, ethical leadership refers to the capacity of the business leaders to demonstrate normatively appropriate behaviors in their actions and interpersonal relationships with the coworkers in line with the objectives, mission, and vision of the organization (Tushar, 2017). Further, ethical leadership advocates for promoting the ethical codes to the other lower-level staff through effective communication and collaborations. The leaders can transfer the practices to the other team through training and apprenticeship. The standards require both the employers and the employees to portray codes such as transparency, integrity, honesty, respect, accountability, and reliability. Further, the integration of ethics and business operations can significantly improve the organizations' task significance, enhancing its performance. The ethical culture also promotes performance and the potential of employees. As such, the integration of ethical business practice within the various level of the organization creates a culture guided by the procedures.
Organizational ethics also promotes the welfare of the employees and improves their performance. The ethical values safeguard the rights of the employees to enhance their level of job satisfaction and, ultimately, retention in the organization (Quierrez, 2018). For instance, workplace ethics emphasize the safety and conduciveness of the workers' environment. Further, the standards advocate for employers to pay the employees fair wages and motivate them through rewards and training. Considering the employee's welfare through the organization's ethical values inherently encourages the employees to adopt the same values. As such, they are likely to show more commitment and motivation to advance the organization's interests (Hegarty, 2018). The employees' adherence to ethical values, therefore, guarantees the success of the organization. Although all the workers in all the organizational levels are intrinsically valuable, the employees who adhere to the ethical standards will be more productive, which will ultimately increase the company's profitability. Further ethical practices among the employees foster positive relationships among the employees and the employer. Ethical employees typically operate and conduct themselves to serve the organizations' best interests, fellow workers, stakeholders, and the employer. As such, the ethical standards create common goals, values, and language among the employers and the employees. Conversely, the lack Thegatively affects the employees’ performance. For instance, the employees may be more concerned with maximizing the profits and ignoring standards, procedures, and protocols. Non-compliance with ethical behaviors can also cause tension between the employees and the employer, which is detrimental to the organization's success. Business ethics play a significant role in modeling the employees to be more effective and productive for the organization's overall performance.
While business ethics play a critical role within the organizational structures, it also enhances the collaboration between the organization and the community where it exists and operates. Business ethics stipulates that businesses should undertake various corporates responsibilities (CSR) to promote values and contributions to the community and society (Clark, 2020). The integration of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) within a business ensures business sustainability and prosperity. Further, Clark defines (2020) CSR refers to the concept of businesses managing and integrating concerns related to society and the environment in their operations and relationships with their stakeholders. The idea stipulates necessary steps for the business to pursue economic gains while attending social and ecological imperatives. It redirects the business to focus on making positive contributions to the community and environment that they operate in. The social responsibilities include environmental responsibilities, human rights responsibilities, philanthropic responsibilities, and economic responsibilities in broad classifications. In particular, the strategies include commitments to minimize environmental impacts, education of the community members, denotations to charities, and improve policies that favor employees. The concepts also emphasize the need for businesses to use moral and ethical standards in various practices, such as sourcing raw materials, advertising, and production processes. Properly integrating CSR guarantees numerous benefits to businesses. Such services include increased accessibility to capitals and markets, increased productivity, improved workforce efficiency, and cost savings on operations. Other benefits include improved customer loyalty, improved retention of vital and talented employees, and reduced regulatory burdens.
Business ethics is also a strategic tool for establishing a good business corporate identity and reputation to the public and the government. For example, ethical standards stipulate that a company should ensure its supplies are safe and meet the required quality standards. Adherence to the standards is critical in building trust between the company and the consumers (CharterCollege, 2020). Ultimately the consumers' confidence in the company directly affects the market share and consumer loyalty base. Also, adherence to the ethical standards enables the businesses to observe moral and ethical standards on a good relationship with the public. For instance, racism and other micro-aggressions may negatively deteriorate the business’s public image, directly affecting its sales. A good reputation is beneficial to the business in other many ways. For example, it increases the chances of the company entering into positive partnerships with other companies or receive government support. Companies' adherence to the procedures stipulated by the federal and State government fosters a positive relationship between the two parties (Kourula, 2019). Non-compliance often leads to hefty penalties and fines that may significantly affect the smooth operation of the business. Overall, business ethics are critical in fostering beneficial synergies between the organization and the other important partners and stakeholders.
In conclusion, the integration of business ethics is necessary for an organization to succeed and ensure its sustainability. Business ethics are crucial to both the internal and external operations of the organization. In general, the standards provide reservation of all the stakeholders' moral and ethical rights, including the employees and the government. The integration of business ethics is an upcoming trend in the corporate world due to its numerous benefits to all the stakeholders. As illustrated, unethical business practices contribute to organizational failure, loss of customer loyalty, bad reputation, and market share. The government has also legally enforced most of the business ethics owing to the critical role and benefits they assure. However, the adoption of some of the ethical principles remains under the discretion of the individual organization. From trends in the corporate world, business ethics will continue to influence the success of organizations even in the future.
References
CharterCollege. (2020, January 23). Why are good ethics so important to businesses? https://www.chartercollege.edu/news-hub/why-are-good-ethics-so-important-businesses
Clark, S. (2020, JUNE 8). What corporate social responsibility looks like in 2020 . Reworked. https://www.reworked.co/leadership/what-corporate-social-responsibility-looks-like-in-2020/
Hegarty, N. &. (2018, January). Components of ethical leadership and their importance in sustaining organizations over the long term. The Journal of Values-Based Leadership, 11 (1), 2-7.
Husick, L. (2017, April 6). A Frame Work for Ethical Decision Making . The Foreign Policy Research Institute. https://www.fpri.org/article/2017/04/framework-ethical-decision-making/
Kourula, A. M.-D. (2019, May). New roles of government in the governance of business conduct: Implications for management and organizational research. Organization Studies, 40 . https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840619852142
Quierrez, J. &. (2018). Business ethics: Impact to employee behavior and productivity. International Journal of Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity, 11 (2), 159-165. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.12637.72161
Tushar, H. (2017, October). he role of ethical leadership in developing sustainable organization. Australasian Journal of Law, Ethics, and Governance, 2 (2), 83-95.
