New Trends in Business Ethics - Essay Example

ID: New trends in business ethics Introduction The principles and moral of abusiness is known as its ethics. A company incorporates different ways for maintaining its business structure and policies. Rules and regulations of a business are established on the basis of its ethics. Various issues of the business are handled and solved with the help of ethical principles and values. Ethical policies and practices are implemented by a company for enhancing the level of trust among the members associated with this business. All the aspects of a business are managed by its ethical principles. Activities of a business are influenced by its ethical principles. Behaviors of organizational members also depend on the company’s ethics. In the present business environment business ethics has become a very important issue. Various new trends and processes are incorporated in businesses for enhancing their values. For performing business functions effectively organizations give importance on ethical behavior of its employees. This helps the organizations in avoiding various legal issues and enhancing their brand reputation. With the change in business environment, ethics of companies have experienced lots of changes. These changed ethical policies and practices facilitate the companies in holding their position in competitive business environment. In this essay new trends in business ethics will be discussed in detailed way. For explaining the new trends, traditional business policies and its issues will also be highlighted in this essay. Traditional business ethics The concept of business ethics was developed long back. Around 1970s companies started focusing on establishing various policies and principles ethics. Earlier the companies only believed in the concept on money making. They were not concerned about people, environment and society. As a result the rules and principles of the business were developed in such a way which helped them to archive the money making objectives of businesses. Earlier for enhancing the profitability and revenues most of the companies were involved in performing many immoral activities. That time ethical policies and practices were only implemented by religious organizations. Persons conducting business activities were not concerned about business ethics. The term business ethics was originated in USA (Lencioni 67). People were getting tortured in the name of business. So certain ethical policies and practices were established in business for conducting trade ethically. Traditional business ethics principles and policies influenced the companies in developing strict organizational structure. The managers or the business leaders played vital role in developing companies’ principles and practices. Business stared focusing on maximizing its benefits by minimizing its harms caused to society or people. Earlier the companies believed in enhancing its ethical values by providing some benefits to its employees. The managers tried to establish high ethical standards for enhancing the business values. In the late 19th century the companies started developing good relationship with its organizational members and its customers. This helped the companies to develop their business at a faster rate. But their ethical policies were not strong in preventing corruptions. As a result many immoral practices were performed by the companies. Trading activities were not conducted by most of the companies by following their ethical rules. In early times ethical policies and principles were considered more theoretical than practical. Those were not properly implemented by the companies. Issues in business ethics Traditional ethical principles and practices created many problems in businesses. Those ethical principles hindered the success of businesses. In early times the main focus of business was to generate more revenue by using its resources at maximum level. For this type of ethical principle the companies were creating heavy pressure on its employees. Many natural resources were extensively used by the companies. This damaged the ecological balance of the nature. Bad ethical policies of the companies demotivated the workers. Initially the companies were not concerned about the satisfaction and benefits of the workers (Lentin 89). They were only concerned about the money. This extensive pressure of those companies degraded their quality of work. As a result the reputation of the companies was affected negatively. The employees were not satisfied with the ethical policies of the businesses. Companies did not provided any extra facilities to them. So for making their life better and for earning more money the employees were involved in performing various immoral activities which affected the business processes. These immoral activities degraded the ethical values and beliefs of the employees which lead to the rise of corruption level. Efficient employees who believed in strong moral values and principles faced many difficulties in working in corrupted business environment. Many problems occurred in between them and companies. Environmental damages were caused by ethical principles and policies of the companies. The organizations were not concerned about protecting the environment. As a result huge level of pollution was caused by them. For increasing their productivity and revenue the companies started expanding their business in different countries of the world. By the ethical values and principles of the companies did not help them to increase their revenue and satisfying their employees. As a result they were not successful in performing international business operations successfully. Organizational culture was also hampered by traditional ethical policies and principles. Culture of companies became very complex which influenced their business operations negatively. The employees were only concerned about their own work or benefits (McCord 119). They were not worried in achieving overall objectives of the company. The businesses were unable to receive best performance of their employees. The employees only worked in a company’s for earning money. Innovation and creativity in business processes were very low. As a result the firms were incapable in developing effective activities in capturing market or customers. In the absence of good ethical principles and values the businesses were unable to develop good relationship with suppliers and buyers. The traditional ethical principles did not benefit the suppliers and buyers. In most of the time they were not happy with the business processes of the company. For this reason the companies frequently lost their customers and suppliers. Earlier the companies did not focus on the ethical principles of establishing transparent business process (McGinn 64). This increased the trust problems among the employees which influenced them to get involved in conflicts. New trends in business ethics In the present business environment, companies have experienced many changes in their ethical policies and practices. Businesses incorporated different types of ethical policies for benefiting their employees, customers, society and all the persons associated with the businesses. By their ethical policies the companies show their various responsibilities and perform their duties. In the changing business environment many new trends are taking place in business ethics. Companies are implementing many rules and regulations of reducing the corruption level in their business processes. They are organizing many training and development programs for improving the moral values of employees. The business activities of modern organizations are based on strong ethical values and principles. They believes in enhancing organizational productivity and reputation by benefiting society, customers etc. Profitability is not the only aim of the companies. Businesses are now also involved in performing many non profit activities for helping the society (McLaren 77). Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is one of the important trends in business ethics. Businesses developed many rules and regulation for doing CSR activities. This has become one of the major step for achieving the goals and objectives of a company. Moral values and believes of organizational members are enhanced by CSR activities. CSR has become an inseparable part of modern business ethics. Bribery, antitrust, inside trading has become major ethical issues of businesses. For reducing these issues the companies has given huge effort in enhancing the ethical values of their employees. Strong rules and regulations are formed by the companies against these ethical issues. The companies do not encourage or influence their employees for getting involved in these ethical issues. The businesses involved in developing their ethical principles after considering the legal rules and regulation of the countries in which they are operating business. A company has to pay huge amount of fines if it breaks legal rules and regulations. For this reason the ethical policies of the business are developed in such a way which encourages employees in maintaining legal rules and regulation of countries. Business ethics has become vital strategy for managing the business processes and activities. Effective corporate culture is established with the help of good ethical practices of business. The modern organizations provide wide range of benefits and facilities to their employees. The companies are very much concerned about satisfaction level of its employees. They believe that satisfied employees will contribute a lot in organizational growth and development. For this reason the employees are involved in the decision making process of the company. Ethical policies and principles are developed for making the business sustainable for long run. Policies are developed for managing the stakeholders of the business ethically. Now a day businesses aim to achieve sustainability for long run. For this reason transparent business processes are established by the organizations. For improving the business ethics, firms provide different types of rights to its employees. All organizational members are treated equally and various opportunities are provided to them. Management process influences the business activities. Ethical policies are developed for encouraging the managers in following the rules and regulation of the company. Organizations have incorporated various measures for establishing safety in workplace. Social benefit is an important objective of business ethics. The firms have undertaken various ethical policies and practices for reducing negative impacts on environments. One of the new ethical trends is reducing the use of non renewable resources. Most of the companies are using alternative resources in their businesses. New trends of ethics encourage the employees in performing cross cultural activities. All of these new trends in business ethics create positive impacts on the business processes of a company. Benefits or advantages in new trends Organizations are involved in improving their ethical values and principles. New ethical trends benefit a business in various ways. Good ethical rules and practices help the company in increasing its productivity. Companies concerned about the society contribute a lot in reducing various environmental damages. Many companies are involved developing good society which benefits general people in different ways. The ethical policies of the firms in benefiting and satisfying their employees help them to enhance the level of trust among the employees towards the organization. As a result the employees feel motivated to deliver their best performances. Employee retention power of the firms increases for this. Ethical policies which are established for benefiting the customers facilitate the companies in maintain good relationship with them. Strong ethical values help an organization in establishing sustainable business processes. Both top managers and employees become highly committed towards the company and their job for ethical policies (Frey 86). The new trends in business ethics changed the perceptions of managers and leaders in positive way for performing various business activities. Effective ethical practices and policies help the companies in reducing conflicts among their employees. Conclusion Ethical rules and practices are present in the businesses for long period of time. In the changing business environment business ethics is gaining its importance day by day. All the modern firms are very much concerned about their ethical policies. This is because the companies not only believed in profit making but also believes in creating positive impacts on various social and environmental factors. This helps in the growth and development of the companies. In this essay business ethics is discussed in detailed way. Earlier the concept of business ethics was not very popular among the companies. Profit making was the main objective of the businesses. For the absence of proper ethical rules and regulations companies faced many types of difficulties which hamper their productivity and performances. With the changing business environment the companies started focusing on different ethical issues which facilitated them in improving their business processes and activities. This essay highlighted various new trends in business ethics which are incorporated by companies for experiencing several benefits. Business ethics is also important in attracting customers. People are very much concerned about ethical issues and they prefer the company which follows good effective ethical practices. This is why business ethics are very much important for the companies. Works Cited Frey, Robbins. Introduction: Utilitarianism and persons in utility and rights. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 2004. Print. Lencioni, Patrick. The five dysfunctions of a team: A leadership fable. New York: Jossey-Bass. 2002. Print. Lentin, Alana. Racism and ethnic discrimination. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group. 2011. Print. McCord, Geoffrey. Essays on moral realism. New York: Cornell University Press. 2008. Print. McGinn, Colin. Problems in philosophy: The limits of inquiry. Cambridge: Blackwell. 2007. Print. McLaren, Duncan. Corporate engagement by socially responsible investors: A practical paradigm for stakeholder governance? UK: Ashridge. 2005. Print. Read More