Business Ethics Is Not an Oxymoron - Essay Example

Business Ethics is Not an Oxymoron Name Course title Date There is always dilemma in making the right decision especially in the business world. The diversity in the business world makes it complex to both the stakeholders and public. The term business ethics is viewed in different perspectives and it arises divergent opinions and topics, some supporting it while others opposing it. Business ethics determines how stakeholders in the business world react towards arising moral issues that have impacts on the society (Freeman & Peace 2004, p. 17). Therefore, business ethics scrutinizes the principles that exist in business environment regarding ethical matters. However, some people think those businesses do not observe the existing ethics in their line of duty and term business ethics as an oxymoron. An oxymoron is a contradicting statement that creates confusion when expressed such as deafening silence and dark light. In this regard, they want to depict that business ethics is a contradicting subject that does not exist, meaning that all business practices are unethical. Those that believe in this perspective conclude that, those who abide in ethical principles end up being poor while those who compromise them end up being rich and successful (Miller 2010, p.35). On the other hand, it is true that business transactions cannot exist successfully without business ethics that determines the integrity and upholding of values in business environment. The values and principles help to define how operations are undertaken for the well-being of all the parties involved without compromise (Duska 2000, p.112). This paper seeks to show that business ethics is not an oxymoron and they really exist in the business world. It is the mandate of every business organisation to observe ethics in all of their practices because they regulate how organisation culture is established. Ethics act as a guideline to the stakeholders and govern all the employees as well as the management, enabling smooth running of organisations. Observing the established ethical principles set the standards on which business undertakings should be based upon and this aids to reduced conflict of interests. In the business world, there exist two types of normative ethics theories namely teleology and deontological theories (Duska 2000, p.115). In reference to the teleology theories, also known as consequence-based theories, explain that impacts or results of the decisions made or actions performed by individuals control what is ethical. They measure the consequences of the undertakings against the moral standards in the business environment. Therefore, if the outcomes of the undertaking are correct and positive, they are termed as ethical or morally correct, otherwise unethical. An example can be derived from the mode of dressing while undertaking business operations. If the results of practising a particular code of dressing is negative and does not reflect the correct reputation of the organisation, it is concluded that it is against the teleology theories as well as organisational practices. Therefore, such code of dressing should be discouraged. Furthermore, these theories target individuals or specific group of people to take the responsibility of their actions and decisions (Lynch & Kline, 2000). On the other hand, deontological theories also referred as duty-based ethical theories, dictates that for achievement of ethics in business environment, guidelines, rules and regulations have to be followed strictly. Adhering to these guidelines, rules and regulations, determine whether decisions made or actions undertaken will be ethical or not. Therefore, any decision that is not in line with the set principles is termed unethical and should be avoided at all costs. An example that related to deontological theories that is unethical is bribe acceptance while in the line of duty. At any given time, all employees should reject any business undertaking that involves bribes between the parties. It shows that there is upholding of interest of the other stakeholders above the personal interests as the code of ethics commands. Besides, the deontological theories are universal and ensure that ethics are part of business practices by targeting all the stakeholders involved without any partiality (Frean 2009). Therefore, these theories have assisted in showing that business ethics are not an oxymoron and it has been noted that in every organisation there is existence of code of ethics that guides the undertaking of business practices (Weiss 2009, p.29). Hence, ruling out the statement that business ethics is an oxymoron. Moreover, the hierarchical structure of the business management depicts the power arrangement in the corporate world where the topmost person in the structure is seen as more powerful. This perspective introduces the complexity of business ethics. It makes many individuals think that the other employees should execute any decision made by the top management in additional to being responsible of mistakes made. However, the success or failure of an organisation is dictated by the management as well as execution of core principles and values (Boldrin & Levine 2008, p.42). The management sets the strategies and the approaches that guide execution of goals and objectives. The impacts of leadership are depicted by the set rules, guidelines and core values in an organisation that determines the business ethics. Furthermore, management conducts the overall performance of business in an organisation in additional to the impacts their practices have in the society (Apollonni 2009, p.16). This helps them to explain to the employees on the importance of ethical behaviours in contributing to success of the organisation as well as creating brand name in the market. An organisation with a good reputation will have a competitive advantage in the market as opposed to scandalous organisation. Hence, it requires more input by the management than the employees in creating the brand name of the organisation. This helps to establish and uphold the required business ethics that govern the business world. Therefore, this shows the existence as well as the importance of business ethics in the market (Fan 2005, p.345). In the current business world, there exist unethical practices related to corruption, conflicts of interest, procedural issues, fraud, discrimination and public accountability. However, the stakeholders are devising ways of eliminating these vices in order to maintain healthy business transactions. The main aim of most business enterprises is to make profits and every strategy is structured to increase the business profit margins. This leads to most individuals thinking that the organisations can do anything that will boost their profits compromising the ethical models and practices (Evans 2003, p.675). They point to the ever-increasing scandals in the business market where organisations compromise business ethics for their own gain. An example of such scandals are Barclays financial scandal that resulted to resignation of the top management, Google criticism of trading individual information to marketing companies as well as corruption involving major government tenders globally. However, these practices have had severe consequences to the performance of the organisations as well as management. This demonstrates that in business environment there are ethics that must be followed while undertaking all the business practices. Government have gone an extra mile of devising legal actions that govern business practices in additional to defining possible consequences for undertakings that compromise ethics (Apollonni 2009, p.8). This is a clear indication that business ethics exist and neglecting to adhere to them leads to dire consequences that affects the running of an organisation. Likewise, in the universal code of ethics it is clear that self-interest should not be considered rather the interest of the stakeholders. The code of ethics govern conduct of professionals in different sectors of operation regardless of job title held, existing local laws or cultural differences. They define the standards that are founded on integrity, confidentiality, and professionalism basis for the respect of workplace environment. Therefore, the main objective of the code of ethics is upholding values, principles and policies in organisations while achieving the obligations of the stakeholders by attaining goals and objectives. In addition, they help in setting the boundaries within working environments as well as promoting development and preservation of the professional competence. This helps in improving skills and knowledge in the professional platform as well as to understand business practice that lies beyond self-oriented interests. Therefore, professionals can be able to work across various cultures, organisations, countries and environments with high degree of morals. Government institutions should take the responsibility of updating the codes of conducts for standardization to be achieved across all the sectors and serve the needs of market (Madhu 2010, p. 87). This is a clear indicator that business ethics exist in the business world. On the other hand, Schmidt (2008) states that studies have shown that it is a challenge to the business world to solve the existing challenges in ethical manner. The human nature tends to follow the easy way out of any situation and this welcomes compromise. However, supporting the statement that business ethics is an oxymoron is a misguided assumption that should be nullified due to lack of supporting information. Striving to be ethical in all practices is the objective of business organisations while dictating for perfection in ethical issues creates hindrances to undertake any business practice. Hence, this kills great productive ideas or strategies because failing to undertake new projects due to fear of making mistakes brings stagnation in the market and development (Evans 2003, p.669). All business undertaking involves taking risks that have positive projections to all stakeholders and should be encouraged if they are viable. Therefore, embracing the continuous improvement strategy should be that way forward concerning the business ethics. Companies and organisations should not be restricted to undertake new inventions and innovations due to ethical challenges. Nevertheless, the organisation should follow the existing ethical business practices in their operations for the benefit of all stakeholders. Business analysis should focus on how to improve the existing practises that pose challenge to the business ethics and devise strategies to promote ethics, for example reduction of air pollution, reduction of soil erosion and sustainable exploitation of natural resources. Such undertakings will stimulate development in additional to nurturing the upcoming business entrepreneurs who can save the struggling economies and create diverse opportunities (Boldrin & Levine 2008, p.57). Carrigan, Marinova, and Szmigin (2005, p.487) notes that every organisation has a marketing department that publicize their services, products as well as selling the brand name of the company in the market. Mostly, marketing department deals with ethical issues due to their involvement of the core business undertakings that display the organisation principles, values and strategies. They propel the business major concerns to the market in the aim of establishing a strong relationship with the potential customers (Fan 2005, p.348). Therefore, they are faced with ethical challenges that exist in the market as well as how they are supposed to exhibit on how the organisation is dealing with such issues. For effectiveness, it required that the marketers to be well grounded with the organisations core values, principles and regulations that govern their contribution to the market. Existing challenges in the market are such as existence of dangerous products, products and services redundancy, health issues, consumer privacy, environmental risks, fair pricing and transparency on product ingredients. Organisations have responsibility to solve these challenges for sustained development and growth in the market (Lynch & Kline 2000, p.203). Therefore, any organisation that works to solve these challenges in the production of their services and products realizes increase in market share. This depicts that moral obligation provides benefits to both business organisations and society. Companies that seeks to deliver satisfaction to their customers in additional to promoting the societal ethics reap handsomely than those seeking to satisfy the organisational needs regardless of market needs. Hence, improved profit margins, increased market share as well as profitability require adherence to ethical matters than business pursuing self-interests. This shows the importance of upholding the ethical values in business practices for sustainable growth and development (Andersen 2006, p.37). Furthermore, due to the growth of technology there is need to diversify marketing strategies for better resulted to be realised. The sustained growth of technology has introduced internet, social media, and emails and organisations are embracing these advancements into their business strategies. Businesses are forced to go extra miles to identifying how they can obtain consumer data that will enable them to market themselves more using the new technology. Some of the strategies tend to result to unethical practices such as data mining, data buying from social platforms like Google, Yahoo or Facebook in additional to redirecting of links to sites that advertise their products and services. However, the owners of the social platforms have denied to ever trading individual data for personal gains (Nichols & Joshua 2007, p. 668). They have also created policies that safeguard the personal information provided in the platforms assuring their customers of data integrity. The international organisations dealing with data security and privacy issues have warned against illegal issuing of personal data to the companies involved. Therefore, it is correct to conclude that if business ethics did not exist, consumer safety could be neglected, information privacy policies could not be enforced, strict terms and conditions would not be followed when dealing with consumer protection. Hence, business ethics exists and protects consumers from unscrupulous business traders as well as guaranteeing safety intellectual copyrights during transactions (Carrigan, Marinova, & Szmigin 2005, p.484). On another note, the impact any organisation is felt on a greater extent in the society by its positive contributions through corporate social responsibility (CSR). Other than providing products and services to the society, a business enterprise is supposed to contribute to its sustainable development and growth. Undertaking of market research assists a company in understanding the challenges facing the society in additional identifying their needs. Statistics show that organisations that undertake corporate social responsibility have better relationship with the society as opposed to those that care less about the well-being of the society (Dijken 2007, pp.148). Moreover, organisations practising CSR have a higher regard to the ethics and consider whether their undertakings are ethical. CSR involves being involved in providing clean water solutions to the society, reduction of pollution, offering of scholarship, training and seminars. Such practices help the organisation to set strategies that are aimed at promoting sustained society development. Business ethics contribute significantly in devising strategies and approaches that will transform the society for the benefit of the organisation as well as the society members (Fan 2005, p.347). Therefore, it is of importance to note that the organisation corporate responsibility is stimulated by the business ethics and it would be wrong to refer it as an oxymoron. On concluding this topic, it is clear that though the business world is faced with various ethical challenges, business ethics assist in success of organisation. Firstly, definition of business ethics reflected by core values, principles and goals set help in showing that ethics are significance in the organisation setup. Secondly, the responsibility of business is highly dependent on the management more than the employees and this kind of setup requires clear guidelines that govern the business practices. The management has to set rules, regulations and laws that are ethical for positive impacts to be felt in the market. Thirdly, the concerns raised by governments and organisations towards the consequences of compromising the existing business ethics shows that they really exist and are of importance. Furthermore, existence of code of ethics is a clear indicator that strengthens business ethics. Promoting upcoming organisations helps to stir development as well as embracing continuous improvement strategies that uphold ethics in business world. Moreover, organisational marketing needs helps to set business ethics that promote the consumers’ needs and satisfaction rather than achieve self-interests. Finally, corporate responsibility shows that organisations have adherence to ethical issues facing the society. Therefore, it can be concluded that business ethics is not an oxymoron. References Andersen, B. 2006, Intellectual property rights: innovation, governance and the institutional environment. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN 1-84542-269-4. Apollonni, D. 2009, “Business Ethics—An Oxymoron?” Ausburg College, , pp.1-19 Boldrin, M. & Levine, D. K. 2008, Against Intellectual Monopoly. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Carrigan, M., Marinova, & Szmigin, I., 2005, Ethics and international Marketing Research background and challenges. International Marketing Review. Vol. 22 , no. 5, pp.481-493. Dijken, F., 2007, “Corporate social responsibility: market regulation and the evidence”. Managerial Law, Vol. 49., no.4, pp. 141-184. Duska, R. 2000, “Business Ethics: Oxymoron or Good Business?”, Business Ethics Quarterly, Globalization and the Ethics of Business, Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 111-129. Evans, M., 2003 “The Relational Oxymoron and Personal Pragmatism”, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol.20, no. 7, pp. 665-685. Fan, Y, 2005, “Ethical branding and corporate reputation, Corporate Communications”, An International Journal. Vol.10, no. 4, pp.341-350. Frean, A. August 2009, McDonald’s sales driven by French hunger. The Times, Available from: [16 September, 2013]. Freeman, L. & Peace, G. 2004, Information Ethics: Privacy and Intellectual Property. Hersey, Pennsylvania: Information Science Publishing. ISBN 1-59140-491-6. Lynch, W. T. & Kline, R. 2000, ‘Engineering Practice and Engineering Ethics’, Science, Technology and Human Values, Vol.25, no.2, pp.195–225. Madhu, P., 2010, “Business Ethics: Should it Remain an Oxymoron?” MES Journal of Technology and Management, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 83-98. Miller S. 2010, The moral foundations of social institutions: A philosophical study. New York: Cambridge University Press. Nichols, S. & Joshua K. 2007. "Moral Responsibility and Determinism: The Cognitive Science of Folk Intuitions". Noûs Journal, Vol.41, no.4, pp. 663–685. Schmidt, D., 2008 Isn't Business Ethics An Oxymoron. Inc. Available from: [16 September 2013]. Weiss, J. W. 2009. Business Ethics: A Stakeholder and Issues Management Approach With Cases (5th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning. Read More