Debating ethical behavior in a commercial culture - Research Paper Example

Today’s business practices show that we have forgotten how to deal fairly in our business dealings and other life situations. The only thing we care about is what is illegal. Even the current system has altered many unethical situations to be presented as what is legal. Now, everyone works in the scope of what is law. There is no more concern for what is true; people are trying to fit their deeds in the ‘unknowingly false’ bracket. (Bruce Frohnen, 2002) This behavior is shown because of the lack of embedding ethical practices in early childhood as well.

It is also observed that children at young age, even the college going students are not taught the moral values. These values are engraved into every person by emphasizing on religious beliefs, family values, practicing what you preach and seeing everything in the law’s context as well. According to a research conducted by Sociologist Raymond Baumhart, people are not even sure what ethics is. They either relate it with what is law or religion, or with personal beliefs of right or wrong. Many people are not even interested in knowing the word’s meaning.

(Balasudram Maniam, 2005) According to a survey cited in The Wall Street Journal, “79% of young Americans believe that there are no absolute standards in ethics.” Honest and fair business dealing do not have any value in people’s mind. . Most of these toys by no mean teach good things to kids. Some toys preach them to use more and more cosmetics, whereas some represent cartoon characters that are violent. There have been many laws to protect children from harmful toys that have hazardous material, but there are a very few laws to protect the psychological health of these children, who at this age adapt everything that they experience.

(CROSS, 2007) A normal corporate professional is unaware of the basic traits of ethics that should be practiced. These traits include Attendance, Communication, Productivity, Team work, Appearance, Respect, Character and Organization. Ethics is not only related to a person following the honest path in the world, it also ensures the wellbeing of person and organizations. There have been many instances of organizations failing due to unethical practices. The two most evident examples in the history of American business are- Enron & Worldcom.

These names are famous for succeeding in the history, but for showing extremely unethical practices. Enron involved complex transactions that led to the insiders enjoy huge profits, without having to pay for any associated financial liabilities. World Call’s bookkeepers dealt with utter smartness or can say evilness by accounting everyday spending as expenditures for ‘capital assets’. This simple adjustment, overstated the income greatly because what was to be deducted 100% from the income right away, was spread over the life of the assets.

In this case, even the stationary was treated as a capital asset of the business. This unethical practice was done by knowing that by the time the future income would be reduced in the long run, they would all be dead. (InfoCenter, 2007) These examples show the least amount of concern for the