US legal system and business law - Essay Example

Ethics are sometimes hard for individual people to grasp, but when we look at controlling the ethics of whole companies, the lines between money making and duty to ethics and principle sometimes become a little more grey. It seems sometimes the companies do not realize the lines they are crossing, or simply don't care. However, in the eyes of the public this bides horribly, as the ever watching eye of the public often keeps its stare gazed into what business are doing. And when business cross that scared line, people tend to let them know that very well.

One example that almost everybody knows about is the infamous Enron scandal. No company in recent news has become better known for corruption, and the crossing of the laws, ethics, and social responsibility of the business. The Enron scandal not only broke the law, and was ethically immoral, but it also broke the responsibility the business had to its people, and this may have been what caused the most angered backlash against the company. Once the company stepped across this line of morality and broke the trust the public has to the business, it was all down hill for the people involved with the Enron scandal.

This is also perhaps why the Enron name has become connected with the very idea of corporate corruption and scandal, and has become one of the prime examples of unethical business practice in recent times. Another company that has been in the news recently for crossing that ethical barrier is Wal-Mart. However, instead of being under fire for other practices, Wal-Mart has recently taken fire from the women of the world. Wal-Mart has been sued for being sexist in pay and in opportunity, and this is a social and ethical barrier that the public does not like to see crossed.

When a company discriminates against sex, or against anything for that matter, this really crosses the ethical standards and social responsibility the public holds a company to. This can cause massive problems for the company, as bad press is the least of their worries. A customer does not want to deal with a sexist company, and may boycott their services if they feel strongly enough about the corruption and unfairness of the company's practices. And by discriminating against women, Wal-Mart not only crossed the lines of ethical practice, legal requirements, but also broke the most important thing a business ever could-their social responsibility to the people they provide services for.

And breaking that trust is not an easy thing for a business to fix, especially once it has become labeled as a breaker of that social law. Another company that is often under fire is Take Two. This is the company behind the popular Grand Theft Auto video game series. This company is often under fire for marketing adult games to children, a claim they avidly deny. However, recently, another scandal has come out of the house that Grand Theft Auto built. Recently finical scandal led to the resignation of the company's CEO, who was fined 10 million dollars for accounting issues, which also led to Take Two having to restate eight years of their finical records.

This is just another example of a company putting "money before ethics", and putting the power of the all mighty dollar before their ethical responsibilities. Take Two is alike many other companies who put money before ethics, and break the law and the ethical rules that are supposed to be governing business. Oddly enough for Take Two however, even amiss this scandal, investment in the company has only risen, showing that maybe even the ethics of the consumers and investors are changing as well.

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0501-02.htm http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinvestor/industry/2007-04-10-tech-ethics_N.htm