The government can use different strategies in ensuring and promoting ethical business.

There

are various ways on how the government can ensure and promote ethical business.

Government should regularly review legislation pertaining to weights and measures and assess

the adequacy of the machinery for its enforcement. Government should encourage and ensure

the availability of facilities to test and certify the safety, quality and performance of essential

consumer goods and services.

An example of a case study is when the government of Zimbabwe through The Standards

Association of Zimbabwe compiled a draft report on findings from stakeholder consultations

that will guide crafting of legislation requiring compulsory testing of all products for quality.

SAZ has tried to expedite crafting of the legislation to compel the compulsory testing of

products for quality, which must meet minimum standards, to curtail the influx of counterfeit

products on the market. The initiative comes at a time when Zimbabwe has become almost a

net importer of goods because industry has been operating well below par due to lack of capital.

Zimbabwe is receiving quite a number of goods from outside, the issue of consumer protection

becomes of paramount importance.

The government has to ensure hazard warning and recall. Government should where

appropriate, adopt policies under which, if a product is found to be seriously defective or

constitute a substantial and severe hazard, manufacturers and distributors should recall it and

replace or substitute another product for it. If it is not possible to do this within a reasonable

period of time, then the consumer should be adequately compensated.

This can be illustrated by a case study when the government of Zimbabwe recently banned

importation of cold meats into the country mainly from South Africa following an outbreak of

a bacteria, Listeria, which causes food borne disease. It is said it violates the country’s health

standards, and it was removed from all shop shelves.

The government can also use incentive role. It needs to encourage ethical behaviour by

incentivizing it with tax breaks, or by imposing surcharges on companies with high levels of

emissions. "Green companies" that adhere to environmentally friendly practices and

demonstrate green awareness should be encouraged to do so and rewarded by government as

part of its environmental policy. If companies are financially penalized for wasting energy or

for improper waste disposal, they are less likely to engage in these practices.

There is also need to ensure consumers satisfaction. Government should adopt or maintain

policies that make clear the responsibility of the producer to ensure that goods meet reasonable

demands of durability, utility and reliability and are suited to the purpose for which they are

intended, and that the seller should see that these requirements are met. Similar policies should

apply to the provision of services.

The government should ensure fair contract deals. Consumer should be protected from such

contractual abuses that are one-sided standard contracts. This includes exclusion of essential

rights in contracts and unconscionable conditions of credit by sellers.

Government also should encourage fair and effective competition in order to provide

consumers with the greatest range of choice among products and services at the lowest cost. It

should also where appropriate see to it that manufacturers and/or retailers ensure adequate

availability of reliable after-sales service and spare parts

Government must establish or maintains legal and/or administrative measures to enable

consumers or, as appropriate, relevant organisations, to obtain redress through formal or

informal procedures that are expeditious, fair, inexpensive and accessible. Such procedures

should take particular account of the needs of low income consumers.

Product safety need to be ensured. Government adopts or encourages the adoption of

appropriate measures, including legal systems, safety regulations, national or international

standards, voluntary standards and the maintenance of safety records to ensure that products

are safe for either intended or normally foreseeable use.

The government has a supervisory role in the field of business ethics. Anti-competitive

behaviour can occur when large organizations merge or are taken over, and when a large

organization has a very substantial market share or a monopoly, there is always the temptation

for it to act in an unethical manner, which will be detrimental to the public.

Some degree of legislation is necessary to ensure that businesses comply with their ethical

obligations and the public does not suffer as a result of dishonest business practices. Rules aim

to prevent the practice of bribing planning authorities to circumvent planning and zoning laws,

for example. Many unethical businesses have engaged in such practices, and without explicit

laws restricting cheating, small businesses that do not engage in illegal activities would be

placed at a competitive disadvantage

The legal environment of business consists of the laws and regulations that have been passed

to prevent unethical business activities from occurring when free markets cannot. Four main

types of laws affecting business commerce are antitrust laws, consumer protection laws,

environmental laws, and laws relating to the public interest. Several types of laws have been

passed to prevent unethical practices related to business occupations: laws regulating

occupational qualifications, laws governing business diversity, and laws promoting employee

health and safety.

The major problem for implementing effective Codes of Ethics remains that no law or Code

will be of much value if individuals lack the technical competence to recognize an ethics

problem for what it is, or if they do not know what standards their organization expects of them,

or (worst of all), if they consider it to be not in their interests, personally or professionally, to

take a stand for integrity and against corruption.