ARAGON, KRYSTAL GAYLE O.

BUSINESS ETHICS

Business Ethics – Definition

There are many definitions of business ethics, but the ones given by Andrew Crane and
Raymond C. Baumhart are considered the most appropriate ones.

According to Crane, "Business ethics is the study of business situations, activities, and
decisions where issues of right and wrong are addressed."

Baumhart defines, "The ethics of business is the ethics of responsibility. The business
man must promise that he will not harm knowingly."

Features of Business Ethics

There are eight major features of business ethics −

1. Code of Conduct − Business ethics is actually a form of codes of conduct. It lets us

know what to do and what not to do. Businesses must follow this code of conduct.

2. Based on Moral and Social Values − Business ethics is a subject that is based on moral
and social values. It offers some moral and social principles (rules) for conducting a
business.

3. Protection to Social Groups − Business ethics protect various social groups including
consumers, employees, small businesspersons, government, shareholders, creditors, etc.

4. Offers a Basic Framework − Business ethics is the basic framework for doing business
properly. It constructs the social, cultural, legal, economic, and other limits in which a
business must operate.

5. Voluntary − Business ethics is meant to be voluntary. It should be self-practiced and

must not be enforced by law.

6. Requires Education & Guidance − Businessmen should get proper education and
guidance about business ethics. Trade Associations and Chambers of Commerce should
be active enough in this matter.

7. Relative Term − Business ethics is a relative term. It changes from one business to
another and from one country to another.

8. New Concept − Business ethics is a relatively newer concept. Developed countries have
more exposure to business ethics, while poor and developing countries are relatively
backward in applying the principles of business ethics.

Principles of Business Ethics

The principles of business ethics are related to social groups that comprise of consumers,
employees, investors, and the local community.
The important rules or principles of business ethics are as follows −

1. Avoid Exploitation of Consumers − Do not cheat and exploit consumer with measures
such as artificial price rise and adulteration.

2. Avoid Profiteering − Unscrupulous business activities such as hoarding, black-

marketing, selling banned or harmful goods to earn exorbitant profits must be avoided.
3. Encourage Healthy Competition − A healthy competitive atmosphere that offers certain
benefits to the consumers must be encouraged.

4. Ensure Accuracy − Accuracy in weighing, packaging and quality of supplying goods to

the consumers has to be followed.

5. Pay Taxes Regularly − Taxes and other duties to the government must be honestly and
regularly paid.

6. Get the Accounts Audited − Proper business records, accounts must be managed. All
authorized persons and authorities should have access to these details.

7. Fair Treatment to Employees − Fair wages or salaries, facilities and incentives must be
provided to the employees.

8. Keep the Investors Informed − The shareholders and investors must know about the
financial and other important decisions of the company.

9. Avoid Injustice and Discrimination − Avoid all types of injustice and partiality to
employees. Discrimination based on gender, race, religion, language, nationality, etc.
should be avoided.

10. No Bribe and Corruption − Do not give expensive gifts, commissions and payoffs to
people having influence.

11. Discourage Secret Agreement − Making secret agreements with other business people
to influence production, distribution, pricing etc. are unethical.

12. Service before Profit − Accept the principle of "service first and profit next."

13. Practice Fair Business − Businesses should be fair, humane, efficient and dynamic to
offer certain benefits to consumers.

14. Avoid Monopoly − No private monopolies and concentration of economic power should
be practiced.

15. Fulfill Customers’ Expectations − Adjust your business activities as per the demands,
needs and expectations of the customers.

16. Respect Consumers Rights − Honor the basic rights of the consumers.

17. Accept Social Responsibilities − Honor responsibilities towards the society.

18. Satisfy Consumers’ Wants − Satisfy the wants of the consumers as the main objective of
the business is to satisfy the consumer’s wants. All business operations must have this
aim.

19. Service Motive − Service and consumer's satisfaction should get more attention than
profit-maximization.

20. Optimum Utilization of Resources − Ensure optimum utilization of resources to remove

poverty and to increase the standard of living of people.

21. Intentions of Business − Use permitted legal and sacred means to do business. Avoid
Illegal, unscrupulous and evil means.
 22. Follow Woodrow Wilson's rules − There are four important principles of business
ethics. These four rules are as follows −

23. Rule of publicity − According to this principle, the business must tell the people clearly,
what it tends to do.

24. Rule of equivalent price − The customer should get proper value for their money. Below
standard, outdated and inferior goods should not be sold at high prices.

25. Rule of conscience in business − The businesspersons must have conscience while doing
business, i.e. a morale sense of judging what is right and what is wrong.

26. Rule of spirit of service − The business must give importance to the service motive.

COMPUTER ETHICS

Computer ethics is a branch of applied ethics that considers ethical issues raised or
significantly amplified by computer technology. The field is sometimes referred to by other
terms such as "cyberethics," "information ethics," "information communications technology
ethics," "global information ethics," and "Internet ethics." But, whatever the field is called, the
computer remains the essential technological feature. Although some computing technology, for
example the abacus, is centuries old, computer ethics has developed as a philosophical field with
the advent of modern, digital, electronic computing. Modern computing technology, which
includes hardware, software, and networks, is highly flexible and powerful. Computers can be
programmed and in some cases trained to perform a wide range of functions. Because of this
logical malleability computers carry out numerous and diverse applications in society. Computer
chips are ubiquitous. They are embedded in everyday items such as cars and clothing, toys and
tools, and pets and people.

Communication that depends upon computer technology has grown dramatically through
widespread use of the cell phones, global positioning systems, and the Internet. In the early
twenty-first century, people in developed countries live in computationally revolutionized and
informationally enriched environments. Because computing has become so integrated in society,
computer ethics has expanded dramatically to issues involving most activities within society
including education, law, business, government, and the military. Through its extensive growth
computer ethics is a field of applied ethics that intersects and affects virtually all other branches
of applied ethics.

Computer ethics is interesting philosophically, not merely because computing technology

is widely used, but because the application of computing technology raises intriguing conceptual
issues and serious ethical problems for society. This happens frequently because computers are
logically malleable and can be configured to perform old tasks in new ways and to accomplish
strikingly new tasks. When computing technology is deployed in novel ways, ethical guidelines
for its use are frequently unclear or nonexistent. This creates policy vacuums that may be
accompanied by conceptual confusions about how to understand the computerized situation
adequately. Hence, computer ethics typically demands doing more than routinely applying
ethical principles to ethical issues in computing. Rather computer ethics requires an analysis of
the nature and impact of the computing technology and the corresponding formulation and
justification of policies for the ethical use of such technology. Listing all of the subject matter of
computer ethics would be difficult as the field continues to expand as the application of
computing grows, but broadly speaking traditional areas of investigation and analysis include
privacy, property, power, security, and professionalism.

Because computers rapidly store and search vast amounts of information, privacy has
been an ongoing concern of computer ethics. Personal information in medical documents,
criminal records, and credit histories is easily retrieved and transmitted to others electronically,
and as a result individuals are vulnerable to the improper disclosure of sensitive information and
to the introduction of unknown errors into their records. The threat to privacy has been
increasing in part because computing technology enables an enormous amount of information
gathering to occur in subtle and undetectable ways. Internet stores track purchases of individuals
and place cookies on personal computers inconspicuously. Computerized cameras in satellites,
public places, private establishments, and personal cell phones record without notice. Computers
utilizing global-positioning satellites routinely track locations of vehicles. Spyware installed on
computers surreptitiously surveils the computing activities of unsuspecting users. In general,
personal information can be collected from many sources and potentially assembled in databases
that can be further merged, matched, and mined to construct profiles of the lives of individuals.
Many fear that the widespread use of computers to collect information is creating a panopticon
society in which too many details of individual lives are known by others, leaving people with
dramatically reduced levels of privacy. Philosophical analyses of the nature of privacy, the
policies to protect privacy, and the justifications for privacy are more important than ever.

Property is also a major issue within computer ethics. This has become increasingly
important because of the significant growth in hardware and software and the computerization of
many popular products including art, photos, music, movies, and games that are produced,
transmitted, and portrayed using a digital format. Because digital information can be copied so
easily and accurately, the extent to which digital products should be owned and protected is
heavily debated. Some libertarians on this issue argue that "information wants to be free" and
that traditional intellectual property restrictions should not apply. For instance, those in the open
source software movement advocate licensing that permits the free redistribution of software and
requires accessibility to a program's source code so that it can be tested and improved by others.
Those who advocate the ownership of intellectual digital property argue that with ownership
comes pride and profit incentive that will generate digital products that otherwise would never be
produced.

Debates over the rights of ownership raise many difficult philosophical issues. What is it
that is owned and how should it be protected? A computer disk itself does not have much value;
it is the information on the disk that matters. Information seems to be nothing more than an idea
and ideas are not normally given intellectual property protection. As an example, consider again
computer programs. Computer programs are algorithmic and hence mathematical in nature. This
suggests that computer programs, like the Pythagorean theorem, should not be owned at all.
However, computer programs generally are fixed in a tangible medium and are lengthy, original
human expressions. As such they are appropriately covered by copyright protection. Yet, in their
operation on machines computer programs are often novel, useful, nonobvious processes and
hence are properly patentable. How, or even whether, computer programs should be protected
depends largely on one's philosophical analysis of the nature of computer programs and on a
justification of protecting intellectual property.

The basic philosophical issues of computerized property extend well beyond computer
programs to every product in digital form. A movie that costs millions of dollars to make can be
copied at no significant cost. If a movie is copied illegally using the Internet, to what extent
should various contributors be held accountable—the person downloading the copy, the person
who maintains a directory on the Internet informing people where copies are located, the person
who makes a digital version available for others to copy, the company that makes the software
specifically designed to copy movies easily over the Internet, or the Internet service provider?

Computers can create and shift relationships of power. Because computers allow
individuals to perform tasks more easily and to accomplish some activities that they could never
do without them, those who have access to computers have access to power. As a consequence,
an obvious social concern is the disparity in advantage of those who have access to computing,
for example in school, over those who do not. Unequal distribution of power may require ethical
countermeasures to ensure fairness. To what extent, for example, should disabled citizens be
assured of equal access to computing technology? To some degree the Internet has helped to
correct this imbalance of power and even shift power toward the individual. For a modest fee
individuals can advertise personal items for sale on the Web to a large audience. Politicians who
are not well connected to an established political group can run an Internet campaign to express
their ideas and to solicit funds. Independent hotel operators can unite through an Internet
reservation service to compete with the larger hotel chains.

But the Internet's ability to shift power to the individual allows one person to solicit
children to arrange illicit sexual encounters, to send spam e-mails to millions of people, and to
spread viruses and worms. Moreover, Internet power shifts can sometimes result in making the
strong even stronger. Large corporations can outsource jobs to cheaper labor markets and
dominant militaries can enhance their capabilities with computerized communication and
weapons. These power shifts raise philosophical questions about what the new relationships
should be One of the most important power questions is who should govern the Internet itself.

The issue of rights and responsibilities of individuals on the Internet is complex because
the Internet that supports the Web is worldwide. Different countries have different laws and
customs and therefore have different concerns about the Web. Any given country may have great
difficulty enforcing its concerns with information coming and going beyond its borders.
Consider differences with regard to free speech as just one example. France and Germany have
been concerned about prohibiting hate speech. China has targeted political speech. In the United
States the focus has been largely on controlling pornography over the Internet. Even within a
country's borders free speech often raises perplexing conceptual issues. For instance, should
pornography that utilizes virtual children be regulated differently than pornography displaying
actual children? But, even assuming agreement on the law, how does a country stop or punish a
violator of free speech on the Internet who is located in some remote location in the world?
Should the law be change to accommodate the realities of the Internet?

Not surprisingly security is as a fundamental problem on the Internet. Computer users can
act from a distance over networks and thereby can accomplish goals without being observed.
Hackers can break into computers and remove or alter data without being detected. Ordinary
citizens can use tools on the Web to gather information from public documents in order to steal
the identities of others. Terrorists can disrupt entire networks that control vital resources such as
the electric power grid. The lack of security on the Internet is reminiscent of Plato's story of the
ring of Gyges that allowed a shepherd to act invisibly. Plato posed the question, Why should
someone be just if he can get away with being unjust? Plato's question is not just an abstract
theoretical issue given the availability of current computer technology. If an Internet user can act
unjustly and get away with it, why should he or she not do it?

Many people who design and operate computing systems regard themselves as
computing professionals. But, given that anyone, regardless of educational background, can be
hired to do computing, what does it mean to claim that someone is a computing professional? To
what standards, including ethical standards, should computing professionals adhere? Although
several codes of ethics have been offered to clarify what duties and responsibilities computer
professionals have, professional responsibility has been difficult to establish for at least two
reasons. First, unlike medicine and law, the field does not have a tradition of professional
qualifying examinations and licensing, and therefore enforcement of any code of ethics is
difficult. Second, the nature of computing itself makes the assessment of responsibility difficult.
Computer programs are often enormously complex, written by dozens of people, and
incomprehensible to any one person. Moreover, such large computer programs are brittle in that
a tiny, obscure error can shatter the performance of the entire system under certain conditions. To
what extent should computing professionals be regarded as liable when such difficult to predict
errors lead to major failures or even catastrophic results?

Although traditionally computer ethics has focused on the ethics of computing situations,
a philosophically rich part of the field is computational ethics that considers the impact
computing has or theoretically may have on ethics itself. Philosophical issues in this area include
questions such as: In what ways can ethical decision making be properly assisted by
computational methods? In principle, could a computer ever make appropriate ethical decisions?
Could computer implants in humans enhance and possibly alter human values? And, could a
computer, or perhaps a robot, ever have rights or moral responsibilities?