Richard T.

DeGeorge

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Ethics and Business

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Chapter Overview

Business is an important part of contemporary society and it involves all of us, in one way or another. Business is not something separate from society or imposed on itit is an integral part of society. Morality consists of rules of human behavior and specifies that certain actions are wrong or immoral and that others are right or moral. Because business activity is human activity, it can be evaluated from the moral point of view, just as any other human activity can be so evaluated.
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What Is Business Ethics?

The term business ethics is used in several different senses

(1) ethics in business (2) business ethics as a movement

(3) and business ethics as part of the

general field of ethics.

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What Is the Aim of Business Ethics?

It is neither defense of the status quo nor its radical change. Rather, it should serve to remedy those aspects or structures that need to change, and it should protect those that are moral.

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The Myth of Amoral Business

Expresses the ambivalence of many toward business and a popular, widespread view of American Business. The myth has several variations:
Business is amoral insofar as ethical

considerations are inappropriate to business, because business is business. Ethical language is simply not the language of business Many businesses act unethically not because of a desire to do evil, but simply because they want to make a profit and therefore disregard some of the consequences of their actions.
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The Breakdown of the Myth of Amoral Business

1. By the reporting of scandals and the concomitant public reaction to these reports; 2. By the formation of popular groups such as the environmentalists and the consumerists; 3. By the concern of business in ethics, as expressed in conferences, magazine and newspaper articles, and the burgeoning of corporate codes of ethical conduct and of ethics programs.
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The Relation Of Business And Morality

The business of business The moral background of business The changing mandate for business

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The Business of Business

What is considered to be business and its business varies from society to society. Defining business per se and its proper concern is a social question that must be answered in a social context. The limits and demands imposed on business by society are frequently moral ones.

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The Moral Background of Business

Morality consists of rules of human behavior and specifies that certain actions are wrong or immoral and that others are right or moral. Because most businesses value their reputations, we do not really live in a dog-eat-dog business world. It is because the ordinary person does not need to be told that lying and stealing are wrong that they form part of the background of business. The limits set by society on business are often moral, but they are also frequently written into law. The retreat to law as the sole norm by which to guide business is in part a reflection of the fact that most managers do not know how to handle many moral issues in business.
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The Changing Mandate for Business

The social mandate to business is not only given in law. Today the mandate to business is more complex. Corporations are asked to consider the impact of their decisions and actions on the environment, the public, and the common good. Business must consider what structures promote moral responsibility and facilitate the weighing of moral and other values.

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BUSINESS ETHICS AND ETHICS

The term business ethics is used in three different senses:

ethics in business business ethics as a movement

business ethics as part of the general field of

ethics.

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Ethics Studies Morality

Morality is a term used to cover those practices and activities that are considered importantly right and wrong; the rules that govern those activities; and the values that are embedded, fostered, or pursued by those activities and practices. Ethics is a systematic attempt to make sense of our individual and social moral experience, in such a way as to determine the rules that ought to govern human conduct, the values worth pursuing, and the character traits deserving development in life.

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General Ethics
Descriptive ethics is closely related to anthropology, sociology, and psychology Normative ethics builds on the whole that descriptive ethics provides and attempts to supply and justify a coherent moral system based on it Metaethics is the study of normative ethics, and, to some extent, both normative and descriptive ethics involve some metaethical activity

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Special Ethics
Causitry is the art of solving difficult moral problems, cases, or dilemmas through careful application of moral principles. Applying general ethics to specialized fields yields business ethics, medical ethics, engineering ethics, professional ethics, etc.

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Definition of Business and Business Ethics

Business includes any and all economic transactions between individuals, between individuals and profit-making organizations, and between profit-making organizations and other such organizations. Business ethics as a field is defined by the interaction of ethics and business

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Business Ethics Involves 5 Activities

The application of general ethics principles to particular cases or practices in business. 2. The second is metaethical: whether moral terms that are generally used to describe individuals and the actions they perform can also be applied to organizations, corporations, businesses, and other collective entities. 3. The analysis of the presuppositions of businessboth moral presuppositions and presuppositions from a moral point of view.
1.
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Business Ethics Involves 5 Activities, continued

4.

5.

Fourth, those in business ethics are sometimes led by embedded problems to go beyond the field of ethics into other areas of philosophy and into other domains of knowledge, such as economics and organization theory. The fifth activity in which business ethics is typically involved is describing morally praiseworthy and exemplary actions, of either individuals in business or particular firms.
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