Business ethics First class

Reasons for rise of interest in Business ethics Through the media the public are becoming increasingly aware of some scandals in business world and some disasters which appear to result from too little regard to morality.

The fact that management is required to define procedures and codify them meticulously is an appropriate cue for introduction of codes of practice.

The history of business ethics In the medieval period the catholic church defined pieces of canon law which prescribe clearly what was legitimate behavior in certain fields in business world e.g just wages and prices.

Islam insists that monies are not lent with the purpose of attracting unearned interest (or usury); any loan must share risk and possible profit with the borrower

Buddha in his teaching on the way to nirvana are three points : perfect speech, perfect action and perfect livelihood. This means one cannot earn his living by deception, or by misappropriation of goods or trading in intoxicants.

Eclipse of Business Ethics It’s a matter of conjecture Its said its is connected with the rise of protestant reformation which paralleled with the rise of modern capitalism. The protestant churches were not prone to giving official pronouncements about the nature of morality or how one should conduct ones affairs in public , thus leaving moral decisions to the individual choice.

The vacuum in regulation of ones conduct by church law naturally led men (the seller of goods and services or labor to want to exact as high price as possible and for the buyer to pay as little as possible)

Even if at present there were little evidence of ethical business people, we can still try to define what it would be like if those in business world were to act ethically.

Value of BE as a field of study Its value lies in being able to identify the salient issues in controversies surrounding BE and to understand the main arguments in favor of various stances which it is possible to take a considered decision on ethical matters.

Business Ethics: Its scope and purpose Second class

What is BE? Its peculiarly concerned with moral issues in business. With the complex subject that is BE, definition is also hard but we can arrive at one by looking at the moral issues in business it raises, and critically examining the various proposals for solving them.

Ethical questions are essentially questions about whether we ought or ought not to perform certain kinds of actions; about whether those actions are good or bad, right or wrong, virtuous or vicious, worthy of praise or blame, reward or punishment etc.