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Ethics plays an increasingly important role in business today. Companies do not operate in a vacuum, but are part of society. Just as society expects a certain standard of behavior from individuals, it also expects businesses to abide by similar standards. Business ethics is the behavior that a business adheres to in its daily dealings with the world. The ethics of a particular business can be diverse. They apply not only to how the business interacts with the world at large, but also to their one-on-one dealings with a single customer.
Many businesses such as Tenet Healthcare, HCA Healthcare formerly known as Columbia have gained a bad reputation just by being in business. To a lot of people, businesses are interested in making money, and that is the bottom line. It could be called capitalism in its purest form. There is nothing wrong with making money in itself, however; it is the manner in which some businesses conduct themselves that brings up the question of ethical behavior.
Good business ethics should be a part of every business, no matter the size of the corporation. They should consider many factors which can rise as ethical issues. These issues are but not limited to: Ethical issues arising from the nature of markets, ethical issues and society such as Involvement in the community, honesty, truthfulness and fairness in marketing. Ethical issues arising from internal and industry practices a few examples would be: Treatment of customers - e.g. honoring the spirit as well as the letter of the law in respect to warranties and after sales service. They should also consider the organization's loyalty to employees when it is in difficult economic condition, employment of disabled people and working conditions and treatment of workers. Lastly the other factor to consider is the unethical practices relating to products such as selling goods abroad which are banned at home. Omitting to provide information on side effects, unsafe products, built in obsolescence, wasteful and unnecessary packaging, deception on size and content and bribes to secure contracts (Riley, 2006) .
It has been said that values, morals and ethics are inextricably tied together (Benefiel, 2002) . Values are what we learn from childhood; the 'stuff' we absorb from our parents and immediate surroundings. Morals are the intrinsic beliefs developed from the value systems of how we 'should' behave in any given situation. Ethics, on the other hand, are how we actually do behave in the face of difficult situations that test our moral fiber. Personally, when I look at how a lot of businesses such as WorldCom, Tenet Healthcare interact in unethical manners to defraud the public and the government it makes less trusting. Expressing my personal grasp of ethics and life may not always be understood in the context of the world at large.
When it comes to personal ethics, and when it comes to bad behavior there's an intrinsic link between embezzling, on one hand, and marital infidelity, public drunkenness, traffic tickets, fighting, vandalism and not paying one's personal bills, on the other. "All these things involve breaking the rules, and they're all motivated by hostility toward or disregard for authority." If I were the owner of a company, I would set the standards very high. For example if would terminate a CEO if he was caught cheating on his/her spouse because, "if you're going to cheat on your spouse, who are you not going to cheat on?" Some people might say work is work and personal is personal and I should not compare the two, however; I think that with good moral values comes good ethical judgment.
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