Introduction
Ethics can be described as the standards that govern decent and acceptable behavior. Business ethics is a kind of specialized or applied ethics, which assesses ethical standards and moral issues that emerge in a business setting. Business ethics relates to all facets of business and it is also significant to the behavior of people and the organization at large.
Business ethics focuses on new or controversial trends and aspects that the society and business approve. It illustrates business philosophy, which aims at actualizing the basic goals of business. Specific business ethics varies and applies to interaction with customers and the society at large. Business ethics characteristically involves five types of activities. This paper sets to examine and detail each of these activities.
Activities of Business Ethics
A typical activity of business ethics includes the effective employment of universal ethical principles to specific activities and instances in business. This is made possible by adequate understanding of universal ethical standards, ability to recognize how universal ethical standards are applied in the business environment, knowledge and understanding of principal controversial matters in business ethics, and examine the advantages and disadvantages of controversial business choice and conclusions from an ethical point of view.
The attempt to analytically examine normative ethics is also an activity of business ethics. Normative ethics develops the provision of descriptive ethics and also makes efforts to provide and defend a comprehensible moral system grounded on it. Descriptive ethics involves the study and description of the society, individuals or culture morality, relates and compares the distinct ethical systems, as well as beliefs and codes, and makes available essential materials that normative ethics is responsible for.
Metaethics – the investigation of the meaning and origination of ethical principles is a typical activity of business ethics. This activity of business ethics centers on what moral terms actually mean, it analyzes the sense of moral reasoning, and investigates obscured presuppositions and presents them for intense examination.
Another activity of ethical business is the examination of business presuppositions. Business ethics set to critically identify and analyze presuppositions of business.
Minimizing moral difficulties to organizational or managerial problems from time to time is another typical activity that business ethics undertakes. Several ethical issues exist. An example is the behavior of current broker causing financial crisis. Business ethics deals with the occasional reduction of such moral problems to organizational problems.
Finally, the activity of identifying and describing commendable moral practices and actions of business organizations and individuals is another involvement of business ethics.
Conclusion
Business ethics is the critical and organized assessment of individuals’ and organization’s behavior in the business environment. Business ethics relates to all facets of business and it is also significant to the behavior of people and the organization at large. Business ethics characteristically involves five types of activities. These activities have been identified as:
- Employment of universal ethical standards to specific business practices and instances.
- Metaethics – investigation into the meaning and origination of ethical principles is a typical activity of business ethics.
- Critical examination of business presuppositions.
- Minimizing moral issues and difficulties to economic or managerial issues, from time to time.
- Identifying and describing laudable and standard moral practices of business and individuals in the business environment.