Virtues and values are important in business and our everyday lives. In business, it is stated that good ethics is good business (“Business ethics: a stakeholders” 18). In our personal lives, ethics enable us to be people of integrity and character. The values that have enabled me to be the person that I am today include integrity, honesty and loyalty. I like integrity because I think that it is important to stand for what I believe in so that I cannot be corrupted by situations and temptations of life.
It is integrity that enables me to refuse taking bribes and short cuts to success. Honesty has enabled me to build trust amongst my colleagues and clients since they know that I do not make misleading statements. As for loyalty, I am always faithful to deliver results when I get into commitments or contracts.
Ethics is important in business because we are all stakeholders when it comes to the well-being of organizations. Both buyers and sellers combined have vested interests in business activities. Ethics enable these parties to uphold morals and virtues which bring about successful interaction and conclusion of transactions. If it was not for ethics, then sellers would advertise false services and offer faulty products to unsuspecting buyers.
Buyers would on the other hand fail to honour invoices and credit services offered to them. My personal values are in line with ethical frameworks because integrity, honesty and loyalty are virtues that if practiced by stakeholders will bring about good relations. This is in accordance to the utilitarian ethics framework which weighs values in terms of their usefulness. It is the right of buyers to receive quality products and services from sellers and so honoring contracts is just.
My values would come in hand in the pre crisis through resolution model which Weiss came up with (“Business Ethics” 62). An ethical dilemma is always whether to risk losing a client by telling the truth when there is a problem in honoring the contract. In business, many are the times when law suits arise because of the inability of a stakeholder to fulfill his/her role in a contract. In some cases, the bridge of the contract is due to explainable circumstances such as power outages, accidents or other emergencies.
In such cases, honesty would have enabled the troubled stakeholder to explain to the affected party so as to avoid confrontations. In a situation where the seller is unable to deliver goods on time because the delivery vehicle is not operational, it would be ethical to communicate to the client instead of lying and trying to go round looking for alternative cheap transport as time elapses. Honesty, loyalty and integrity would enable the company avoid confrontations with the client and ensure that the contract is honored.
In the event that there is a crisis, it can be evaluated if the company or employees responded to signs of there being a problem (pre-dormal/ pre crisis stage). But if the crisis is already evident, integrity, honesty and loyalty can help overcome it by winning more time and the trust of other stakeholders (acute stage). In the chronic stage, the company can work to resolve the problem since it is already known to the client that there is a crisis and their patience is won by the display of integrity and loyalty to honour the contract. Afterwards, how the crisis was resolved should be evaluated so that it is applied in future cases (resolve stage).
Works Cited
Weiss, Joseph W. Business Ethics. Mason, OH: South-Western/Thomson, 2003. Print
Weiss, Joseph W. Business ethics: a stakeholders and issues management approach. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning, 2009. Web.