The moral is the thing that distinguishes human beings from animals. With the development of society, people created new principles, whose main aim was to control the behavior of a person in society and coordinate his actions. That is why it is not surprising that the issue of morals has a great influence on the world of business. To understand the peculiarities of this influence better, it is possible to analyze three different ethical theories and their influence on the business world.
The first theory is psychological egoism. It states that all actions of a human being are selfishly motivated (Fieser, & Moseley, 2012). People, resting on this principle, will run their business having the only aim to become rich and independent. Services provided will be aimed at guaranteeing a great income for the owner, not taking into account the needs and possibilities of the rest of the people. Moreover, the attitude to workers will be based on the same principle. They should just bring money, without being supplied with good conditions of work.
The next theory is different from the previous one. It is called a virtue theory. According to it, to be a good person a man should develop his virtuous qualities. That is why it is possible to suggest that this approach to business will be based on principles of loyalty and tolerance. Attitude to workers and customers will be humane and aimed at creating a good image of the owner of a business.
The last theory has something common with the previous one. It is called utilitarianism and it is based on the idea the things are good if they are made to bring happiness to other people (Fieser, & Moseley, 2012). That is why, it is even possible to suggest, that this theory could be combined with the previous one to create the most moral approach to running a business. Moreover, there is no use denying the fact, that this approach will be the most popular among people, both customers and workers, as it will take into account all their needs.
However, some corporations may act unethically. In this case, some punishments are created to control the behavior of different business organizations (Business ethics and corporate social responsibility, n.d.). The most common punishment is fine. It is imposed to prevent the further repetition of the same unethical action. Moreover, there is also the practice of corporate shaming. It means that a company should announce its wrongful actions in public, which can lead to a decrease in the level of trust in this company. There is also one more punishment, which is very serious and is applied in the most complicated cases. It is called the corporate death penalty. It means that a company or organization is forced to go out of business (Fieser & Moseley, 2012).
Applying these and some other punishments, the government can regulate the activity of different organizations and guarantee their ethical behavior. However, there are also some threats connected with running an ethical corporation. The first one is the profit motive. Sometimes, it is difficult to act according to ethical principles and be profitable at the same time. The second one is a strategic misrepresentation. Sometimes, a company may give false information about it to obtain some hidden advantage. The last one is groupthink. This notion means that the group of workers are so concentrated on the purpose that they forget about their ethical principles. All these threats should be taken into account for a company to work more efficiently. Moreover, any organization should follow the same principles as society appreciates at the current stage of its development.
References
Business ethics and corporate social responsibility. (n.d.). Web.
Fieser, J. & Moseley, A. (2012). Introduction to Business Ethics. San Diego, California: Bridgepoint education.