Business Ethics-The Current Scenario

ullasbatras

New member
There is a lot more that needs to be done to improve the business ethics, corporate governance, and social responsibility of the global business community. Before offering recommendations to improve the future, one must look back to learn from the past. Since the 1970s, corporations have addressed business ethics in various ways, including the introduction of compliance programs and managers, the addition of board-level ethics committees, the development of codes of conduct, the preparation and dissemination of values statements, the hiring of corporate social responsibility managers and training programs of all kinds. As the events of the past few years have demonstrated, these efforts, unfortunately, have not prevented corporations from engaging in unethical behaviors that lead to larger corporate scandals. As a result there is increased pressure for companies and governments to provide more structured governance and ethics programs so that companies are more responsible to the societies in which they operate. Continuing examples of questionable behavior by individual employees and executives have given rise to critical questions of how corporate ethics efforts can be improved and can address the underlying causes of misconduct, as well as the growing demands for proactive, socially responsible, and sustainable business practices.
Understanding the landscape of business ethics can be problematic. The field is vast, often encompassing such concerns as corporate governance, reputation management, accurate accounting, fair labor practices and environmental stewardship to name but a few. In fact, the field addresses the entire scope of responsibilities that a company has to look into. Each of its stakeholders: those who have a vested interest in the decisions and actions of a company, like clients, employees, shareholders, suppliers and the community. In theory, one can make some rough distinctions among the various domains related to business ethics, e.g., corporate responsibility, social responsibility, corporate compliance, etc. In practice, however, such distinctions blur because corporate offices of compliance established in the 1970s may now function similarly to offices of corporate and social responsibility.
For the purpose of clarity, definitions are provided for each of the terms that can be understood as related to the goal of improving the conduct of business, namely, business ethics, corporate compliance, corporate governance, corporate responsibility, CSR and corporate sustainability.
 
There is a lot more that needs to be done to improve the business ethics, corporate governance, and social responsibility of the global business community. Before offering recommendations to improve the future, one must look back to learn from the past. Since the 1970s, corporations have addressed business ethics in various ways, including the introduction of compliance programs and managers, the addition of board-level ethics committees, the development of codes of conduct, the preparation and dissemination of values statements, the hiring of corporate social responsibility managers and training programs of all kinds. As the events of the past few years have demonstrated, these efforts, unfortunately, have not prevented corporations from engaging in unethical behaviors that lead to larger corporate scandals. As a result there is increased pressure for companies and governments to provide more structured governance and ethics programs so that companies are more responsible to the societies in which they operate. Continuing examples of questionable behavior by individual employees and executives have given rise to critical questions of how corporate ethics efforts can be improved and can address the underlying causes of misconduct, as well as the growing demands for proactive, socially responsible, and sustainable business practices.
Understanding the landscape of business ethics can be problematic. The field is vast, often encompassing such concerns as corporate governance, reputation management, accurate accounting, fair labor practices and environmental stewardship to name but a few. In fact, the field addresses the entire scope of responsibilities that a company has to look into. Each of its stakeholders: those who have a vested interest in the decisions and actions of a company, like clients, employees, shareholders, suppliers and the community. In theory, one can make some rough distinctions among the various domains related to business ethics, e.g., corporate responsibility, social responsibility, corporate compliance, etc. In practice, however, such distinctions blur because corporate offices of compliance established in the 1970s may now function similarly to offices of corporate and social responsibility.
For the purpose of clarity, definitions are provided for each of the terms that can be understood as related to the goal of improving the conduct of business, namely, business ethics, corporate compliance, corporate governance, corporate responsibility, CSR and corporate sustainability.

Well business ethics are very important for any business or organization in order to maintain their moral values, but i do not think it can be seen in today's era. BTW i am sharing a document which will give some points to clearly understand the business ethics.
 

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