Business Ethics

Essay by kelsiCollege, UndergraduateB, October 2008

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Business EthicsTable of Contents:1)Introduction………………………………………………………12)Guidelines for Ethical Conduct……………………………………21)Commitment to fair dealing……………………………….22)Compliance with the law………………………………….33)Anti-Trust…………………………………………………44)Conflicts of Interest……………………………………….45)Confidential Information………………………………….46)Copyright Materials……………………………………….57)Resolution to Ethical Issues……………………………….58)International Business……………………………………..63)Countries outside of the US and Social Responsibility…………...61)Japan………………………………………………………72)Germany…………………………………………………..93)France…………………………………………………….114)Italy………………………………………………………134)Ethics and Change…………………..……………………………145)Codes of Conduct………………………………………………...156)Implementing a Code of Ethics Program………………………...177)Conclusion……………………………………………………….18Bibliography………………………………………………………………19IBusiness EthicsIntroduction:Credibility, Integrity, Trust.

You only have to look as far as recent headlines of corporate misdeeds to understand the importance of ethics in business relationships. A company's ethical culture is often assessed only after it's too late to correct the situation. As a result, companies cited for ethical misconduct have suffered: damaged reputations, lost business, de-moralized workforce and diminished market values.

"In the wake of dishonest practices by Enron Corp. executives, and apparent negligence by members of its board of directors, many are asking how people believed to be so smart could have lacked the moral courage to seek and tell the truth."1Values, morality, and ethics are used in a variety of loosely connected contexts.

Business ethics is idealistic thinking about issues of morality in business, including moral problems and judgments. Business ethics addresses ethical issues that arise in a competitive, economic environment, and these issues are similar to those raised by any human activity. There is a great public interest in business ethics primarily as a result of fundamental changes in social attitudes about the proper conduct of business organizations.

Many factors have contributed to the increased public concern regarding business values and ethics, including: the growing inability of the market mechanism to govern many business decisions and activities because companies have become so large and powerful, a growth in government constraints and involvement in business firms' activities, concern about certain issues such as environmental protection, which are not normally regulated by the market, and the surfacing of quality of life issues, which are of high priority among society's social values. Furthermore,