Business ethics Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Business ethics - Dissertation Example Ethics examines the ethical problems and moral issues faced by the businesses and apply to individuals as well organizations. It is a form of applied ethics more relevant to ethical conduct of organizations and individuals working in organizations. Business ethics have both the normative as descriptive dimensions however, from the perspective of the practice, business ethics are mostly considered as normative in nature. The overall emphasis is balancing the act between the commercial and profit maximizing motives of the organizations with that of the non-commercial and non-economic concerns which may directly affect other stakeholders of the organization. It has been argued that the business ethnics have evolved over the period of time however, the concept as a whole started to take roots during 1970s. Over the period of time, not only on the academic level but at the practice level, business ethics evolved and organizations started to give due consideration to business ethics. Organ izations actually attempted to adapt business ethics in order to distance themselves from the dubious business scandals. As a result of this drive, overall reporting on ethical issues improved to allow all the stakeholders a better view of information regarding ethical conduct of the organizations. This literature review will provide an extensive analysis and exploration of the seminal and most recent work on the topic of business ethics. By reviewing the existing and past literature, this review will offer an insight into how the discipline has evolved and what future course of action can be taken by the researchers in this discipline. Ethics and Business Ethics Conceptually, business ethics deal with moral features of the commercial activity performed by the business entities. In practice, however there is a wide array of disciplines and subjects which are pursued under the heading of business ethics. Business ethics therefore are constructed as a discipline for moral reflection t he commerce activity and are considered as as old as the trade itself is. From academic point of view, the field of business ethics however, is relatively new as major work in this field took place in the last 4 decades which witnessed growth of literature on the topic of business ethics and organization efforts to incorporate business ethics into their strategy. The roots of ethics and business ethics largely are founded in the religion as it is from here the overall need to do good emerge. Religion stressed upon the use of justice and fairness in terms of trade and commerce and thus binds its followers to observe justice, equality and fairness when dealing with others in trade and commerce related activities. The oldest evidence regarding setting up some sort of ethical bindings on the commercial activities can be found in the Code of Hammurabi which not described the rules for setting up prices but also deliberated upon setting up tariffs and other rules for the commercial activi ty. (Moriarty, 2005) However, the definite and more formal theory on business ethics starts with the work of Aristotle and Plato as contained in both the Republic as well as Politics. Republic, a book by Plato clearly speaks about the idea of Justice and outline that Justice is speaking the truth and giving back what one receives. This idea of justice seem to be aligned with the responsibility of the business to actually provide accurate and true reporting of its affair besides participating into the activities which are beneficial for the society as a whole. Plato’s concept of justice therefore is considered as something where Justice flows naturally from the type of activities pursued by the organizations. This relationship of justice also outlines the basic structure of the exchange taking place between two parties engaging into any trade related transactions and forming the contractual arrangements. Business activities therefore need to be oriented towards the achievement of a balance between the rights of two parties engaged into sort of