Business ethics is an essential part of business that refers to the practices and morals, which need to be adhered to in the daily conduct and operations of business activities and transactions. Business ethics is normally grounded in civil and criminal laws of any given country, therefore, an individual who does not adhere to internationally accepted business ethics may be prosecuted. Business ethics is instituted to ensure that some of the controversial issues in business activities are properly managed. Some of the issues with the potential to cause controversy and affect public trust in business activities include discrimination, bribery, corruption, and embezzlement of funds. Furthermore, business ethics also entails issues that deal with social corporate responsibility, which refers to an initiative by corporate organizations to take responsibility for the corporation’s effects on social welfare and environment. Therefore, Business ethics aims to regulate the conduct of business organizations and companies in the process of undertaking their business transactions and operations.
Business ethics can be divided into two main categories: local business ethics and universal business ethics. The latter refers to those ethical practices and standards that are globally recognized by most of the countries in the world, while the former refers to those ethical standards that are localized and mixed with culture, religion, and social connotations of a given locality. Some scholars strongly believe that business ethics is universal on the same standard, and their main argument is that there are many key aspects of ethics within any culture, society, and religion in the world. On the other hand, scholars who support the local view, put their emphasis mainly on the local culture, religion, and society arguing that there can never be a standard universal code of business ethics (Peteraf, Gamble et al, 2008).
Sticking only to local ethical standards may be risky as it poses conflicting business practices for a multinational company, which does away with a standard set of ethics for the given company. It poses a considerable challenge to many international business organizations, which have to commit to high ethical business standards to ensure that their outlook and reputation are well-maintained. It causes a dilemma of how to incorporate local ethical business standards with universally accepted business ethics. Therefore, for a key international company that wants to succeed in the global market, implementing an integrated social contract business ethics perspective is a wise decision (Peteraf, Gamble et al, 2008).
Such perspective of ethics will enable an international company to continue expanding in the global market share and at the same time, build a positive outlook and reputation worthy of a multinational company. An integrated social contract ethical perspective is one whereby a business organization or a company combine generally accepted universal business ethics and the local ethics standards of a given country. It forms the basis of the business duty the employees of a given business organization or company ought to observe. It creates room for local cultural and ethical standards to be incorporated into universally accepted business ethics (Peteraf, Gamble et al, 2008).
Some of the essential ethical areas that multinational companies ought to consider include a commitment to honesty, integrity, and fairness in all their business activities and customer operations. It is done to ensure a certain level of trust between the business company and consumers as well as other stakeholders (Peteraf, Gamble et al. 2008). The diversity of the global workforce and provision of equal training and recruitment opportunities for employees of diverse origin is another key issue in internal business ethics.
International companies should further follow and comply with governmental laws and environmental and safety regulations in all of their operations in different countries. It is because various multinational companies may harm the surrounding environment and climate through pollution, depletion of the ozone layer, etc. Multinational companies also have to commit to the ethical principles of fairness and justice in their own decision-making mechanisms to ensure that the rights and privileges of employees are considered. It will build an internal company business environment full of trust and honesty between the employees and the management of a multinational company enabling such a company to perform excellently. (Peteraf, Gamble et al, 2008).
This text was written by Eric Walker who is a writing editor at <a href="https://essayelites.com/">https://essayelites.com/</a>