Define business ethics and give some examples of the types of situations in which ethical issues might arise in a business setting

Answer 1

Business ethics is a subset of ethics and a branch of applied ethics. It is the study and determination of what is right and good in business settings. Business ethics seeks to understand the moral issues that arise from business practices, institutions, and decision making. Issues of business ethics might arise in the employment relationship (safety, compensation of employees, privacy, equal treatment, freedom from sexual harassment, whistle-blowing), in the relationship between a business and its customers (marketing techniques, product safety, consumer protection), the relationship between a business and its owners (corporate governance, shareholder voting, management's duties to shareholders), the relationship among competing businesses (fair competition, effects of collusion), the interaction between business and society (pollution, commitment to the community's infrastructure, depletion of natural resources), and international relations (bribery of foreign officials, exploitation of less-developed countries, conflicts among different cultures and value systems).