P2 ETHICS
Ethical Issues Within a Business
Ethical issues in business include the rights and duties between a company and its stakeholders.
Acting in an ethical manner is a challenge for businesses given varying standards and expectations in different parts of the world. Businesses must understand these expectations in order to ensure their ethical behavior in different markets.
Foreign countries often use dumping as a competitive threat, selling products at prices lower than their normal value. This can lead to problems in domestic markets. It becomes difficult for these markets to compete with the pricing set by foreign markets, leading to local producers and the local economy to suffer as a result. Dumping is often seen as an ethical issue, as larger companies are taking advantage of other less economically advanced companies.
The ethical nature of a business can be broken down into three categories: the legitimate businesses, the criminal enterprise, and those that operate in the gray areas between the two. Those who would lean toward the latter two categories risk allowing deception to become a way of life. Going down this path can ultimately ruin a business as occasional temptations subtly transform a business into a criminal enterprise.Although a business may appear to be successful and prosperous, there are harmful ramifications when behaving unethically. One might appear to be a successful contractor, when in fact that person's focus is on cheating the customer. That may result in more income, but the associated negatives include damaged health, client hassles, and legal actions, not to mention a highly undesirable reputation within the local community. Likewise, a business activity can be reputable, disreputable, or shady. Some actions are predatory, while others are outright criminal.
Some activities that seem unethical, such as a grocer selling low-quality vegetables while creating high-quality expectations, are customarily acceptable practices....