There are eight major features of business ethics −
- Code of Conduct− Business ethics is actually a form of codes of conduct. It lets us know what to do and what not to do. Businesses must follow this code of conduct.
- Based on Moral and Social Values− Business ethics is a subject that is based on moral and social values. It offers some moral and social principles (rules) for conducting a business.
- Protection to Social Groups− Business ethics protect various social groups including consumers, employees, small businesspersons, government, shareholders, creditors, etc.
- Offers a Basic Framework− Business ethics is the basic framework for doing business properly. It constructs the social, cultural, legal, economic, and other limits in which a business must operate.
- Voluntary− Business ethics is meant to be voluntary. It should be self-practiced and must not be enforced by law.
- Requires Education & Guidance− Businessmen should get proper education and guidance about business ethics. Trade Associations and Chambers of Commerce should be active enough in this matter.
- Relative Term− Business ethics is a relative term. It changes from one business to another and from one country to another.
- New Concept− Business ethics is a relatively newer concept. Developed countries have more exposure to business ethics, while poor and developing countries are relatively backward in applying the principles of business ethics.
Principles of Business Ethics
The principles of business ethics are related to social groups that comprise of consumers, employees, investors, and the local community. The important rules or principles of business ethics are as follows −
- Avoid Exploitation of Consumers− Do not cheat and exploit consumer with measures such as artificial price rise and adulteration.
- Avoid Profiteering− Unscrupulous business activities such as hoarding, black-marketing, selling banned or harmful goods to earn exorbitant profits must be avoided.
- Encourage Healthy Competition− A healthy competitive atmosphere that offers certain benefits to the consumers must be encouraged.
- Ensure Accuracy− Accuracy in weighing, packaging and quality of supplying goods to the consumers has to be followed.
- Pay Taxes Regularly− Taxes and other duties to the government must be honestly and regularly paid.
- Get the Accounts Audited− Proper business records, accounts must be managed. All authorized persons and authorities should have access to these details.
- Fair Treatment to Employees− Fair wages or salaries, facilities and incentives must be provided to the employees.
- Keep the Investors Informed− The shareholders and investors must know about the financial and other important decisions of the company.
- Avoid Injustice and Discrimination− Avoid all types of injustice and partiality to employees. Discrimination based on gender, race, religion, language, nationality, etc. should be avoided.
- No Bribe and Corruption− Do not give expensive gifts, commissions and payoffs to people having influence.
- Discourage Secret Agreement− Making secret agreements with other business people to influence production, distribution, pricing etc. are unethical.
- Service before Profit− Accept the principle of “service first and profit next.”
- Practice Fair Business− Businesses should be fair, humane, efficient and dynamic to offer certain benefits to consumers.
- Avoid Monopoly− No private monopolies and concentration of economic power should be practiced.
- Fulfil Customers’ Expectations− Adjust your business activities as per the demands, needs and expectations of the customers.
- Respect Consumers Rights− Honor the basic rights of the consumers.
- Accept Social Responsibilities− Honor responsibilities towards the society.
- Satisfy Consumers’ Wants− Satisfy the wants of the consumers as the main objective of the business is to satisfy the consumer’s wants. All business operations must have this aim.
- Service Motive− Service and consumer’s satisfaction should get more attention than profit-maximization.
- Optimum Utilization of Resources− Ensure optimum utilization of resources to remove poverty and to increase the standard of living of people.
- Intentions of Business− Use permitted legal and sacred means to do business. Avoid Illegal, unscrupulous and evil means.
Follow Woodrow Wilson‘s rules − There are four important principles of business ethics. These four rules are as follows −
- Rule of publicity− According to this principle, the business must tell the people clearly, what it tends to do.
- Rule of equivalent price− The customer should get proper value for their money. Below standard, outdated and inferior goods should not be sold at high prices.
- Rule of conscience in business− The businesspersons must have conscience while doing business, i.e. a morale sense of judging what is right and what is wrong.
- Rule of spirit of service− The business must give importance to the service motive.
Example of Unethical Business Practices
Satyam Computers, a global IT company, was defamed in a notorious list of companies involved in fraudulent financial activities. The list includes names such as Enron, WorldCom, Parmalat, Ahold, Allied Irish, Bearings and Kidder Peabody.
Satyam’s CEO, Ramalinga Raju, accepted his role in a broad accounting impropriety that had overstated the company’s net revenue and profit. The company had earlier reported a cash reserve of approximately $1.04 billion that actually existed only in books but not in reality.
Ethics in Advertising and Promotion
In the early days of existence of corporations, especially during 1940s and 1950s, tobacco was advertised as a substance that promotes health. Of late, an advertiser who does not meet the ethical standards is considered an offender against morality by the law.
- Sexuality is a major point of discussion when ethical issues in advertising content are considered. Violence is also an important ethical issue in advertising, especially where children should not be affected by the content.
- Some select types of advertising may strongly offend some groups of people even when they are of strong interest to others. Female hygiene products as well as haemorrhoid and constipation medication are good examples. The advertisements of condoms are important in the interest of AIDS-prevention, but are sometimes seen by some as a method of promoting promiscuity that is undesirable and strongly condemned in various societies.
- A negative advertising policy lets the advertiser highlight various disadvantages of the competitors’ products rather than showing the inherent advantages of their own products or services. Such policies are rampant in political advertising.
Delivery Channels
Direct marketing is one of the most controversial methods of advertising channels, especially when the approaches included are unsolicited.
Some common examples include TV and Telephonic commercials and the direct mail. Electronic spam and telemarketing also push the limits of ethical standards and legality in a strong manner.
Example − Shills and astroturfers are the best examples of ways for delivering a marketing message under the guise of independent product reviews and endorsements, or creating supposedly independent watchdog or review organizations. Fake reviews can be published on Amazon. Shills are primarily for message-delivery, but they can also be used to drive up prices in auctions, such as EBay auctions.
Deceptive Marketing Policies and Ethics
Deceptive marketing policies are not contained in a specific limit or to one target market, and it can sometimes go unseen by the public. There are numerous methods of deceptive marketing. It can be presented to consumers in various forms; one of the methods is one that is accomplished via the use of humor. Humor offers an escape or relief from various types of human constraints, and some advertisers may take the advantage of this by applying deceptive advertising methods for a product that can potentially harm or alleviate the constraints using humor.
Anti-Competitive Practices
There are various methods that are anti-competitive. For example, bait and switch is a type of fraud where customers are “baited” through the advertisements for some products or services that have a low price; however, the customers find in reality that the advertised good is unavailable and they are “switched” towards a product that is costlier and was not intended in the advertisements.
Another type of anti-competitive policy is planned obsolescence. It is a method of designing a particular product having a limited useful life. It will become non-functional or out of fashion after a certain period and thereby lets the consumer to purchase another product again.
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