An Overview of Business Ethics
A Junior Achievement/Deloitte survey of teens showed that 71 percent feel prepared to make ethical decisions in the workplace. However, of those surveyed, 38 percent feel it is sometimes necessary to lie, cheat, plagiarize, or engage in violence to succeed. One- fourth think cheating on a test is acceptable and most can justify it saying that their desire to succeed is grounds for the behavior.2 If today’s students are tomorrow’s leaders, there is likely to be a correlation between acceptable behavior today and tomorrow, adding to the argument that the leaders of today must be prepared for the ethical risks associated with this downward trend. According to another poll by Deloitte and Touche of teenagers aged 13 to 18 years old, when asked if people who practice good business ethics are more successful than those who don’t, 69 percent of teenagers agreed.3 On the other hand, another survey indicated that many students do not define copying answers from another student’s paper or downloading copyrighted music or content for classroom work as cheating.4
Before we get started, it is important to state our philosophies regarding this book. First, we do not moralize by telling you what is right or wrong in a specific situation. Second, although we provide an overview of group and individual decision making processes, we do not prescribe any one philosophy or process as best or most ethical. Third, by itself, this book will not make you more ethical, nor will it tell you how to judge the ethical behavior of others. Rather, its goal is to help you understand and use your current values and convictions when making business decisions so that you think about the effects of those decisions on business and society. In addition, this book will help you understand what businesses are doing to improve their ethical conduct. To this end, we aim to help you learn to recognize and resolve ethical issues within business organizations. As a manager, you will be responsible for your decisions and the ethical conduct of the employees you supervise. The framework we develop in this book therefore focuses on how organizational ethical decisions are made and on ways companies can improve their ethical conduct.