Ethics Issues

Ethics Issues

Kendra S. Scheidt

MGT/216

August 30, 2010

Natalie Casale

      In today’s global economy businesses worldwide conduct business based on values that promote honesty and fair practice. To promote honesty and fair practice a business must establish an ethics policy. Business ethics is the accepted standards of conduct for business decision-making (Your Dictionary, n.d.). Business ethics set the standard for how the business is conducted (Small Business Notes, 2009). They define the value of how the owner operates in the marketplace and within the business (Small Business Notes, 2009).

      Businesses worldwide so all they can to conduct themselves accordingly, but unfortunately ethical issues continue to be a problem in the workplace.   Some of the common issues that are addressed by business ethics are: accounting and financial standards, bribery and kickbacks, discrimination, fraud, and sexual harassment.

      The most common ethical issues that affect the community and organization are discrimination, fraud, and sexual harassment. Unfortunately, employers are still dealing with these ethical issues on a daily. The first ethical issue is discrimination; it is defined as differential treatment. It occurs in the workplace when an employee suffers unfavorable or unfair treatment because of his or her race, religion, national origin, disabled or veteran status, or other legally protected characteristics (All Business, 2010). Discrimination can occur in any stage of the employment process. It can happen and apply in recruitment, hiring, job evaluations, promotion policies, training, compensation, and disciplinary (Serrano, 2009). Discrimination affects both the community and organization negatively. The organization reputation is marred, and the man hours are lost because the employee hired is not qualified to do the job and cannot do it successfully. The communities trust in the corporation is eroded and unemployment may increase as a...