What is Ethics ?

 Ethics refers to the standard of behavior of conduct which is based on moral values that guide people about right and wrong.The word ethics is derived from the Ancient Greek word ethikos meaning character.

What is Business Ethics ?

Business ethics is also known as corporate ethics. It is a form of professional ethics that examine ethical principles & problems that can arise in a business environment. A code of conduct that businesses are expected to follow while doing a business and a standard is set for the organization to regulate their behavior. This helps them in distinguishing between the right and the wrong part of the businesses that is known as business ethics.

Business Ethics is all about :-

1. Morality

2. Responsibility

3. Choice

4. Relationship

5. Behavior

Various Ethical And Unethical Issues in Disciplines of Management 

Ethics In Human Resource :

Human resource management deals with employee recruitment , selection and development related activities in an organization. Ethics play an very important role in human resource management, since it concerns human issues specially those of compensation, development, industrial relations and health and safety issues.

• Ethical Issues In Human Resource :-

1. Privacy issues :- Any person working with any organisation is an individual and has a personal side to his existence which he demands should be respected and not intruded. The employee wants the organisation to protect his/her personal life. This personal life may encompass things like his religious, political and social beliefs etc.

2. Cash and compensation plans :- There are ethical issues pertaining to the salaries, executive perquisites and the annual incentive plans etc. The HR manager is often under pressure to raise the band of base salaries. There is increased pressure upon the HR function to pay out more incentives to the top management and the justification for the same is put as the need to retain the later.

3. Safety and Health :- Organisation work can be very hectic and demanding.Health issues can arise in employees due to the workload. It is a responsibility of HR manager to check the workload on the employees and ensuring that the employees are getting proper rest with work.

4. Race and Disability :- In many organisations till recently the employees were differentiated on the basis of their race, gender, origin and their disability. Not anymore ever since the evolution of laws and a regulatory framework that has standardized employee behaviors towards each other.

5. Employment issues :- Human resource practitioners face bigger dilemmas in employee hiring. One dilemma stems from the pressure of hiring someone who has been recommended by a friend, someone from your family or a top executive.

• Unethical Issues In Human Resource :-

1. Abusive behavior :- Sometimes due to heavy workload employees could get irritated and could behave differently or rudely. As a HR manager it is their duty to control such kind of behavioral patterns so that it does not affect other employees.

2. Violating company internet policy :- Researchers have founded that a huge amount of money is wasted on unnecessary internet surfing .

Due to this there is wastage of company time as well as money.HR managers should have an eye on their employees and seeing that how are employees spending resources of the company.

3. Employee theft :- By a research done by Dr.William Adams it was founded that one out of every 80 employees was caught stealing from their employer.This can be a very serious issue for the HR managers to look after these kinds of deeds in the company.

4. Misusing company time :- Whether it is covering for someone who shows up late or altering a time sheet, misusing company time tops the list.this category includes knowing that one of your co-workers is conducting personal business on company time.


Ethics In Finance :

Finance management deals with the management of money and includes activities like investing, lending, budgeting, borrowing, saving, and forecasting.

There are three types of finance:-

1. Personal

2. Corporate

3. Public/government.

• Ethical Issues In Finance :-

1. Accuracy :- It is the duty of the financial manager of the company that all financial publications accurately and fairly reflect the financial conditions of the company. The financial manager of the company of the company is responsible for all the accounting errors and frauds. There are certain financial ethical guidelines that ever finance manager has to follow.To check that all the transactions are ethically taken care of.

2. Transparency :- Transparency  means explaining financial information's clearly. Financial managers should not hide anything or give out any information to other shareholders of the company.
The company financial position is dependent upon the documents which the company has,it includes all the assets and liabilities. Every company has to submit periodic statements to the authorities,to make sure that all the financial transactions are done ethically without any misconduct.

3. Integrity :-  Employees, shareholders, customers, stakeholders should have trust upon the managers, they should have faith in managers. Managers should not allow prejudice, bias and conflicts of interest they should be ethical,without disclosing any personal data of the customers. The structure of certain stock-based issues such as manipulating with the stock could result in ethical issues.

• Unethical Issues In Finance :-

1. Holding up bills of vendors on silly reasons and ultimately buying from others to avoid payment to earlier vendors.

2. Delays in paying wages, interest to financiers, incentive, bonus to employees.

3. Creating bogus bills of purchase to show higher costs and hence losses to avoid bonus payment to employees.

4. Cheating employees of their dues towards medical expenses,leave travel assistance, children's education fees.

5. Quick release of payments to known or adjustment parties and delaying payment to others.

Ethics In Marketing :

Ethics in Marketing refers to buying and selling of goods or services , including market research and advertising from one place to another. Ever company has a particular marketing policies to guide their pricing, advertising, research and various other provisional and competitive strategies.

• Ethical Issues In Marketing :-

1. Emerging Ethical Problems in Market Research :- Market research has experienced a widespread use of the Internet and the popularity of social networking. It is easier than ever before for companies to connect directly with customers and collect individual information that goes into a database to be matched with the other database collected during unrelated transactions.

2. Ethics in Advertising and Promotion :- A negative advertising policy lets the advertiser highlight various disadvantages of the competitors products rather than showing the advantages of their own products or services. Such policies are rampant in political advertising.

3. Pricing Ethics :- The price of a product or service plays a large part in how well it sells. Producers and retailers practice ethical pricing strategies to earn profits without defrauding competitors or consumers.

• Unethical Issues In Marketing :-

1. Making false or unverified claims :- In a desperate bid to compel potential and existing customers to buy their products or services, some marketers use false statements or make unverifiable claims about their products.

2. Misleading Advertisement :- Misleading ads are more than just unethical—they’re illegal. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulates “truth in advertising,” mandating that businesses make accurate statements in their advertising campaigns. However, it’s common for advertisers to exaggerate certain features and downplay others in order to make their products look as attractive as possible, so the line becomes somewhat blurry. 

3. Exploiting emotions or a news event :- Such instances pop up every once in a while, then make a quick exit when consumers complain about feeling manipulated.