Business ethics is a vital part of the business that primarily deals with marketing principles of companies. It is the most important part of the business because it directly touches on the employees and the society. There are cases where trust may be compromised when businesses become too large and competition is threatening. In such cases, the actions of people either may negatively or positively affect the marketing platform of the business. It is believed that business ethics have political alienation in many different situations and can sometimes seem to be politically instigated in organizations. However, it is important to note that for any business organization to be successful, the stakeholders must develop a comprehensive and a proper guideline for the business ethics platform. It serves as one thing that makes the company relate well with the community and its employees (Aasland, 2012) . If this is ignored and members begin to mistrust one another, the prospective market would be compromised.
The ethical scenario in this case study is that Michael’s boss did obtain confidential documents from their competitor with an intention to blackmail their competitor and obtain a mileage from it. This act could be quite bad if in case it escalates to the public domain. Even if you want to beat your competitor, it is not in order to illegally get into their system and ‘steal’ their confidential stuff with an intention to destroy their reputation. It now depends on the ethical decision that Michael is going to do to ensure that he protects his own good, his colleagues, and the image of the company.
As have been stated in the case study, Michael is reluctant to use this kind of report for any good for his company. In my opinion, I think Michael should disregard this piece of a report by acting ethically and smart so that he does not cross lines with his boss and at the same time, he should not derail the image of their competitor unfairly. According to the case study, Michael has shown and given an upright thought for this issue. The Utilitarianism ethical theory explains how it is important to implement fair choices to ensure that not all parties involved are harmed at the end of everything. This type of theory suggests that a person should decide on the course of action to be taken and to evaluate the consequences of such course of action taken (Vazquez, 2016). This is important in this case because Michael should consider a few things before deciding on what to do. For instance, if he tells his boss on the face that this act is bad and unethical, then he risks losing his job and damaging the reputation of the company. It is therefore important that he keeps in his mind that however, this issue might be challenging; he should take a bold step to ensure this information does not leak to the public domain (Joshi and McKendall, 2016).
On the other hand, the virtue theory explains that the individual’s character is important than the actions taken thereafter. The virtue theory approach considers the person’s reputation and the reason for deciding on an issue rather than the effect it will have on others. In this connection, Michael should be thinking about his reputation as well before taking any action. An action to blow the whistle about what has happened would have a different effect on his reputation as well as keeping silence about the whole issue. This, therefore, requires great intelligence, choosing what to do here is a big challenge and Michael should be thoughtful about everything. This approach tends to guide human being on the correct virtue about ethics and what it holds in a human being (Mellahi, Morrell, and Wood, 2010).
Michael’s boss is very not ethical. Even though it is important that one needs to look for ways of beating competitors, it is unnecessary to go to the extent of stealing their confidential stuff. This is because if this was done to his own company, it would not have auger well with them. As a boss, he should find ethical ways of competing for their allies without involving in actions that would be detrimental to their own good. It is proper to engage all the stakeholders on issues that are related to improving the competitiveness of the company. In this case, unethical behaviors may be avoided because some people may have good ways of handling such issues without infringing into the welfare of others alleging to beat them. Business ethics is a very important thing as having been explained in this essay. Michael’s boss sought to deal with issues the wrong way. Instead, he would have involved Michael at the initial stages so that he gives his views as well. At this stage, it may be hard to keep the story. Even internal leakage of this would cause extreme harm because this may again find its way outside the company and to the press (Mosola, 2011).
Whistle- blowing is the act of exposing any kind of information or activity that is considered illegal, unethical or incorrect within an organization that could be a public or private. The information that is considered of wrongdoing can result from various ways, for example, the actions of Michael’s boss could be considered a serious violation of business ethics. Whistle blowing can be classified as internal or external. Internal whistleblowing means that the accusations are brought to the attention of the people within an organization or an immediate supervisor (Cragg, 2002). On the other hand, external whistleblowing is a situation whereby the allegations are brought into the limelight of the public. This could be done by involving a third party, for example, the media, human rights body, the government, or any interested party.
Michael should blow the whistle but he should be careful about which type he selects to do this. Blowing the whistle externally in this situation would, of course, worsen the situation and put their organization at risk and at the same time, their competitor’s reputation may be at stake too. Michael ought to have blown the whistle within the organization by expressing his concerns to whoever is in a position higher than his boss is. In this case, they would handle the issue. Law usually protects whistleblowers and these laws vary from country to country. It also depends on how the country handles issues that are either publicized or revealed. In the whole world, today every country has its own and comprehensive laws that protect the whistleblower. They have created ways to report wrong doings and at the same time provide protection to whistleblowers. For instance, most countries have institutions that deal with corruption cases, freedom of information, or employment issues. Therefore, whistleblowers should only blow their whistle after knowing that they are fully protected by the laws and standing orders. Otherwise, when there is no any protection, one can be intimidated and imposed to suffer serious consequences.
However, whistleblowing is justified when there is a serious unethical behavior within an organization that can easily bring down the organization or have serious negative impact on the organization, either financially or socially (Weber and Darr, 2012). In addition, if blowing the whistle is the only way to stop the wrong doings, then it would be appropriate after all other avenues have been explored but with no positive turnout of events. To save such cases, someone can decide to blow the whistle in order to put an end to unethical happening (Singh and Twalo, 2015).
Business ethics is an important part of the business that primarily deals with marketing issues of companies. It is the most important part of the business because it directly touches on the employees and the society. There are cases where trust may be compromised when businesses become too large and competition is threatening. However, it is important to note that for any business organization to be successful, the stakeholders must develop a comprehensive and a proper guideline for the business ethics platform. It serves as one thing that makes the company relate well with the community and its employees. If this is ignored and members begin to mistrust one another, the prospective market would be compromised as well as the corporate social responsibility of the business (Hancock, 2005).
The importance of business ethics plays a big role in shaping the public image of the business. Businesses need to relate well with the society and people it serves directly or indirectly. Therefore, the public should approve the activities, services, and goods from the organization or business. More specifically, businesses should have positive endorsement by the society and such good relationship should be extended to their competitors as well. Businesses are forms of investments and therefore the people working in them must have ethical values in order to improve and expand their capital base. Any investment needs to realize profits, it is important to be more pragmatic in dealing with customers, competitors, and employees. This will enable the business to vast and robust methods of achieving its goals without indulging into unethical behaviors (Koh, Scully and Woodliff, 2016).
Similarly, developing partnerships is fundamental to all businesses. No business will operate alone. Therefore, positive partners would be appropriate for any business to achieve its goals. Learning the weaknesses of your competitors is a good thing, but it should mean you steal the passwords and obtain confidential reports about them. This could be termed as illegal and unethical and it is obvious that the law itself does not allow it (Moore, 2013). To follow the rules and abide by the laws, everyone involved in business should practice business ethics and practice them as well. Unethical behaviors will automatically breed mistrust among all the players in such business.
Conclusion
Business ethics is very crucial to any organization or company. It is one aspect that if not checked properly can be quite detrimental to the development of the business itself. Beginning with the top management of the business to the general employees, proper virtues and values must be instituted in everyone. Employees of an organization must act ethically and be guided by virtues in all their undertakings. As have been explained in this report, for a business to do well, everyone must work as a team and with a lot of trusts must be installed.
References
Hancock, J. (2005). Investing in corporate social responsibility. 1st ed. London: Kogan Page.
Mellahi, K., Morrell, K. and Wood, G. (2010). The ethical business. 1st ed. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Mellahi, K., Morrell, K. and Wood, G. (2010). The ethical business. 1st ed. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan..
Mosola, B. (2011). Employees’ perceptions on ethical behaviour in business. 1st ed. [Place of publication not identified]: [publisher not identified].
Aasland, D. (2012). On the Ethics Behind “Business Ethics”. Journal of Business Ethics, 53(1/2), pp.3-8.
Cragg, W. (2002). Business Ethics and Stakeholder Theory. Business Ethics Quarterly, 12(2), p.113.
Joshi, M. and McKendall, M. (2016). Responses to the Discovery of Unethical Acts: An Organizational Identity and Reputation Perspective. Business & Society.
Koh, H., Scully, G. and Woodliff, D. (2016). Can Anticipating Time Pressure Reduce the Likelihood of Unethical Behaviour Occurring?. Journal of Business Ethics.
Koh, H., Scully, G. and Woodliff, D. (2016). Can Anticipating Time Pressure Reduce the Likelihood of Unethical Behaviour Occurring?. Journal of Business Ethics.
Moore, G. (2013). The Institute of Business Ethics/EuropeanBusiness Ethics Network-UK Student Competition in Business Ethics. Business Ethics: A European Review, 13(1), pp.64-64.
Singh, P. and Twalo, T. (2015). Mismanaging Unethical Behaviour In The Workplace. Journal of Applied Business Research (JABR), 31(2), p.515.
Vazquez, P. (2016). Family Business Ethics: At the Crossroads of Business Ethics and Family Business. Journal of Business Ethics.
Weber, L. and Darr, K. (2012). Health Care Management Ethics: Business Ethics with a Difference. Business Ethics Quarterly, 10(4), p.975.
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