If you are involved in business, the question of ethics is not one that is typically raised. The irony here, is that it is these same business ethics that often provide the impetus for every decision, every statement, and every business action we take as individuals.
Business ethics are not something you tend to modify a great deal as you grow as a businessperson. Though they guide and propel you in the same way FUDs (fear, uncertainty and doubts) will, like FUDs they are working on sometimes very deep levels. They do change as your experiences deepen, but rearranging one’s personal business ethics is not typically going to find its way onto a task list.
However, with just a little focus, you can look at your own work history to unearth its patterns and your methods for decision-making, and see the tangible impact and financial results of putting your ethics into practice. And if the things you see are not pleasing, you can certainly try to change or modify behaviors. Remember too, that even with effort, ethics are a pretty hard thing to ignore…they are an intrinsic part of who we are, in business and beyond.
What are Good Business Ethics?
It seems simple, but business ethics are like little decisions you make with yourself about what you will and won’t do. In any business in any industry, there is going to be the opportunity to choose a path. It’ll typically happen many times a day. Though these businesses offer many different situations and shades of what might “actually” happen, the basic ethical framework used to reach a decision is often quite similar in comparison.
Good business ethics would involve to treat people fairly. To be true to your word. To honor your commitments. It almost seems like you are reading the ten commandments, but that is the power of an ethical stance. It has the power to move you to specific action, so it is something you should take the time to address and understand.
What’s the Difference Between Morals and Ethics?
In many ways, ethics and morals are closely aligned. Ethics would differ from morals though, in that they are more consciously reached decisions, often with some level of societal influence.
For example, it is generally accepted that it is morally wrong to mistreat animals. This could lead to an ethical decision to not mistreat animals. It could lead further to an ethical decision to not eat meat or wear treated animal skins. In turn, this could lead you to making a business decision based on your feelings – your morality. So even if everyone else was selling rabbit fur pants, you may choose to not sell them from ethical and moral grounds. The moral grounds would be that it is wrong to hurt animals, and ethically, this becomes something that your business cannot condone.
Is this an example of good business ethics? If you are the decision-maker and this is important to how you define your business, then yes. If it means that your business goes under because everyone wants rabbit fur pants, then you get a quick lesson on how your ethics (even the good ones) can get you into trouble.
Using the same example, if the business owner knew everyone wanted rabbit fur pants and was opposed to them morally, to offer them for sale might also be construed as a show of specific business ethics – though not quite as flattering. In this example the business owner’s ethics allows them to succeed at any cost. Though they hate the idea of rabbit fur pants, they are willing to set personal feelings aside in the name of commerce.
While it is certainly still an ethical decision to some degree, there could be more of a practical nature to it. If the business owner’s feelings about animal cruelty is less articulated than his devotion toward selling whatever he can in his business, he is making the logical decision, and ethics are not as big a motivator. If he felt very strongly that it was wrong and sold the pants anyway it would be a more clear example of an ethical decision being made.
If, for a final example, he were to buy second-rate rabbit fur pants and propose they were better quality to sell them for more than they were worth, this is a different side of business ethics. This shows a negative ethical quality – a ruthlessly opportunistic, cunning nature. Ethics like these driving a business usually mean they are driving the business into the ground. For most people, no amount of profits will be sustained over time when negative business ethics create your basic foundation.
To answer the question of how far business ethics will get you, really inspires another related question: where do you want to go?
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